Learning to Speak in the Land of Waterfalls

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After much delay due to minor Civil Unrest in Venezuela, public holidays in Ecuador and being 30km from the nearest phone for the past 6 days we are finally able to publish a Venezuelan entry.

Despite missing a bag and its vital contents for nearly the whole time we really enjoyed our time here and would love to have more time to visit other parts of the country. Our trip started in Merida where we tried getting a basic grip on the Spanish language, visiting the wonders of the Canaima including the world famous Angel falls and doing a trek up Roraima (the highest Tepuy in Venezuela).


We really struggled writing some aspects of our last blog entry as we very quickly got behind and could not remember some of the finer details, the third person style also was difficult for expressing emotions and experiences. So for this one we have tried a mixture of a diary style and with larger chucks for when we were in the wilderness for longer periods. More pictures as requested too.

23 July - Leaving Belize and our luggage.

We arrived in Caracas from Belize we immediately realised that there we were off the standard tourist track where English is sufficient to get you around. So it was straight in the deep end when we found that Nicola’s bag had not arrived. Armed with a dictionary we headed off to explain that “Mi maleta esta perdido”. Seems we have yet to have a flight with American Airlines go smoothly, as this was the first flight to have left on time.

The delay with sorting out the bag meant that the driver who was there to pick is up had to wait quite a while so we tipped him $6 US as we had been unable to change any money. Judging from his reaction and the way he shook our hands after receiving the money we must have overdone it somewhat.

24 July Meeting the Family

After 5 hours in the hotel we returned to the airport to catch our flight to Merida where we will be doing our Spanish course and home stay. Again we had the difficulty of explaining to the airline that our bag would be coming later and that American would call them. Having one bag does make the travelling somewhat easier but with Nicola using my clothing laundry days are going to come around a lot more often.

It seems the ATM’s do not work with overseas cards so with it being Sunday we have struggled to get any Bolivars. We did manage to get a few in exchange for some dollars though and were impressed to find we got 43000 for $20. Millionaires at last! When we arrived in Merida we took a taxi to our home stay where we met Flor, Gianni, Gianni Junior, Eliana and their neighbour Christi. We also found the previous home-stayers still in residence.

After providing us with a snack it seemed that Flor was telling us that we could only come stay tomorrow as the other people were still in the room. We sat there trying to think how we were going to argue that we had organised to be there from today when it finally dawned on us, with much relief, that she was only telling us that the room would be available in about 2 hours time.

Our room is pretty cool and has posters of baseball players, sports cars, Michael Schumacher, David Beckham and some well endowed girls in scanty outfits. We also have some glow in the dark stars on the ceiling.

We each have a little book into which we are writing the words we find we need to use and then we have little sessions where we test each other on our words and try to think of ways to remember them. For example:
Binks, our used to be pet rabbit, is very clean he also has floppy (limp) ears so limpear means clean.
Temprano means early, Nicola is not morning person and often has a temper in the morning.
It seems a crazy way to learn things but for some of the earlier words we collected in Guatemala we no longer need to think of the associations to use them.

This evening we spent showing Flor and Gianni some of our photos. We now know that a seal is a foca, a whale is a ballena and a turtle is a tortuga.

So far we have made the following mistakes: Telling the waitress we are not clever instead of ready, calling people and asking if they speak Spanish, telling our hosts that we are going to my daughters wedding in South Africa and getting back and butt confused.

We have been told that Nicola’s bag might arrive tomorrow, if not we will be learning a whole new set of words.

25 Jul- First Day at School.

Today started with an extremely cold shower as I had not understood the instructions for the hot water. We then headed off to catch the bus for our first day at school. On arrival we were asked to write a short test and to have a quick conversion with an instructor. The conversation was much harder for me as I have more brothers and sisters to describe than Nicola. However we were both given a level 1+ which means we are a little better than absolute beginners.

Our first lesson was only scheduled for 2pm so we decided to catch a ride on the Merida Teleferico. This is the worlds highest cable car ride and takes you from the town of Merida to the top of Pico Espejo at 4800m. From here you can see the summit of Pico Bolivar which is the highest mountain in Venezuela at 5005m. It was pretty cold up there, but as we had not planned to go there when we got up in the morning I was wearing shorts and sandals, however I did manage to keep my head warm by buying a Che Guerva beanie.

It took a really long time getting down from the top so we were half an hour late for class, however our classmates did not arrive at all so we had a private lesson. The lesson went quite well and I was impressed to find out that I have been working as a “programerador” which sounds much cooler than in English.

This evening we had to learn many words relating to directions as we had to find the Laundromat. Nicola is still without her bag.

Victor Chavez’s (el Presidente) face and name is pasted everywhere. It seems they are not a big fan of George Bush here as they have his face pasted on some of the political posters in the role of the bad guy.

26 Jul - Still no bag.

We were told that Nicola’s bag had arrived in Merida so off to the airport we went to pick it up. Unfortunately the bag they had turned out not to be hers so the saga continues. We have tried shopping for clothing but the people here are very small and nothing fits. Nicola is not happy, we have however learnt many words relating to baggage and airports.

Every second shop in Merida is a Columbian lingerie shop, it seems there is more to Columbia than drugs.

27 July - Talking about the future.

School is going well we have now learnt how to speak in the future tense.
We are going to eat dinner - Vamos a comer la cena.
Soon we will be fluent 😊.

We have not yet learnt how to cross the road here. It seems pedestrians have no right to be near the road, rather than braking for you they hoot at you, There are a lot of cars so we have adopted a policy of running though gaps, in town this is easier as the traffic is slow but on the main road we have to be quick.

Nicola’s bag has still not arrived. American Airlines will give her $50 to spend on clothing but she has to produce slips. Most of the places here do not give receipts. How much can you actually buy with $50?

The police here travel predominately on mountain bikes. We are yet to see anyone of them cycling at less than full pace and Merida is not flat. Our Spanish teacher told us today in Spanish how the cycling thing came about. When Victor Chaves first came into power he expelled many fat cats from the oil industry. The oil workers went on strike which meant that there was no oil. As there was no oil there was no transport and people could not get to work. No work, no money, no food, so people started turning to crime. It was a very dangerous time. To try get the crime under control the police were given mountain bikes for patrolling the streets. This worked very well and was kept on after the striking ended.

28 July - Talking about the past.

In the middle of the night we got a call from American Airlines. They think they have found Nicola’s bag. They say they will deliver it tomorrow evening, which gives us no time to do anything if they don’t as we will be on the road the following day.

Today we learnt the “ing” present tense and a form of past tense.
Nicola is reading Harry Potter - Nicola Esta leyendo Harry Potter.
I was reading Harry Potter - Yo Estaba leyendo Harry Potter
I had a really bad morning of lessons with a complete breakdown into English. They try not to use any English in the lessons so I keep misunderstanding the instructions and end up doing the wrong thing. Nicola seems to grow her vocabulary at about twice the rate that I do.

We have not figured out how the buses here work and have had to pay after getting on the wrong one. Each time we think we have cracked the system and get on the bus without asking we get it wrong. My new theory is that the system is that you just have to ask.

Had a beer today and it cost 22c US, the internet costs 50c US per hour, petrol is 5c US per litre and a bus ticket within the city is about 17c US. Seems money goes a bit further here.

The keyboards here have a few quirks and on the one I used today you have to press Alt + 6 then 4 on the number pad in number lock mode to create an @. I was not able to locate the equals sign.

29 July - 500 Problem.

Quinientos, the number 500, is causing us a lot of trouble. It does not follow the same naming pattern as the other hundreds so every time a price ends in 500, which is often, we get completely lost. So far the solution has been to hand over the largest note we possess and wait for change.

Today we learnt the Simple Past Tense:
I ate - Yo comi.
It is a quite tricky as there are so many irregular verbs. Speaking in the past tense is a major leap forward as you can not have much of a conversation without talking about the past. We told our walrus story in Spanish today.

I nearly fell down a manhole today. Since then I have noticed that there are almost no manhole covers here. This is not the place to have too many beers.

Today we calculated that more than 66%!o(MISSING)f our meals have been ham and cheese based.

The bag has not arrived, we have to assume we will not see it until we return.

30 July -Bagless journey to Cuidad Bolivar

Today we set off with one bag to Ciudad Bolivar. We flew from Merida to Caracas and then on to Ciudad Guyana. From there we caught a taxi to Ciudad Bolivar from where our trip to the Angel Falls departs. The scenery on the taxi looked exactly like Mpumalanga , each time I dozed off and woke up I thought I was in South Africa. The music on the taxi ride was something special too, it had Super Mario from the TV game as lead vocalist and Darth Vader as the backing vocalist.

Our tour operator is a crazy German, Jochen, who swears a lot. He told us a story about a smelly guy who did not change his underwear the whole time he was in Venezuela even though he had Diarrhoea.

We had a quick shopping expedition to re-outfit Nicola. Apart from a lack of raingear she should have enough to get by. We also tried to find a new charger for our camera as it was in the bag that went missing. Had to ask 5 people before I found the shop, it seems I can speak Spanish a lot better than understand it.

Posada La Casita where we are staying is run by a fairly sane German called Peter. There are a lot of captive animals here so it feels a bit like staying in a zoo. Carl made friends with a little boy in the pool and we played piggy in the middle. We also played a game similar to 20 questions where we had to guess what animal he was thinking of. Considering that he wanted a flying animal and our vocab was limited to bird, chicken, turkey. As we were floundering for words Carl guessed aeroplane and got a very supercilious reaction from our new friend and we think he said, “you should know better, a plane is not an animal!”

Its great to meet fellow travellers as Posada La Canita is a European Melting pot with visors from all over Europe. We met a really friendly French couple Rene and Samantha who unlike the other French guests were keen to chat. Strangely enough they had lived in Vanuatu, which is possibly our last destination on this trip. They said we should definitely make sure we do go there as it one the coolest places they have been. We also practiced speaking English slowly to them as we could empathise as we had the same problem understanding the Locals who speak “muy rapido”.

There are 11 people in our tour group to the Angel Falls - 2 friendly German girls (Lena and Eva) and 4 Dutch guys and 3 others (??? to be advised)

Tomorrow we wake up early to get to the Airport and experience Venezuelan bureaucracy which according to Jochen can take as little as 5 minutes or up to an hour to process our permission to take off.

31 July - Sergeant Major’s Tour to Salto Angel.

After waking up in time for breakfast at 6:40, we joined the Lena and Eva for coffee and rolls and, surprise surprise, Cheese and Ham. (I think we will not want to see anything made with cheese and Ham for a very long time after this holiday as it seems to be our staple diet.) Our Dutch contingent was late and arrived for breakfast at 7:00 (the time we were supposed to leave. This was just the start of a long series of delays that occurred before we finally got to the falls.

After breakfast a very grumpy Peter informed us that he had to take us to the airport and issue our tickets as Jochen, the crazy German, had had too much beer last night. The Venezuelan bureaucracy turned out to be only 10 minutes but the German Hangover made it more than an hour as Peter was not familiar with ticketing process took a lot longer than Jochen would have.

At last ready to go we were loaded into 2 little 6-seater planes, for the flight to Canaima. Immediately after takeoff you can see the Orinoco river snaking off into the distance thereafter the landscape became similar to what we had seen (Mapumalanga) and there were quite a lot of clouds. Soon however the vegetation changed to Jungle and we flew over an enormous lake, Embarse de Guri, with hundreds of little islands. The islands each had a red outline caused by the red soil carried by the rivers that feed the lake. The lake seemed to go on forever but when it ended we started to see the landscapes of the Lost World, table top mountains, lush savannahs, rainforests, rivers and waterfalls. As we came into land the pilot did a flyby of the Salto Sapo, a set of magnificent waterfalls stretching across the side of the Canaima lagoon. After rather bumpy landing on a rather rugged looking runway we pulled into Canaima Airport.

Once the rest of our group landed we set off to a posada where we were informed that our boat would be leaving almost immediately (An hour later in Venezuelan time) The additional 3 members of our group were an English guy who had been travelling in South America for 9 months and permanently resides in Australia, an Italian lady and a Japanese Geography teacher.

We eventually departed and the trek to the boat took us to the magnificent Lagoon and up the side of the Salto Sapo (Carl’s favourite Falls). Our boat was a long thin canoe with an engine. We were all issued with smelly lifejackets and having been forewarned by Jochen in his drunken state the previous night, we had our towels wrapped in plastic bags to serve as cushions for the 4 hour boat ride. Some guy dressed in camo trousers who we had not seen before also jumped on our boat. It turned out he was our guide, Eduardo, but he never bothered to introduce himself.

The river was bordered by luscious forest and as we travelled further upstream, many Tepuies, table mountains, came into view. About half an hour upstream we were ordered out of the boat by Eduardo, we still did not know his name but suspected he was our guide, and told to walk to the other side of a meander. The reason for this walk was a huge series of rapids that the boat could not cope with fully loaded, not that Eduardo said anything. After a 20 minute walk being tailed by some squawking parrots, we arrived back at the boat to find our captain bailing out the bottom of the boat with a jug. Eduardo then handed us our packed lunch (Ham and cheese rolls) and said we would be eating it on the boat as we were late and did not have time to get up river if we stopped for lunch.

We navigated up stream onto smaller and smaller tributaries with spectacular cliffs on either side of us rising more than a kilometre into the sky. As the river we were navigating got shallower we began encountering more rapids and we had to change our impellor to a smaller size so that we would not hit the rocks. Ascending the rapids was exciting and everyone got wet as the water splashed up over the sides of the boat. We also had our obligatory dose of rain during the journey and the drops were falling so heavily that they stung our faces and any exposed area of skin. An hour later the rain stopped as quickly as it came and the clouds cleared allowing more of the splendid views of the towering sides of the Auyan Tepuie. After 4 butt numbing hours, we rounded a corner and saw what could only be the fabled Angle falls cascading down from the very top of the cliffs. The water falls so far that it breaks up into a mist, falling like rain rather than a constant stream.

The boat pulled up on the side of the river and we were ordered to put on our hiking boots by our sergeant major guide Eduardo. Cameras collected and boots strapped up we set off into the jungle. About 15 minutes into our walk up to the viewing point, someone at the front of the group asked Eduardo what animals could be found in the forest. He mulled over it for a while before responding, “wild Porkieds, you know wild porkieds” in his thick Columbian accent. No one understood what he was saying so someone shouted out “wild orchids”. “It’s not a f***ing flower!” he responded. We continued guessing what he was trying to say, with him getting angrier and angrier, until some figured out that he was saying porkies and explained to him that in English it is known as a pig.

There are also, according to Eduardo, a number of monkeys in the forest. One of them is red and his father was nicknamed after it, however he could not remember its name. That he could not remember his fathers nickname clearly got to him and he began hammering his fist on the tree as everyone threw in suggestions for the name. Rusty! Orang-utan! Lobster! After struggling for some time he gave up and stomped off on the path shouting, “F***ing red monkey!”

After an hours hike we reached the viewing point. The water cascades over a shear red cliff face and the height of the falls makes it really difficult to fit them all in when taking pictures. We only had 1.5 litres of water between our entire group so we were pretty keen to get to the swimming pools at the base of the falls. Even though it was fairly late in the afternoon and the red brown water was rather cold, we all went for a swim with the many other people who were already at the pool. The Dutch boys were having a swim against the current competitions until Sgt Major Eduardo decided it was time to go and yelled at us to get moving.

The whole way down we could hear his shouts from the back telling us to go faster but when we got to the river we had to wait ages for a boat to take us to where we were to spend the night in hammocks. There were already many people at the hammock shack and when we finally arrived there were not enough hammocks for us. After learning the Spanish for hammock, “maka”, we explained that 3 of us did not have one, and someone put them up right next to the bathroom for us!

Dinner was done in shifts as there was only one kitchen, and enough plates and place settings for max 2 groups to eat at once so we were the last group to eat our fire roasted chicken, rice and coleslaw. Desperate again for liquid we had to keep on asking for Coke and water, as they were very stingy with the drinks.

Despite having no blanket or sheet and having to use a towel to protect me from the cold I slept pretty well, managing not to roll out of my hammock while asleep. Carl however had the hammock closest to the bathroom and kept being knocked swinging by everyone going past to the toilet in the middle of the night.

1 August - Walking under water.

The next morning the hoards of other people who spent the night in the hammock shack with us woke up at 5am and started jabbering at full volume. We were only scheduled to depart at 11am so I was rather disappointed to be woken up as I was sleeping very nicely in my hammock. When we emerged from our hammocks at around 7am we were the only group left. Breakfast was served a little while later and we ate watching the falls.

After breakfast we were ordered to take cameras and bathing costumes as we would be going for a swimming trip down the river. Being pretty early in the morning and most of us still feeling the chill of the previous night, we were not overly enthusiastic about a swim. However, once we were there and had sat in the sun for a while the water was a lot more appealing. Carl looking for adventure found a rapid that could be safely navigated and after checking there were no hidden rocks had fun shooting through it powered by the current.

In the meantime, the Dutch guys after their pull ups earlier that morning in the hammock shack were doing push-ups and swimming against the current exercises again. The German Girls were not that impressed.

After Carl’s success in running the whole rapid some of the other guys decided to try it out and the first guy lost his shoe in the process (why he had to swim with his shoes on in the first place was beyond my understanding), Carl swam down river and became the hero of the hour by rescuing the shoe before it could be swept downstream.

We returned to the camp for lunch and then it was back in the boat for the long ride back to Canaima. Just before we reached the lagoon we were dropped off at the top of one of the Salto Sapo waterfalls. After looking over the top, we walked down to a pathway that leads under the waterfall. We were told to take off shoes and anything we did not want to get wet and wrap our cameras tightly in plastic bags.

The path started at the very edge of the falls and as we neared the main part the roaring water got louder and wetter. At one point the water was falling directly onto the path and we got absolutely drenched in the couple seconds it took to pass through. I can only imagine how strong the main falls must be. After exploring the other side we went back under the falls and then on to Canaima Lagoon, where we were met by another boat to take us across the main set of falls.

That night we slept in a posada with rooms with private bathrooms, a little way back from the lagoon. Desperate for anything that wasn’t coke or water some members of our group set off to the overpriced local shop to by beer and rum. There were 5 other guests and we met a very friendly Greek American couple, Ramiz and Nadah. They were surprised that we were travelling for so long and when they found out we were not as young a expected were very impressed that we had taken time out of careers to travel. It seemed that their current holiday was unusual as they hardly ever have time off so we tried encouraging them to take more time for themselves.

2 August - Return from Canaima

The day started with 7:30am a bang on the door for breakfast and everyone except Marcus, the English Aussie, dragged themselves to breakfast. Najah was very concerned that I had no clothes (still no bag) and insisted on giving me some of hers along with her insect repellent and sunscreen.

After a trip to the lagoon to see the falls one more time we were told to head off to the airport. There was still no sign of Marcus so I went to bang on his door but there was no answer. Apparently he had gone with the Dutch contingent on a midnight adventure with the bottle of rum and left over beers but they had lost him by the time they returned. We were wondering what to do when he appeared from one of the doors looking for breakfast of coffee. He did not get on our plane but hopefully he got back on a slightly later plane.

After dropping off the Dutch boys at the bus station we continued on to the Posada Casita to relax and have a shower before our night bus later. After a quick phone call to Iowa Institute we discovered that my bag has been found and is now at the Spanish school. The plan is to send it to St Elena with the help of a friendly tour operator in Merida who will put it on a bus for us. They have asked the people we are staying with in St Elena to pick it up from Bus Station as we will be hiking by the time it arrives. Hopefully all goes well and I have my bag by the time we get back from Roraima trek. It would have been great to have it before as we need waterproof clothing for the trek. Oh well, I have survived this long, I can survive another 6 days.

3 August - Zombie Day of Mrs Marais

When we arrived in St Elena after a 13 hour bus ride and it seemed that journey had transformed Nicola into a zombie. Not only did she not speak Spanish but she was struggling to communicate in English. During the night we had been stopped many times by the military and asked to produce our passports, this interruption seemed to have had taken its toll.

After attempting revive her using coffee, we went for a short walk to get her a raincoat to replace the one in her bag. Good thing there was only one size as I think it would have been a struggle to get her to try it on. Afterwards we returned to the hotel so she could get some sleep and I went to have a haircut. While having my haircut I could tell the ladies in the salon were talking about me but the only thing I could understand was them saying that I don’t understand them and laughing. Got to work on that Spanish.

Nicola’s most of day nap fortunately seemed to have transformed her back into the girl I married. In the evening we headed off to the world’s slowest pizza place followed by a briefing by one of our guides for the hike. We also watched some Starwars in Spanish, “Luke, soy tu padre”.

Roraima Hike

Roraima, located on the triple boundary of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, is the tallest of the Venezuelan tepuis (Table Mountains) and also the most easily climbed. The tepuis are what remains of the surface of Pangea as is was 1,8 billion years ago. The top of the mountain has several plants and a small black frog that are found nowhere else in the world. It is known as the mother of all waters as streams flow from it into the Amazon, Orinoco and the largest river in Guyana. We were to know it as the mother of all rainfall.

4 August - Slow start to a Muddy Adventure

In the morning we were picked up with all our belongings by a Land Cruiser and taken to the trekking company owner’s house to reorganise our packs. I got a toilet roll and some plastic bags to put my stuff in and Nicola had to get replacements for pretty much everything. While we were doing the repacking we got our first shower of rain and joked that at least we were getting the rain done before the trek, little did we know. After a relatively brief expedition to get water from the bottle store we headed off to the petrol station to get fuel.

The queue to the petrol station was enormous stretching for more than 100 cars. The reason for this is that St Elena is only a few kilometres from Brazil. Fuel in Brazil is $1 per litre as opposed to the 5c it cost in Venezuela so the Brazilians all come across to fill up. After some discussion with the ever-present military personal our vehicle was allowed to jump the queue to about only 6 cars from the pumps because there were tourists on board. Later the guides told us that they only fill their vehicles with tourists on board as the wait can be as much as half a day.

With a full tank of fuel we headed off into the Gran Sabana to a small Pemon village where we would start our trek. The Sabana is not all that flat so the journey provided us with some stunning views of the countryside. There is almost no population in this area so for as far as we could see was grassland interspersed with palm trees with the great tepuis towering over the plains. The journey also provided us with an opportunity to meet some of the people we would be hiking with, 3 Germans, 4 Americans, 3 Austrians, 2 Frogs, 1 Canadian, 1 Columbian, 1 English Girl, 6 Pemon Porters and 3 Pemon Guides, quite an international group. On reaching the village we had some ham and cheese sandwiches before finally getting our packs on and heading off at 2pm.

The hike starts 25km away from Roraima so the first 2 days would be about getting to the mountain before we actually started climbing. As a result the first day was pretty easy with a decrease in elevation of 450m. Nicolas borrowed pack was a man’s pack and did not fit very well so we spent much of the walk trying to adjust it to make it more comfortable, and transferring stuff from her pack to mine. There is very little wildlife in the Gran Sabana due to a lack of nutrients in the soil but it seemed to have its fair share of ants, it must have both the biggest and strongest ants we’ve ever seen. The strong ants are a type of leaf cutter and we even saw them carrying small branches of leaves that must have been 20 times their size. We also had a bit of rain but it didn’t last long and was a welcome relief from the heat.

We arrived at our camp around 6pm and it was starting to get dark so we were quite worried when we saw that nearly all the campsite seemed occupied. Our guides however managed to find space to squeeze us all in and we even got our own tent. We were all pretty hungry and tired. Dinner was really late as we had to wait for all the other groups ahead of us to use the cooking area, so as soon as we had eaten we were off to bed.

5 August - Hike to Base Camp

The next morning we were woken for a breakfast of delicious Guyana Beks (Like South African vetkoek) with scrambled eggs, ham and cheese accompanied by fruit juice. It seemed that the food on this hike was going to be far better than what we have been used to on other hikes.

At this point we also all had a rather large collection of Pori Pori bytes. These are small flies that suck your blood creating blood blisters and really itchy lumps that stay for days. If you get one in your shirt they just keep on biting you until you squash them or they escape.

The hike on this day was pretty much all uphill and took us to our base camp for our assault on the mountain. From the campsite we had spectacular views in all directions, to the West Kukenan, Roraima’s sister mountain, for once clear of clouds had several waterfalls cascading down from her summit, to South and East the tepui dotted Gran Sabana stretched as far we could see and to our North the rainforest and vertical cliffs of Roraima’s southern face. The clouds were building ominously all day but fortunately held off until we had set up our tents so we could shelter inside, but a temporary shelter had to be constructed for preparing food.

The Pemon people who work as porters for the hiking companies are really tiny with some decidedly less than 5ft tall. What surprised us was that a number of the porters are young girls who could not have been more than 16. They were very shy and would not let us take their pictures.

There is major lack of designated toilet areas on this trek. We are reluctant to drink from the streams without filtering as people may be relieving themselves upstream. Walking around the campsite one has to be careful of landmines.

6 August - The big hike up.

During the night we had a very large downpour, it made the path up a little bit treacherous so the guides decided to delay our departure by a few hours to allow some of the water to runoff. Even once we did get going we found the path to very muddy and slippery and the trek poles came in very useful. The hike up was very steep but the plant life made it well worth it; there were palm forests, huge patches of white fluffy lichens, colourful shrubs and surprisingly large trees clinging to the rocky surface. Frustratingly there were also quite a few down hill sections where all our hard climbing work would be undone. At one point we had to hike up a stream bed and under a waterfall and got very wet.

After three hours we finally reached the plateau on top and could finally see the rock formations for which Roraima is so famous, there are rocks that look like they have been dripped into shape, some that look like faces, arches, overhangs and a really cool one that looked like a turtle swimming through the air. The plant life, much unique to Roraima, was also fascinating; there are 5 different insectivorous plants each with a different strategy for catching their prey. We also found one of the black frogs unique to Roraima, they are really cute as they crawl round rather than hopping.

Elio, our chief guide, came with some bad news, our hotel (cave) had been occupied by another party. This meant he would have to go try find another hotel and when he did it would probably be too small for all our tents so we would have to share. Two hours later after we had experienced about 5 waves of rain and sunshine he returned to guide us to the cave he had found. The walk started in the sunshine and we could see across the Mars like landscape of Roraima; black rocks, pink sand and vast areas covered solely with shiny white quarts crystals, it really felt like another World.

Our cave was small so we would be share a three-man tent with an Austrian couple from Vienna. There was still a little bit of sun poking through the clouds so a German guy Frank and I went for swim in one of the crystal Jacuzzis. The Jacuzzis are round depressions that have been cut out of the rock by a small stream that flows across the mountain top. Lots of crystals have been washed into these depressions so that they glitter in the light, some claim they have healing energies. The swim was very refreshing as we had not bathed in several days and the water was much colder than a real Jacuzzi. That night it was really cold but we hardly noticed due to the close packed bodies in our tent.

7 August - Rainy Day on top of Roraima

The following day we awoke to the loud voices of the Americans in our party and emerged to a fairly clear but crisp morning. I decided that the light was unlikely to be better for photography so I headed off on my own to get some fresh air and see what I could find. I decided the best way to not get lost was to follow the course of the stream. The scenery was addictive and I found myself wanting to keep going to the next interesting looking formation until I reached the edge of the plateau. From here I could look down the cliffs to the jungles of Guyana and Sabana of Venezuela. Much of the time I was looking through the lens of the camera so we when I took it away from my eye and saw how close I had come to the edge I felt my legs go all wobbly and had to sit down to recompose myself.

After breakfast the whole group headed off to have a look around, but by now the clouds had reformed and the views of the early morning were completely hidden. Soon it started to rain and we were forced to shelter under an overhang, when the rain lessened we would continue but each time it got stronger we were forced to find shelter. I was really pleased I had gone on my early morning mission.

8 August - Double Descent

The next morning as usual we awoke to the loud voices of our American friends and got ready to head down the mountain. Today would be a big hike as we would be covering the trails from both day 2 and 3 of the hike up. Going down is never as exciting as going up but it was great to get down to the warmer Sabana and we saw some beautiful electric green humming birds.

At the halfway point I managed to stand in some human faeces which had been deposited in the middle of one of the paths. How disgusting, they really need to demarcate some areas for that kind of thing or build some toilets.

That night our group had been quicker than some of the others so we got to use the cooking area first, one of the other guides began singing Cat Stevens and Bob Marley songs. It was good fun until his demeanour suddenly changed and he tried to chase us away from the eating area. Someone who probably should not drink.

In the night we had a really strong downpour and many of the people did not sleep for fear of the lightning, the Johannesburgers obviously had no such problem and slept solidly.

9 August - Return to Civilisation and an Important Reunion.

The next morning started with the sound of American voices and duct tape being unwound. The previous days double hike had taken its toll and duct tape was being used to fix both footwear and feet (very good for blisters).

Duct Tape I love you so.
You fixed my boots and healed my toe.
Hammer used to be my fixing friend,
But it seems there’s more that you can mend.
--Anonymous

Having been used to a fairly late departure I was taking my time getting ready when most of the group began hiking. Nicola was very agitated as she claimed to be one of the slowest hikers and did not want to be left behind. I tried hurrying as best I could and we set off some time behind the others. The hike was pretty much all up hill and it took some time before our muscles loosened up and we could walk freely. The heavy rain had made the path really boggy and on the few down hills we did more skiing and less walking. After an accidental roll in the mud each we finally arrived at the endpoint of the trek having passed everyone in our group. Nicola slow? I don’t think so.

Once everyone else had arrived the guides got a cooler box fill of beers and cola from the awaiting vehicles and we all had some celebratory drinks. They also gave us each a huge portion of Chinese food from the restaurant in St Elena what a great way to finish a hike.

After the obligatory group photo we got into the Land Cruiser to take us back to St Elena. This vehicle was something else, it had been fitted with a DVD system with multiple screens. They played a DVD of 60’s classic music videos and we had a really good laugh at the ridiculous white outfits most of the performers wore.

We arrived at the company base and Eric Bushbell, the company owner, told us he had good and bad news for us. The bad news was that Nicola’s bag had not arrived, the good news was that he was a very bad liar. WHAT A RELIEF! We took a photo of Nicola with her bag and Eric got another round of beers out for everyone and then set about trying to help everyone find accommodation.

We really enjoyed the spirit of the company (www.Backpacker-Tours.com), they were good to their guides and they really made a big effort to ensure that everyone was happy, once you were on board they looked after everything. Every time we saw Eric he would come over deliberately and say hi and when we didn’t see him some beers would arrive at our table and there he would be waving. He certainly shatters the German stereotype. Actually that probably applies to all the German people we have met while travelling.

The next day we took some clothes to the laundry that we needed done in time for us to catch our bus, but when I went to fetch them they were still all wet. I tried to find out when they would be ready but they seemed very agitated and began talking faster and faster. Eventually I established that they would be ready in an hours time. An hour later we returned ready to take them wet as we were out of time and Eric had offered to take us now to the bus station. The clothes were dry but they had been mixed in with everyone else’s. As Nicola tried sorting the clothes I ran out to explain to Eric what was taking so long. “Not a problem”, he said, “I will just listen to some Metallica”. We managed to get our clothes sorted and so far we have not noticed any that are missing. Some guy is probably the owner of one of Nicola’s bras. It was then off to the station for another freezing night bus.

The reason that the night buses are so cold is that there is only one company in Venezuela that makes large air-conditioning units suitable for buses and they only produce one model. This model has only two settings, on and off, and this same model is used for the cold transportation of fresh produce to markets and people on long journeys. Don’t forget your sleeping bag!

Commentary

Venezuela is a beautiful country with friendly people who talk too fast. We enjoyed our time there but were a bit concerned by the amount to which the military has involved itself in normal life. They are everywhere; at the petrol stations, bus stations, airports, shops and restaurants and you can see the normal people fear them. It also seemed that Chavez has a very strong hold on the country, his face shows up in almost every poster to do with any sort of development project and there was a very large amount of graffiti extolling his virtues. Since when do the youth go about writing positive slogans about the current president? Or am I just a cynic?

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Photos

Hydro-power
Carl at Sapo Salto, Canaima. We walked under that!!

Teleferico Pico Espego
The worlds higest cable car ride

Hablando
Nicola and our Teacher Sophie

Rosangela
Our other Spanish Teacher

La Famila
Nicola with some of our Spanish Family. Flor and Elena.

Practicing Spanish
Not sure if my Spanish was even good enough for him.

Toucan
Toucan at La Casita

Canaima Lagoon
The great view on the flight in to Canaima

High Speed to Salto Angel
Motorised Canoe ride up to the Angel Falls

Cliffs of Ayun Tepui
The top of those cliffs is more the 1000m up.

Salto Angel
Tallest falls in all the World

Proof we were there
The view from our camp in front of the falls.

Beauty in Abundance
Nicola at Canaima Lagoon

Heading Out
Landcrusiers on their way to Roraima

Ready to Lugg
Before Setting off for Roraima. Hat is the only one we could find.

Kayaking our Bags across
Found this abandoned Kayak. Used it and then the owner appeared and charged us for using it.

Local Backpack
Up to 30kg and some were girls!!!

Day 2 - Campsite
As beautiful as it was this campsite had many landmines (of the smelly type). Careful where you walk.

Day 3 - Getting Wet
Nicola Hiking up under one of the falls coming off Roraima

Goulish Guardians of Roraima
The formations as you reach the pleateau of Roaraima had a distinctly Gragoyle like look about them.

Marching
Much of the surface of Roraima was covered in Pink Sand.

Nicola on top
Cool formations near the Roraima Jacuzzis

Hotel Roraima
Our lovely level campsite on top of Roraima

Spike
One of the wonderful plants on Roraima.

Looking down to Guyana
Looking down from the top of Roraima to the Jungles of Guyana and the Gran Sabana.

Roraiman Waterfall
Waterfall and wierd formations on top of Roraima

Rainy Hike
Hiking up what looked like a natural Ankor Watt

Agent Orange
Nicola was difficult to miss in her Pumpkin Orange Poncho

Shelter from the rain
Really shows the scale of the formations on Roraima

We climbed that!!
The steep sides of Roraima

Day 5- Coming Down
The cliffs of Roraima emerging from the clouds

Team Photo
Lots of smiles at the finish

Happy Reunion
Nicola finally got her bag on the second last day in Venezuela

Comments

[Dad]

Venezuela
Wunderful dialog, and great to hear about your exploits too bad about the luggage, however it goes to show how you can get on with less and still be happy. DAD