RORAIMA is the greatest, highest and most important tepuy (mountain in pemon language) of the Guyana Shield. This formation is constituted by rocks of sedimentary type, quartz and sandstone, and is 2,723 mts (9.000 ft) of height, It's located on the National Park Canaima, and is one of the greatest protected areas of the world with a total of 1.2 million of acres. Roraima is on the south-east side of Venezuela's border with Brazil and Guyana in a place we call the Great Savanna, 85 % belongs to Venezuela, 10 % to Guyana and 5 % to Brazil. In the top exists a "geographic landmark" made of concrete, called the Triple Point, that indicates the convergence of these three borders. We didn't had time to reach that one because that alone would require a full day expedition. The highest point is a rock formation called the Maverick car, and my tent was just in front of it, under the main "hotel".

It was the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel "The Lost World", which has made it the most famous of all the tepuis. Roraima has become a popular trek, completely non-technical, but moderately strenuous even with porters to carry most of your gear, and more than moderately strenuous if you are going without porters. The Venezuelan park service, INPARQUES, requires that you take a guide; I recommend that you hire porters, too, for not only will the use of porters make your trip easier, you will be helping the Pemon Indians earn cash income that is otherwise hard to come by.

The ascent normally requires two and one-half days of hiking from the Pemon village of Paraitepui; the downhill return hike can be done in two days. Hikers should spend a *minimum* of two nights on top of Roraima, in order to have at least one full day to explore its fascinating and other-worldly topside; two or more days on top would be even better.

Roraima's ecology, like the one of each Tepuy is endemic, unique in the world, due to the isolation of its tops of the rest of geography out of 200 billion years of evolution.

The pemon people, are the ones that inhabitates that zone, the world pemon, mean people in their language, those are very kind people, and I came to think there were some type of mutation of and advanced goat. Gosh this people do climb fast and without pain!.

Roraima's expedition, is one of the most interesting ones one can do, it's energizing and incredible, it requires long walks and you need to be fit to do it, it would require at least 5 days. It's surface is very different than the one describe from Conan Doyle. Meanwhile the novel talks about jungle and muddy waters, in truth it consiste on an rocky terrain were you can see interesting rock formations, and the ground lacks the cappabilities to be good for plants to grow. Scientists have spent time exploring it, and they have found a few species there, and those are considered very valuable. One of the charasteristics of that Plateau, it that evolution took a different path there. The vertical walls imposed an isolation that converted the tepuis onto labs were you can see the development of species and the geologial history of the planet. It is knows, that they have a nature, that in great deal, there is not in another part of the planet.