VENEZUELA
12 DAYS

A land of striking beauty and contrasts, Venezuela was described as “paradise on Earth” by its discoverer Christopher Columbus.

We start our encounter in the capital city of Caracas and travel south to Guri Lake. Here we embark on an overland expedition to Canaima. We will travel through the Grand Sabana, a special landscape of clear rivers, waterfalls, canyons and endless towering tepuis (table-top mountains).

We will fly over Auyantepui, entering the Devil’s Canyon, to admire a view of the world’s tallest Angel Falls. A helicopter will take us to the top of Roraima. We will walk through moon-like landscape and observe rare orchids and mysterious endemic plants. After soaking in the breathtaking views that stretch into Guyana and Brazil, we will descend to base.

On our way to Orinoco Delta we will stop to visit colonial Ciudad Bolivar before reaching our jungle lodge. We will have a chance to trek in the jungle, go through survival training with Indian guides and fish piranhas.  In the evening we might witness hundreds of love-parrots fly in for the night. It is like taking a step back in time. The modern world just fades into insignificance…

Day 1.    Arrive in Caracas

Upon arrival in Caracas, you are met at the airport and transferred to our comfortable centrally located hotel. Dinner and overnight.

Caracas lies in a series of valleys 1000 meters above sea level and surrounded by majestic tree-clad mountains. Traces of the city's colonial roots are still proudly displayed in the historic buildings and contrast dramatically with the imposing modern skyscrapers of the city.

Day 2.    Caracas. To Guri Lake

After breakfast we will take a half day tour of Caracas, visiting some of the most important highlights of this city, the City Hall, the Bolívar Square, the Capitol, and the Mausoleum „Panteón Nacional“ where Simón Bolívar is buried. We will also stop at an outlook over the city.  After lunch we are transferred to the airport.  We fly to Puerto Ordaz and continue to Guri Lake by road.

Day 3.    Gran Sabana

Today we embark on an overland expedition through savannah and gallery forest. The eastern part of Canaima National Park is known as the Gran Sabana, a special landscape of clear rivers, waterfalls and endless towering Tepuis (table-top mountains). Some of the oldest land forms on earth, they were created long before the continents drifted apart. Now they stand like sentinels – witnesses of the world’s beginnings – islands lost in time.

Wide sweeps of open savannah, scattered with elegant stands of moriche palms, are typical of the Gran Sabana’s higher areas. Immense skies give the feeling of being on the roof of the world. Dramatic views of the scattered tepuis add to the sensation of great distance and of separateness from ordinary realities.

The land is home of the Pemón Indian people, who are farmers, hunters and fishermen. They live in small communities, notable for their practical egalitarianism and tolerance. 

We stay overnight in a hammock camp set in splendid scenery of the savannah.

Day 4.    Canaima National Park  

We hike through savannah to Hacha Canyon. We will continue by motorized canoe to Las  Babas Waterfall and further upstream to the small port of Taute. Here we will go on another short hike and then drive to Canaima village. We travel through a landscape of remote mountains and deep, heavily forested canyons. Many of the tepuis have precipitous rock walls that rise to over 1800 meters (6000 feet) where they end in an almost perfectly flat top. Originally the tops of the tepuis were joined together in a vast continuous plateau that stretched over a large part of northern South America from the Colombian Mountains into Guyana. Over the time erosion carved steep-walled valleys and crevices into the plateau leaving fragments of the plateau completely isolated.

The region remains one of the most thinly settled and one of the most beautiful of all natural areas in South America.

Day 5.    Angel Falls. Santa Elena

After breakfast we are transferred to the airport and fly to Santa Elena de Uairen, situated at the southern tip of famous Gran Sabana and being a border town to Brazil. Our plane is going to enter the Devil’s Canyon for a spectacular view of the world’s highest waterfall - Angel Falls (979 meters / 3211 feet). The fall is more than twice as high as the Empire State Building and three times higher than the Eiffel Tower. We will admire the tepuis and wide savannah below. In the afternoon we are going on a trip to the Brazilian border and return to Santa Elena for the night.

Day 6.    Roraima

We take helicopter flight to the summit of Mount Roraima and enjoy overflight of mainly unexplored Kukenan Tepui.  We will explore Roraima’s summit taking the route to the marker where Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana meet. We will walk through sceneries of strange rock formations, lush valleys and places where the ground is covered with sparkling quartz crystals. We observe strange black toads, many species of orchids and carnivorous plants endemic to Mount Roraima. We spend the night in tents on the summit.                                   

At his desk in England in 1912 Arthur Conan Doyle read accounts of this area and it inspired him to write the famous Victorian travel novel “The Lost World”. Indeed, in a sense this really is a lost world since the great elevation of these isolated mountaintops has made them biological islands.

Day 7.    Hike to Base Camp

We descend to the base of the mountain, enjoying the spectacular scenery. Overnight is in tents.

Day 8.    Hike to Paraitepui

We hike to Pareitepui and continue by road to Santa Elena.

Day 9.    Ciudad Bolivar         

Today we take a flight to Ciudad Bolivar. We will walk in the colonial part of the city.

Day 10.    Orinoco Delta      

Early in the morning we are transferred from Ciudad Bolivar to a small Delta port of San Jose de Buja. From here we travel by boat to our jungle lodge. In the afternoon we will hike in the jungle and go through survival training with Indian guides. The guides will explain to us how the Indians survived amidst this lonely tropical environment by using their secret resources like eating huge worms hidden in moriche palm trunks (we can taste them too!), drinking out of hard shelled fruits of the "tremiche" tree and utilizing other survival tricks. In the evening we will observe an island to where hundreds of love-parrots fly in for the night.

The Orinoco Delta Nature Reserve is a luxuriant mangrove forest of outstanding beauty. In the outer delta live the Warao Indians whose ancient culture has changed comparatively little in recent times, and estimated to be 12000 years old. Their rectangular houses are built on stilts made from virtually indestructible moriche palm trunks. Walkways, also on stilts, connect the houses, which generally have moriche palm floors covered in clay. The name of the Warao comes from War-aroa, "people of the canoes", and even the youngest children are able to swim and paddle canoes almost as soon as they can walk. Traveling through the mangroves one can enjoy the exotic flora and a variety of birds.

Day 11.    Orinoco Delta. To Caracas

Before breakfast we are going to observe some monkeys while they have breakfast high up in the trees. After breakfast we go piranha fishing. In the afternoon we travel by boat and later by bus to Maturin. From here we will fly back to Caracas.

Day 12.    Caracas and Departure

We will have some time for last minute shopping before transfer to the airport and our flights back home.

SUMMARY

Inclusions: 4 domestic flights, 1 helicopter flight, overland expeditions, all meals, transportation, escorted throughout

Start and Finish: Caracas

Group Size: Maximum 16 travelers

Accommodation: Comfortable accommodation with private facilities. 1 night in a hammock camp (overland expedition to Canaima). 2 nights camping on Roraima trek

Trip Grade: Demanding

Dates:
Mar 2-13, 2008
Nov 30 - Dec 11, 2008
Mar 1-12, 2009 (price TBA)

Land Cost: US$ 4,895

Note: Please note that all itineraries and prices are subject to change.

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