The Highest of the Pakaraima chain of tepui plateau in South America
A rare clear view of Mount Roraima from a distance
I arrived in Santa Elena from Brazil hoping to hike to Mount Roraima,
one of the most famous tepuis in Venezuela and the world. The mountain
sits at the triple border between Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana,
although the Guyana-Venezuela is disputed by Venezuela. I spent two
days in Santa Elena to wander around the town and to find a group to do
the hike. Crossing the border from Brazil was easy enough with the
numerous shared taxis that cross the border from Pacaraima or La Linnea
as it is known as. To pay for the trip I had to actually cross back
into Brazil because the two ATMs in Santa Elena don´t appear to work
with foreign cards. This was also advantageous because by bringing
foreign currency into Venezuela you can circumvent the imposed fixed
exchange rate that Venezuela has by changing money on the so called
Black Market.
The trail through the jungle
The official exchange rate is about 2.1 Bolivars to the
US dollar but if you changing US dollars on the Black Market you get at
least 3.1 Bolivars to the dollar and if you are changing Reais you get
about 2.9 Bolivars per US dollar of Reais so it is quite a significant
difference. Though the Black Market sounds ominous, in Santa Elena it
consists of numerous people that stand around the street corner near
the Plaza Bolivar and openly change money; while being technically
illegal it operates very freely and in plain view. The other strange
thing about Venezuela is the time difference, the country is 30 minutes
behind Brazilian time and 30 minutes ahead of Colombian time. Why 30
minutes? Because Venezuela lies more or less between the ends of each
time zone so Chavez decided to split the difference, what purpose this
serves other than to make people half an hour late or early I have
absolutely no idea.
Looking up at the vertical rock face of Mount Roraima
It was relatively easy to form a group for the trek to Mount Roraima
and I ended up going with 2 Japanese, 2 Colombians, an Australian, and
a Swedish guy. We decided to do the trip in 5 days instead of 6 so that
we had to carry one days less food and because the two Japanese were in
a bit of a hurry. The Colombians joined our group at the last minute
the morning of our departure and decided to pay for the fancy option
where they had porters to carry their stuff and food and prepare meals
for them as well. The full price of everything with porters and food
for 6 days was 1100 Bolivars, for us, carrying our own food and bags
cost 400 Bolivars. Unfortunately Santa Elena has just about the worst
selection of food in the stores and there isn´t even a proper grocery
store, and food isn´t cheap either, especially for what you are
getting.
Our campsite under a rock ledge on the top
I did manage to find some ham and salami and cheese to make
sandwiches and bought some other snacks as well.
The first day was easy enough and consisted of a two hour jeep ride out
to the starting point that was a small indigenous village northeast of
Santa Elena. From there we hiked for about three hours and after taking
off our boots and crossing two rivers we arrived at the first campsite
around 4:30pm. The weather was nice and sunny and we were lucky to get
some excellent views of Mount Roraima in the distance. The tent was
pretty cramped with three of us and sleeping on the hard ground was by
no means comfortable. We started early on the second day because we had
a long way as we needed to reach the top before it got dark and it was
all uphill, all day long.
The scenery of the Lost World
The trail wound its way through the rolling
hills of the Gran Sabana and after the first hour or so a light rain
began to fall. After the second hour the light rain turned into a heavy
rain and we continued hiking until we reached Base Camp, the last
campsite before the trail really starts going steeply uphill towards
the top. Here we had an early lunch and waited for the rain to let up,
which it finally did, a little bit at least. From Base Camp the trail
was very steep, at times requiring us to climb up rocky slopes. After
about an hour and half of hiking through the jungle near the base of
Mount Roraima and reached the foot of the shear rock face of Mount
Roraima. It was still foggy and rainy so there wasn´t much visibility
but looking up as the rock face disappeared into the fog and clouds was
an impressive sight.
The vast unforgiving landscape on top
Forty five minutes later and we reached a steep
section of the trail full of loose rocks on which a waterfall was
cascading down from the top due to all the rain that was falling. Since
we had come up in altitude it was considerably colder and we were all
soaking wet from the rain, these two things made us hurry quickly
through the waterfall, getting closer and closer to the top. The guide
let us go ahead as we wanted to move a bit faster and so three of us
reached the top first and were huddled under a small rock ledge to stay
out of the rain and wind while we waited for the guide to arrive.
Luckily we didn´t have to wait long and the guide led us through this
bizarre rocky landscape towards a rock overhang that formed a shelter
for our tents.
The bizarre foggy landscape on the top
It was nice to get out of our wet clothes and have yet
another sandwich for dinner as night fell and the rains continued. The
top of Roraima is at 2800 meters so it gets pretty cold at night, a few
degrees above freezing sometimes, a cold that I hadn´t seen since
leaving La Paz a month ago, but at least it preserved my sandwich meat.
In the morning we woke up to lots of fog but thankfully no rain. This
allowed us to go exploring on the top. The scenery on the top was truly
amazing, certainly fitting of the title The Lost World. There were
strange rock formations and alien vegetation that was like nothing I
have ever seen before, shaped by the millions of years that have passed
it by. Without a guide we would have been lost almost instantly as
everything looks similar and it is almost impossible to actually walk
in a straight line due to the various rock outcroppings and pools and
rivers and marshy area.
Luminescent pools and rock reflections
The top is littered with quartz crystals of
various sizes that in sunlight sparkle and shine. We made our way to
one side of Roraima where if it were clear we would have had a view
over the vast expanse of the Guyana jungle but unfortunately it was
completely cloudy and foggy and we saw nothing but the drastic drop-off
of the rock ledge disappear into the fog. At least I had already gotten
to see the Guyana jungle when I was in Guyana. After some further
walking we came to some strangely luminescent pools that had cut deep
shapes into the rocks and reflected the surrounding alien landscape. We
returned to camp for lunch and some rest and the weather continued to
clear and we managed to even get some sun for a few minutes here and
there but it was still cloudy in the distance and we had no views at
all.
Looking out along the rock face of Mount Roraima
Some 30 minutes later we were treated to a clearing in the clouds
and we rushed across the rocky landscape toward the edge of Roraima.
From the edge we had panoramic views of the vast expanse of the Gran
Sabana far below and we could see the small dot of the Base Camp
shelter where we had come from the day before. Later in the afternoon
we hiked up to the highest point of Mount Roraima at 2880 meters and
with a brief clearing of the clouds we had clear views of the shear
rock face of Roraima as it tumbled towards the fringes of the jungle
surrounding its base. In the distance on the top of Roraima was the
unique and unforgiving rocky landscape and vegetation that extended as
far as we could see and gradually merged with the descending fog. We
enjoyed a few moments of sun as the weather capriciously changed about
every two minutes, alternating between sun, clouds, rain, and wind, and
sometimes all four at once.
The rock face of Roraima
The hike back down was pleasant and of course we managed to get lots of
rain which formed lots of waterfalls streaming from the top of Roraima
its sister tepui which were beautiful to see, when you could see them.
We made it to the first campsite and got to relax and swim in the river
while our clothes dried in the sun. And luckily it was only one more
night to sleep in the tent, which I had grown to loathe due to its lack
of space and the hardness of the ground. And the last night also meant
that my monotonous diet of sandwiches, strawberry sugar wafer, nutri
grain bars, and cookies was also coming to an end. One more morning of
mostly dry hiking and we arrived back at the village where we met our
jeep to get back to Santa Elena.
A view of the Gran Sabana from Mt. Roraima
I was so looking forward to sleeping
in a bed that night, but after cleaning up the first thing I did was to
head across the border to Brazil to eat in a churrascaria. It was by
far the best tasting food I had eaten in the last five day.
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