Gran Sabana

Back in Ciudad Bolivar we take the night bus down to Santa Elena de Uarien. About a 10 hour trip and for us the first time we use the night bus in this country. Quite an adventure on its own. Starting with getting tickets, catching the right bus, trying not to freeze to death in the bus and all the military controls along the way. In the end we managed thanks to Peter from Posada La Casita who organized the last available tickets and Lise from Paris who took the same bus and saw us waiting at the bus station. The bus arrived but it said “Caracas” which is the opposite direction instead Santa Elena. Only because Lise asked us and pointed it out we made it. Not sure what would have happened if she would have not done that. Again, many thanks Lise! :-)

The main reason for us to go down to Santa Elena was to get on a trip to Mount Roraima. Something we pre-booked prior to our trip to Venezuela. Not something we usually do and as it turned out not really needed anyway. Before this trip we have a couple of nights and we want to spend one day to explore the Gran Sabana. You can spend quite a lot of time in the Gran Sabana as part of various tours. We decided that we want to spend just one day to explore some of the area that is close to Santa Elena.

There are a few tours but most of them are more than just one day. So we ask at Backpacker-Tours what they would recommend. That’s the company we booked our Roraima tour with as well. One option was to just get a taxi to visit some of the places within reach. The other one was to hire a driver from them who could explain us some of the things. This was not one of the standard tours. Instead we could just do what we wanted. Perfect! Deal done.

It turned out that our guide, his name was Wolfgang, speaks extremely good German. His parents were of German decent but he was born and grew up in Venezuela. So understanding what he was saying was pretty easy. ;-) And he had a lot to tell. Not only about the Gran Sabana, the vegetation and the animals. He also gives us a pretty unique insight to the ordinary life here as well, including his view on Chavez. This is why traveling on our own and not with organized tours is so much more fun. Meeting people like Wolfgang and hearing his stories is partly why you want to visit foreign countries, isn’t it? :-)