December 19

Santa Elena

As Eric have told me, I woke up at 7:30, to have time to pack my backpack, take a shower, and wait for the guy who was going to pick me up at 8:30 am. I turned on the tv again and waited.... 9 am.... 9:30 am..... 10 am....(yes I was having those thoughts again.... finally at 10:15 am someone asked for me and he told me he came from Eric's home. SInce I have not had any breakfast, I asked the guy where could I had a quick one he told me right of the Hotel, where I had lunch the day before. It turned out, at that time they were already out of food, and on my way to the car, a women asked me if I was looking for a place to lunch, I told her yes and she asked my name and told me she was Sabinne, a German lady, that was going in the trip also!!! Wohoooo! I met my first partner there :).

She has not got any breakfast also, and we asked the guy to take us to the bread store again, when I got into the Jeep, there was a guy there, he was Conrad, Sabinne's cousin he was also going on the trip with us :). The the guy rode to the "panaderia" and Hummm what did I take? heheh yes you had it right, a pound cake slice and a Gatorade! AGAIN!

Then we went to Eric's home to pick the rest of the team and get my sleeping bag and tent, and the rest of the supplies.

At Eric's home, I met Leonor (from Venezuela), Isaac (from Venezuela), and our guide Alexis (from Guyana). Eric was finishing some stuff, and I had the great idea of unpacking my backpack, for him to told me if I was carrying something that was not that useful. He took out a pair of hiking boots (I had those in case the ones I was wearing got wet), some comfy socks (how much I regretted this), a travel pillow ;), shorts, and toilet paper. Leo and Isaac were laughing at my backpack and at the stuff Eric was taking out, but of course, they were REALLY prepared for this! I'll explain later.

About at 10:45 am we departed to Alexis home to pick up his daughter Alicia, she was going to the expedition with us as a porter, and then to buy some gas. Alexis was kind of worried about the time, because the expeditions were allowed to start until 2 pm from Paraitepuy. After the gas, the guy droved to made it on time.

From Sta. Elena we went to a town called San Francisco de Yuruani, and there we had to take a dirt road to get to Paraitepuy. The trip was very good, and we saw lots of savanna and occasional fires. At about half the trip. the gas filter got dirty, and we had to stop and the guy went down to clean it up, he fixed it and we made it. The trip took 2 hours.

Savanna
Savanna	Savanna	Savanna
Leo, Isaac, Conrad and Sabinne	Me	Leo and Isaac

Paraitepuy

After 2 hours on the 4WD vehicle, we finally arrived at Paraitepuy, and I had there my first view of the roads that lead to Roraima. We had a quick lunch of sandwiches, signed up the guest book fast, hired more porters, I hired my personal porter Leonel, and we departed to the first camp. It was 2:00 pm.

Paraitepuy
Cars parked	Unloading the 4WD	Paraitepuy
Isaac and Leo	Me Roraima on the back	Roraima from Paraitepuy

Trekking

We started the walk to the first camp at about 2:05 pm. That went along for about for 4 hours. The landscape was incredible. Ups and downs all over. the savannah is spectacular. The climate was hot and I was glad I had my camelbak to drink water. Everyone was in better shape than me. I was still recovering from my accident I had on mi bike, and I had the bad time because of the breathing. I'm a smoker, have to quit. Leo and Isaac were training for this, and they walked fast! Even them being older than me, but I was not in any challenge or something, I enjoyed the landscape and took pictures. We stopped to rest for about 10 minutes, and Leo shared some of the dried fruits she had brought along. Apparently those are good for maintaining the walk and energy. I had chocolates and peanuts and I shared my peanuts. The chocolates were on the big backpack that Leonel, my personal porter had, and he has passed us long ago. I had my pants on, because there are some insects there that are very bad called puri puris, oh boy they can bite and you wont even notice until is too late. I had repellent on my skin but apparently they are immune to those!. Also Isaac have spent about a month before taking B vitamins because someone told him that would made him immune, well I got news, puri puris are not immune to vitamin B also ehehheh. So my best advice on this and I found out AFTER going to Pui Pui, would be long sleeves shirts, long pants, and after the bites a cream with menthol on it.

I can explain with words, the sights I saw there. Maybe some of my pictures will help you figure out the wonder of it :)

When we arrived at first camp, I already had my tent ready. Leonel is good! I got into my swimsuit and took a bath on the Tek River. It was COLD!!! but we were very tired and the bath felt so good I forgot about everything else.

Then one of my fears happened. I wanted to go to the bathroom. I just thought on a personal joke I told Mariana about it, how she did it? I knew there were no bathrooms there, she helped me telling me that everyone was in your same spot so don't worry about it. After a day or two, the "shame" would pass. Anyway I told her I was thinking more in a TV add we had years ago here on bathroom pieces, which was a guy who got into the bathroom and as soon as he got into the bathtub or toiled he imagine he was in an open landscape with birds and rivers flowing. heheh I imagined I was at MY bathroom! LOL. I asked Alexis our guide, were the bathroom was supposed to be, and he laughed at me, he told me there is no bathroom and of course I knew that, but I asked for the "place" a good one to go? He told me to go over a wood tent, which they had made some kind of hole in the ground for that a few meters away. It was dark, and of course I didn't saw what he was telling me, so I followed a path that I believed would lead me to it. Well it didn't, and well after a while I just went, then came back, and asked Alexis for a shovel for me to bury it, he laughed again, Mariana had told me they were supposed to have them, somehow someone got me a HUGE one, I went again to the same spot and did bury it ;). Then, dinner was ready!!! We have pasta with meat Sauce and it was great. Alexis is indeed a good cook!.

Then I listened to music, watched the starts (this is the starriest sky I have ever saw on my whole life) and thought a lot. After a while I went to sleep. A hard day was ahead of us.

Trekking
Trekking 2:14 pm	Looooong walks 2:21 pm	A pass in a river 2:42 pm
Alexis! The best guide!!! 2:43 pm	Sabine, Conrad, Leonor and Isaac 2:44 pm	A view of 2 Tepuys 3:16 pm
Me 3:17 pm	Taking a rest (Leo and Isaac) 3:17 pm	Taking a rest (Sabine, Alicia and Alexis) 3:18 pm
Kukenan 4:35 pm	Me, my lenses, mp3, camera bag, camera belt, camelbak.... lots of gear huh? 5:35 pm	Finally! first camp at sight! 6:02 pm
RORAIMA!!!

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December 20th