All I knew was that we (Hernando and I and our friends Raul and Luis Miguel) would be spending 6 days in Roraima, near Venezuela's border with Brazil. I gathered that meant camping when the list of things to bring from the company we booked the trip through included sleeping bags, sunblock and mosquito repellent. It was not however until we were in the 4x4 jeep on the way to being dropped off did I start to realize we were about to embark on 6 days of endless trekking through desert heat and ravenous blood sucking puri-puris to get to a mountain which we would then ascend carrying all the weeks necessities on our backs. Needless to say, the four of us didn't do any training whatsoever, unless you include the sunbathing we did on some gorgeous caribbean beaches before we got there.
Day 1, we got there late. One tour operator man said it was ok to take the later overnight bus arriving at 9am, but when we got there the other one was peeved off and stressing out to get us out on time. We did have over 4 hours of walking ahead of us and had to find a guide and reach camp by nightfall. The scenery was lovely, very desert like though spotted with rivers with lovely clean water. After my experiences in West Virginia where the coal companies have poisoned all the water so that the rivers are almost all undrinkable I appreciated being able to drink the water straight out of the river. We hardly made it to camp by nightfall though, we spent the last 40 minutes or so walking in the dark with cheap flashlights that all broke by the end of the 6 days!
Day 2, The guides are mostly native Americans from the nearby village. Ours was a quiet but relaxed guy named Sergio. Even though we were a bit lazy I think he liked our company. We were the last ones to leave camp at 8:30 or so with a 6 hour hike winding our way uphill in the heat without shade and with few rivers this time. The most amazing part was watching the ecosystems change as we walked through them, one after the other. Sometimes it only took one hour to start in one type of ecosystem and walk entirely through another distinct one. Trees changed, or disappeared, the flowers changed, the grasses changed everything looked different one moment to the next as we approached the table top mountain.
Day 3 should have been the hardest. This was when we spent 6 hours in sharp ascent up an essentially vertical "path" through the jungle (we spotted 3 different types of poisonous snakes). When we were almost at the end with only about an hour left to go the path opens up to a lovely view point of the valley below that we've been walking through for 3 days already and the bastard of a trail that's to come. We stood there and couldn't believe our eyes. A scratchy white path going straight up a treacherous looking mountain with little moving dots of people making their way over the boulders and sheer madness. One such dot was one of our guides, Sergio's sister, who decided we were too slow to wait for and legged it as easily as though it were a high school race track. It was beautiful though when you weren't concentrating our your footing. As it opened up to the top of the mountain we were climbing over massive oddly shaped black boulders that seemed to have been spilled there like marbles. That was our first introduction to what we were to behold once at the top. Beautiful, eerie, surreal are all understatements. It was absolutely unlike anything I've ever seen before as a human. It felt like we might discover the last hitherto unknown surviving dinosaurs, a place preserved secretly from a bygone era. No words will do it justice, I know I'll have to include photos but I should be packing right now! (not doing this.)
We visited a pool they falsely call the jacuzzi-- it's still freeeezing! but it was no dissapointment since the floor and surrounding area were completely covered in white quartz crystals! The plants are so cool like miniature cousins of palms, simple in design, resilient and stunningly geometric.
Day 4. Just because we felt like we had to we took the note: optional 8 hours of walking this day. We could have been recovering and preparing for the descent but no, we had to see what the top of Roraima has to offer. Of course it was amazing but an hour into it my legs hated me and I got a mean sunburn. We visited a viewpoint that rivals if not outdoes Yosemite's half dome view point. We watched the clouds below coming from Brazil and going over the mountain with a green valley below. We also took a dip in a difficult to reach pool in a cave and are now able to say we stood in the corners of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana all at once- though that was hardly the highlight.
We saw tarantulas and 3 different kinds of carnivirous plants and the shapes the boulders were stunning. Perhaps now I should dedicate time to the photos-- or to packing!
There was a lot of bodily pain of course. Our blisters formed blisters of their own, our knees were shaky and we only wanted to collapse after setting up the tents. The worst though was after day 5. Six hours of going downhill apparently awakens very lazy muscles that hurt a lot the next day. But it was so worth it. I think it's one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life.
We are concluding our trip and returning to the US tomorrow so it looks like this may be the last post. Hernando and I fly to NYC from Caracas via Trinidad-- random?? but cheap of course. Cheers for reading my rants whenever you've gotten the chance. We hope to see all of our friends in the US soon. Take care.
-Manali and Hernando
Day 1, we got there late. One tour operator man said it was ok to take the later overnight bus arriving at 9am, but when we got there the other one was peeved off and stressing out to get us out on time. We did have over 4 hours of walking ahead of us and had to find a guide and reach camp by nightfall. The scenery was lovely, very desert like though spotted with rivers with lovely clean water. After my experiences in West Virginia where the coal companies have poisoned all the water so that the rivers are almost all undrinkable I appreciated being able to drink the water straight out of the river. We hardly made it to camp by nightfall though, we spent the last 40 minutes or so walking in the dark with cheap flashlights that all broke by the end of the 6 days!
Day 2, The guides are mostly native Americans from the nearby village. Ours was a quiet but relaxed guy named Sergio. Even though we were a bit lazy I think he liked our company. We were the last ones to leave camp at 8:30 or so with a 6 hour hike winding our way uphill in the heat without shade and with few rivers this time. The most amazing part was watching the ecosystems change as we walked through them, one after the other. Sometimes it only took one hour to start in one type of ecosystem and walk entirely through another distinct one. Trees changed, or disappeared, the flowers changed, the grasses changed everything looked different one moment to the next as we approached the table top mountain.
Day 3 should have been the hardest. This was when we spent 6 hours in sharp ascent up an essentially vertical "path" through the jungle (we spotted 3 different types of poisonous snakes). When we were almost at the end with only about an hour left to go the path opens up to a lovely view point of the valley below that we've been walking through for 3 days already and the bastard of a trail that's to come. We stood there and couldn't believe our eyes. A scratchy white path going straight up a treacherous looking mountain with little moving dots of people making their way over the boulders and sheer madness. One such dot was one of our guides, Sergio's sister, who decided we were too slow to wait for and legged it as easily as though it were a high school race track. It was beautiful though when you weren't concentrating our your footing. As it opened up to the top of the mountain we were climbing over massive oddly shaped black boulders that seemed to have been spilled there like marbles. That was our first introduction to what we were to behold once at the top. Beautiful, eerie, surreal are all understatements. It was absolutely unlike anything I've ever seen before as a human. It felt like we might discover the last hitherto unknown surviving dinosaurs, a place preserved secretly from a bygone era. No words will do it justice, I know I'll have to include photos but I should be packing right now! (not doing this.)
We visited a pool they falsely call the jacuzzi-- it's still freeeezing! but it was no dissapointment since the floor and surrounding area were completely covered in white quartz crystals! The plants are so cool like miniature cousins of palms, simple in design, resilient and stunningly geometric.
Day 4. Just because we felt like we had to we took the note: optional 8 hours of walking this day. We could have been recovering and preparing for the descent but no, we had to see what the top of Roraima has to offer. Of course it was amazing but an hour into it my legs hated me and I got a mean sunburn. We visited a viewpoint that rivals if not outdoes Yosemite's half dome view point. We watched the clouds below coming from Brazil and going over the mountain with a green valley below. We also took a dip in a difficult to reach pool in a cave and are now able to say we stood in the corners of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana all at once- though that was hardly the highlight.
We saw tarantulas and 3 different kinds of carnivirous plants and the shapes the boulders were stunning. Perhaps now I should dedicate time to the photos-- or to packing!
There was a lot of bodily pain of course. Our blisters formed blisters of their own, our knees were shaky and we only wanted to collapse after setting up the tents. The worst though was after day 5. Six hours of going downhill apparently awakens very lazy muscles that hurt a lot the next day. But it was so worth it. I think it's one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life.
We are concluding our trip and returning to the US tomorrow so it looks like this may be the last post. Hernando and I fly to NYC from Caracas via Trinidad-- random?? but cheap of course. Cheers for reading my rants whenever you've gotten the chance. We hope to see all of our friends in the US soon. Take care.
-Manali and Hernando
wow! What a beautiful end to a wonderful adventure for you two :):) So glad you got to do that, thanks for keeping this blog and including all of us in your travels. Cant wait to see you!
ReplyDeleteOnline Bus Ticket Booking. Manali is administratively a part of the kullu district, with population of approx. 30,000. The small town was the beginning of an ancient trade route to ladakh and, from there, over the karakoram pass on to yarkand and khotan in the tarim basin.
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