En Suramérica: The Lost World

Sorry everyone for taking so long to post again. Time has really flown by.

This past Saturday I arrived in Aruba to meet my family after a day-long layover in Bogotá. The end of my time in Venezuela was great- April and the beginning of May were very busy with the semester ending and preparing for our spring break trip.

For the trip, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, a group of 7 friends and myself made our way out to the eastern part of Venezuela- Canaima National Park- to hike Mt. Roraima. We left Mérida on Friday, April 15 without much of a plan as to what we were going to do. There were numerous tour companies offering the trip at a pretty high rate, but we decided we would hold off until we made it there to try and find the best price.

In the late morning on Friday the 15^th we headed out to Barinas to catch another bus to Ciudad Bolívar. At 11:30 PM on Friday we left Barinas to Ciudad Bolívar, and after a 16-hour bus ride, we finally arrived. Traveling during the holy week in Venezuela is pretty difficult and the buses tend to fill up quickly, and unfortunately we weren't so lucky as to find a bus from Ciudad Bolívar to Santa Elena (the town where we would pick up a guide and everything we needed for the hike) for the same day, so we paid a little bit extra and scored a cab to a town called 88 (Ochenta y Ocho). The cab driver dropped us off at a Brazilian restaurant where the owner told us we could spend the night, or at least stay until we found another bus. At around 3 AM we flagged down a bus passing through, and were soon dropped off at San Francisco, a small tourist town on the outskirts of the national park between 6 and 7 AM.

Immediately the search for a guide began. The first people we talked to, Ludwig, André, and Luis, had just found a guide, and needed 5 to 10 more people in order to get the trek started. What luck, as we found a price that was a fraction of what the tour companies were offering us. Our new friends brought us to meet the guide, Jaime, who took us to buy food and supplies before we would take off on the hike. In the evening we made our way to the base camp town called Paraitepuy, where we camped on Sunday night.

Monday morning we set off around 11 AM and hiked about 10 km to another camp on a river. Jaime had told us we would reach the top on the third day, and be back in six. We stopped at the river to camp on Monday night, had the chance to clean up, wash some clothes, and get a good sleep before another 10 km hike to the base camp on Tuesday. The weather in this area was pretty unpredictable- during the first part of the day it would typically be sunny with lots of fog that would clear up late morning, and continue to get cloudy, and likely rain by the evening into the night.

We made it to the base camp on Tuesday with plenty of time left in the day. It was amazing the number of people that were there- it must have been at least 150 people that left on the same day we did. Lucky for us, Jaime was a very ambitious guide, and insisted that we go to sleep by as early as 6:30 PM so that we could get up and going by 5 AM.

Indeed we were the first group to get going on Wednesday morning around the scheduled time, and we made it up in a short 2 hours, 30 minutes. Reaching the top was like stepping into another world. The plants, rock formations, everything was really amazing. We took a break when we reached the top, and after an hour of rest and nourishment, we continued on to find our “hotel” where we would be pitching our tents for the next two nights. Those who had the smaller tents were able to set them up under the overhang provided by the “hotel” while our tent was too big to fit, so we set it up nearby, below.

Thursday we spent the day hiking on top and got to see several different parts of the tepuy. We went to crystal valley, where quartz crystals grow in huge quantities. Next stop was el foso, or “the pit” which is a large hole where underground rivers have caused the ground to cave-in. There were a few meters of water in the bottom of the pit so we got to do some cliff jumping, which was awesome. The water was incredibly cold, and it presented a huge challenge getting out, but it was worth the struggle. After the foso, our last stop for the day was Punto Triple (Triple Point), the point where the borders of three countries meet. I had the chance to stand in Guyana, Venezuela, and Brazil all at the same time- pretty cool experience.

That night we had to suffer a pretty terrible storm. The wind, rain, lightning, etc. was unfortunately too much for our tent to handle. I was woken up around 2:30 AM to the tent poles collapsing in the wind. We decided to try and wait out the storm, since it was raining so hard and there was really no other option. The rain was leaking through the seams of the tent and before I knew it there was a puddle at least one inch deep in my side of the tent. Sleeping bag soaked and exhausted, I woke the others in the tent, and we soon decided that our best option was to abandon the tent (at least 3 inches of standing water at this point) and make our way up to the “hotel” where the other tents were pitched.

Finally the rain let up and the clouds broke, and around 5 AM on Friday morning, we were able to disassemble the tent and leave it out to dry. Later that morning we made our way down and the trek back to Paraitepuy began. We made it back by Satruday afternoon, and found a private bus to take us to Ciudad Bolívar, but we would get back on Easter Sunday. When we arrived, we were quite surprised by the huge line of people waiting to find bus tickets. Due to the holiday, we couldn't find a bus back to Mérida the same day, so we had to buy a pass for Monday night at 7 PM. Fortunately we found a great posada where we slept in hammocks and were able to cook our own meals. Monday night we took off to Mérida and were back by Tuesday afternoon, having missed three classes.

All in all, the Mt. Roraima trek made for quite the spring break. Jaime told me we hiked 102 km during the whole 6 days, which is about 63 miles. Roraima presented all sorts of challenges, but the hike was an incredible experience, and I hope that I have the opportunity to do it again in the future so that I can see more of the tepuy, and more of Canaima.

Enjoy some pictures from the trip below!

The Brazilian restaurant in 88 where we stayed a few hours