Venezuela Galleries
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Snaps from Venezuela
Mt. Roraima - Trekking to Another World
Very simply, Roraima is WHY I came to Venezuela. A wish, sown in the very
first hostal I visited in Brazil. A Belgian couple had lived in Venezuela for
2 years, and told of this amazing mountain, loaded with weird alien species,
bottomless crevasses, and fog that came from nowhere. Tepuis (Roraima is
the tallest, Angel Falls leaps off Ayuan Tepui) are the jutting table top
mountains of Venezuela's Grand Sabana. They rise so sharply and steeply
that species that live there survive nowhere else on earth, in a weird
island of frozen clouds, 3000 feet above the plains below. Roraima also
sits on the triple border between Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana. I'm obliged
to mention that early expeditions to Roraima inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's
Lost World. Judge for yourself.
With Sebastian the German and our guide
Nestor, I canvassed the mountain in 6 days on an itinerary that normally
takes 8 days. We lept over crevasses, and touched every edge of the mountain, peering
over the edge of a 2000 foot drop. Up there, it's eerie, silent, carved by wind
and rain and some of the oldest rock on earth. It even has
a valley of crystals and Flintstone hotels to stay in. It may very
well be my favorite trek in all of South America.
(Note: the set follows the progress of the trek - be sure to scoll down.)
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