The Roraima mountain is the highest and one of the most impressive mountains on the area. One of my dreams for a long time was to climb it, but this was not possible until the last trip. The problem was always to get the time required for that purpose. The round trip to Roraima starting from the closest indian town is 5 days. You have to add the days you spend traveling from Caracas, at least four more.

On our last trip to La Sabana we went to the indian town of Paraitepuy just to look at the Roraima mountain from a closer distance. There I met 4 young people who where going to climb Roraima in the next days. In an impulse I asked them if I can accompany them. They accepted with delight for having another comrade for the journey.

The remaining problem was then to convince my wife to stay alone with my kids, living in two camping tents, in that small indian town for those few days. At that moment we were running out of supplies, and the New Year celebration was only 4 days away. However, after a few minutes she accepted. She wanted me to be happy.

Unprepared, with only two day backpacks (one on my back, the other on my front), and a lot of enthusiasm, I started the next day the journey to Roraima with my new friends.

Normally, it takes two days to reach the base camp at the foot of Roraima, one day to go up, another to go down, and two more to return. I did everything in 4 days total, returning to my wife and kids only a few hours before midnight of December 31st of 1993. I was really in shape at those days.

The picture below was taken during the first day of the excursion. Two of my new friends can be seen on the trail. In the past you could take your 4WD car and save one day walking. Now, it is not allowed to take your car farther than Paraitepuy. Better to be in shape and prepared.

A marvelous view of tepui mountains Kukenan (middle) and Roraima (right), on route to the base camp.

The first day the trail goes up and down for kilometers and kilometers, until you reach the Kukenan river, where you camp. The next day the trail starts going up, and up, until you arrive to the foot of Roraima. An small cold stream near by allows you to refresh from the journey.

The third day you start the climbing. Even when it looks impossible, there is a narrow trail that allows you to reach the summit after a few hours. The picture below is from that trail, nearly at the middle of the wall of Roraima.

The author, resting for a moment at the middle part of the Roraima wall.

When you arrive to the summit, you will be surprised to find rocks of strange shapes. The plateau is so big that you need several days to visit entirely, assuming that you don't get lost first. All the rocks seem similar. Several places with misterious names like "The cristals valley", "The monastery", etc, can be visit up there, you just need time.

In order to return to my family, I had only a few hours to visit the 'Main Hotel', and a few other places, before going down to the base camp. By the way, the 'Main Hotel' is only a piece of dry land protected from the rain with a big semi flat rock. It is important because most of the soil is wet and there are not so many good camping sites up there.

After spending a very rainy night at the base camp, I packed my (wet) things very early in the morning and started to return to Paraitepuy. The most important surprise of the day was when I reached the Kukenan river. Because of the rain, the level was very high, almost impassable.

My plan to get Paraitepuy was ruined, I thought. Later, after leaving all my things including my Handycam, binoculars, etc, I started to try to find a route to cross the river. After several failed attempts I discovered that if I used 2 long wood sticks, I could manage the passage to the other side. After 2 more trips, I had all my belongings on the other side. After that, all I had to do was walk, and walk, ... and more walk.

I arrived to Paraitepuy the same day at 5:00 pm.

My family and I were very happy. I learned later that my wife had to buy from the indians a chicken and other things. She had to cook on a wood fire because they did not have any more white gas for our Coleman stove. Anyway, they survived, and my dream was fulfilled finally.

Next time .... Kukenan!

Steven Spielberg's movie "Arachnophoby", was shot there. However they did not have to climb at all, they used helicopters. On our last trip we saw them carrying the stars and equipment a few times.

If after seeing all these pictures you decide to go and visit "La Gran Sabana", try to avoid Christmas, Carnival, and Easter holidays, and you will have all these marvelous places for yourself.

Sorry, but I do NOT have space left in this server to put more pictures, so this was the END of this small trip to that misterious land.
(If you liked these pages, please vote so. I might get a few more MBs.)

And here, another sample of Venezuelan music: "Caballo Viejo"

Return to previous page - Home

This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page