Residence Mercure Diamant Le Diamant

... rock are strewn across the landscape, with channels of water covering the expanse. There are few trees up here at 2800m, just shrubs and small hardy flowers. The weather is constantly changing up here, with the result that the cloud swirls around mysteriously the whole time, sunshine lighting up a barren but beautiful scene. We stayed in caves under rocky ledges that the guides call ...

... Giddeon, was from neighbouring Guyana and, because he had lived in a village very close to the mountain, knew all manner of stories about the region.

The first two days we walked about 12 kms each day to get to camp, where we put up tents and relaxed. Despite it being the rainy season here we were blessed with good weather, and we ambled through savannah and jungle and the odd river crossing here and there. During the sometimes cold nights ...

... pretty cool chilled out vibe there - not spectacular or anything but I could dig it alright. The reason for stopping in Santa Elena, another non-descript town was to do the Roraima trek - six days to discover the location of Arthur Conan Doyle´s famous Lost World. But more on that a little later. First a word about Venezuela. Was looking forward to seeing what this country was going to be like. First country I have ever travelled to with what the western ...

... up it. I was also wondering how my clothes would ever dry in the misty damp atmosphere. Not to worry though as i always had our guides great food to look forward to. I was hoping to lose a few pounds on this trip but im not so sure now! Climbing Roraima meant we had to pass through the cloud forest, crossing streams and watching our footing on the slippery rocks and tree roots. We plodded on though. I was determined to keep one set of clothes dry so damp me and the rest finally reached ...

So liebe luet ich schick oi wiederemal es paar foetli uebere. Jetzt sind scho wieder es paar taeg verbii und ich hock schowieder ame gaaanz andere ort ime internetkafi. jetzt bini gad ade Kueschte z'Venezuela, aber um das gahts da nonig. Di letschte Taeg bini ganz im Suede vo Venezuela ide Gran Sabana gsi. Das isch en riise ...

So for the last 6 days and 5 nights I have spent on the side (or on top) of a mountain camping. Yes, me camping. Why when I travel do I find a need to do things I know I would hate in real life? I guess that is the greatest beauty of traveling: doing things you would never do in the real world. That said over all the experience was amazing! Roraima is a tepuy that is apparently part of the lost world. On top there is an unique Eco system ...

Roraima This mountain was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Venezuela, and it didn't disappoint. I have plenty of gripes about the tour, even though we went with the company that is supposedly the best, and is the most expensive. Just little things like not quite having enough food and "guides" who know the way but aren't very informative. This last complaint is a recurring theme so perhaps I am at fault. And our poor guide went way beyond what ...

Our next trip was a six-day trek up the famous tabletop mountain called Roraima. Southeast Venezuela is covered with this type of mountain, called tepuis, of which Roraima is the highest at 2800 metres. There was some confusion about what the tepuis are made of. We were being told sandstone, which the top certainly was but we think the core is a harder rock so that it remained while the countryside eroded away around it over1.8 billion years.(Coming down, we were convinced that ...

... that truly has respect for the local indigenous communities and the nature, as well as the people he travels with. He was so laid back, too, that it just felt like travelling with a good friend who knows very well his way around the savannahs. It was nice. He was also constantly taking care of keeping us happy, giving us much more than we had paid for - throwing in a few beers for the road, which in theory wasn't included in the tour and came from his own pocket, as well ...

Santa Elena de Uairen was fine to get to. An overnight bus ment to be 12 hours was 14 so pretty reasonable really. The bus took me to the boarder and all the formalities were fine both out of Brazil and into Venezuela and then I met ANOTHER GERMAN called Bridget, she is 47 and also has done a fair abmount of traveling, we got the bus together to Santa Elana from Boa Vista ...