Arrival in the Gran Sabana

Trip Start Jun 11, 2005
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7
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Trip End Jun 05, 2006


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Flag of Venezuela  ,
Saturday, July 2, 2005

Our bus left Puerto Ordaz about 10pm and got to Santa Elena about 7 the next morning. The ride felt long, and wasn't very comfortable. For entertainment, every 3 hours or so throughout the night, we were stopped at military checkpoints where 18 year olds with M16s would board the bus, look at a few random passports, snoop round the occasional piece of luggage, then leave. Not the best night of sleep that we've had.

The sun came up as we neared Santa Elena, and we got great views of the Gran Sabana although we were too sleepy to appreciate them at the time. The Gran Sabana (meaning "Great Savannah") is an enormous plateau in the South East of Venezuela, separating the huge Orinoco basin from the even huger Amazon basin. It is fairly flat, with green hills rolling out to every horizon. Scattered around the Sabana, as if rising from the centre of the earth, are the remarkable "tepuys" the flat-topped mountains that the area is famous for. The water coming down from one of these, Ayantepuy, form Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world, and the tallest tepuy, Roraima, is a popular 6 day trek from Santa Elena, high on our list of things to do whilst here.

Andrea Mata, the volunteer co-ordinator from Peace Villages Foundation, was waiting to meet us at the bus station (how many Andrea's do you need in such a remote place?) and took us to the guest house which would be our home for the next 2 months The Empty Vastness of The Gran Sabana
The Empty Vastness of The Gran Sabana
 . It was clean and very basic, but reasonable comfortable.

Later we met Eduardo, the Program Co-ordinator, who was very enthusiastic, and told us in great detail about the programs currently ongoing, and the work that the foundation had been doing in the area. He was an inspiration, and we agreed to meet early the next day, to get stuck in to the work.

We went for a stroll around the town in the afternoon, a small and sleepy place, with less than 15000 inhabitants. The town centre was compact, and pleasant to walk around, just like an inland South-American Aberystwyth, but with more mosquitos and fewer Brummies.

We went out for pizza on our first night, but were pretty tired so were in bed and fast asleep by 9.30. Eduardo came to collect us as promised the following morning, and we were quickly into work.
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Comments

ueitepuy
ueitepuy on Nov 2, 2006 at 07:32AM

Peace Villages Foundation
can you tell me if the adress from the 'peace village found.' ist at at St Elena?
Who is Eduardo (last name)?

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