Lost World of the Gran Sábana

  Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela
Sunday, October 15, 2006

After an uneventful trip north from Boa Vista, we were happy to find that the Brazil/Venezuela border crossing had been re-opened following some kind of resolution of the local miners' concerns. However, we soon discovered that we had another problem. Apparently when we entered Brazil in the south back in July the Customs official had filled out the wrong form and it was definitely all our fault! It took an hour of wrangling to resolve this seemingly insurmountable hurdle, but eventually all the i's were dotted, the t's crossed and everything suitably stamped and signed and we were allowed to proceed to the Venezuelan side. There we found a spanking new set of immigration and customs facilities - spotlessly clean and the most modern that we've encountered to date. Unfortunately, the problem here was that it appeared to be totally deserted and absolutely nobody was around to process our papers. Finally a member of the Guardia Nacional managed to root out somebody for us from an air-conditioned inner sanctum. Luckily they were even conversant with our 'Carnet de Passages en Douane', checked our yellow fever certificates (another first for this trip) and in no time at all we were on our way into Santa Elena de Uairén.

Of course, our first order of business was a visit to the gas pumps! We had carefully calculated our fuel requirement for the 250 km trip so that we arrived with the gas needle nudging the red zone. In our last TP entry we may have misled you slightly about the price of gas here in Venezuela - you probably think it is ridiculously cheap at about Canadian $0.15/litre, right? Well, we're sorry to disappoint you, but after we worked out the currency conversions it actually turns out to be just under 4 cents/litre for 91 octane or 5 cents if you want to splurge on 95 octane!! When was the last time you filled your tank for a couple of bucks?! Yes, we know that this is not a very environmentally sensitive pricing structure, but it sure is a novelty for us and a welcome benefit to our budget. Presumably Mr. Chavez maintains his popularity at home with this cut-price fuel policy, and makes his big profits on the international oil markets. Always an eye on the upcoming elections!

The next couple of days took us across the Gran Sábana - the magnificently remote and vast interior of southern Venezuela. This is a land of high plains with endless vistas interrupted only by the sheer-sided, flat-topped mountains, known locally as tepuis. The silence is broken on occasion by the gurgle and rush of numerous streams and rivers, with many spectacular waterfalls along the way. The excellent tarmac road threads its way gently through this idyllic setting, and the only impediments are the somewhat irksome Guardia Nacional checkpoints every 50 km or so. We took every opportunity to find scenic outlooks for frequent coffee, tea and lunch breaks to enjoy the solitude and the clear, cool air, and decided that this was definitely an area that merited further exploration.

By the time we reached Ciudad Bolivar, sweltering in the hot, humid lowlands, we were ready to sign-up for a three-day expedition back into the heart of the Gran Sábana. Our destination was Angel Falls - the highest waterfall in the world at 973m (18 times higher than Niagara Falls) - and, we were to discover, the top tourist attraction in Venezuela. The falls - locally known as 'Rorowakupaí Merú' by the indigenous Permön people of the area - were only belatedly discovered on behalf of 'white men' in 1921 by a swashbuckling American bush pilot named Jimmy Crawford Angel. His first contact was only a fly-by to confirm the rumours of the existence of the fabled falls, but in 1937 he crash-landed his plane on the summit of nearby Anyán Tepui and got a closer look. Unfortunately, it took him and his group 12 days to hike out to the nearest settlement and they only just managed to survive. It wasn't until a land expedition in the 1940s confirmed the height of the falls that they were officially named after the pioneering pilot.

Our trip was certainly not as arduous, but did involve a one hour flight into the centre of the Canaima National Park, followed by a four-hour canoe trip and a couple hours hiking through the rainforest to the foot of the falls. We were in an interesting multi-national group (Austrian, German, British, Irish and French) ably led by our trusty guide 'Adamaka charafü kaiküse endaküritüpö' - Henry for short! We slept in hammocks by the river close to the falls, and woke to the rising sun turning the rock face of the Anyán Tepui a glowing golden pink.

12 Angel Falls at sunrise

The first sight of Angel Falls apparently gushing from a rock-face high in the morning sky at sunrise is an experience not to be missed!

Our journey up the Rio Carrau and its tributary the Rio Churun in robust 25 ft dug-out canoes powered by 75 HP Yamaha outboards, was also exhilarating to say the least. Maybe downright scary would be a better description at times - as we fought our way up through the raging rapids - and definitely a bit sore on the bum after several hours! At one point we had to portage around a particularly bad stretch of rapids, and trudged through the teeming rain - we spent the better part of three days either damp, wet or absolutely soaked! We swam in the pool at the base of Angel Falls, as well as several other smaller falls, and even walked underneath the thundering cascade of the Sapo Falls near the base camp at Canaima.

Now we are back in the heat and humidity of the lowlands. It's definitely too hot for our liking, so tomorrow we'll be heading for the hills in the west of the country. Not just any old hills - we'll be renewing our acquaintance with our good friend 'the Andes'!