Mount Roraima - Venezuela landscape scenery

There are some wonderful places on Earth that offer such breathtaking views that they might just stick with you forever and ever down in some rusty memory box. And there are others worth discovering that we do not even know about. This site is about unconventional traveling ideas, a place where people can find unworldly landscapes and a new way of seeing things. And this definitely one of them.

Roraima is the highest tepuy (Spanish for table mountain) on the triple border of Venezuela, Brazil andGuyana. It is around 2,800 metres tall. Its name is derived from 'Roroi-ma,' which in Pemon means 'big blue-green.' The only way visitors can climb to the top is from the Gran Sabana side, in Venezuela

History

The first recorded person to climb this tepuy was Sir Everard im Thurn in 1884.
This mountain also inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his classic novel The Lost World in 1912. He envisioned cavemen and prehistoric animals running amok atop the summit. Although far-fetched, the idea is a valid one: the tepuys are regarded as 'islands in time' by scientists since species have developed in complete isolation on top of them over millennia..

How to Get in

There are very few flights to Santa Elena de Uairén. Rutaca is the only airline that services the town with any regularity from Ciudad Bolívar and Puerto Ordaz. You should contact the airline at the Ciudad Bolívar Airport (58-285) 632-4465 / 632-8426 to find out more information about the flights. They should direct you with information on how to book.

Night buses go to Santa Elena from Ciudad Bolivar, Puerto Ordaz, Maturin and Puerto la Cruz in Venezuela and from Boa Vista Boa Vista in Brazil. There are also buses that go direct from Caracas Terminal de Oriente (22 hour trip). Bus companies that do the route are Expresos Los Llanos, Expreso Occidente, and a state owned company with red busses.

If you take a bus please understand that the buses are cold and drivers refuse to raise the temperature. Bus temperatures average around 7ºC (45ºF).

The Boa Vista route is the best connection for those coming from anywhere in Brazil.

How to Get around

There are numerous operators. They started to try to offer all the same price of about 220$ per person (100$ guide & transport, 50$ food, 50$ carrier, 20$ equipment):

1. Francisco - very good and cheap too.
2. New Frontiers Adventures - operates mostly travel agencies and tour operators, but also through internet, not cheap
3. Mystic tours - Apparently the oldest one. Good and cheap
4. Marcos - great cook, slightly more expensive
5. Backpacker tours - very expensive, same tour as others, run by a German-Venezuelan family

There are 5 ways to do it:

1. Fully ported, porters carry everything - check to see if everything includes sleeping bag, matress personal effects, etc.
2. pay to-be-a-porter, as above, but you carry 12 kgs.
3. Self-equipped and -catered
4. Get to paratepui by yourself and hire a guide there
5. Going on your own, with or without permission from inparques.

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