DAY 1
In a 4x4 vehicle, we will travel all day from Puerto Ordaz to Kavanayen , an Indian community in the Canaima National Park, 90 kilometers west of the main road connecting El Dorado to Sta-Elena de Uairén. We will spend our last night in a bed in the mission. Good night, tomorrow begins a week of survival.

DAY 2
After breakfast where we will fill up with energy, we meet our guides and Indian porters to start our walk, first crossing the Kavanayen airstrip, direction West-North-West. All day, we follow an old jeep trail destroyed by nature. We are gratified by mirific sights of the virgin forest downwards, the majestic P-tari tepuy, and the triangular form of Wey Tepui in the background.

After 5h30 of walk, we reach a conuco (small indigenous farm), 5 minutes from the waterfall Salto Karuay, where we make a well deserved rest. Currently, very rare are the tourists who get up to here - knowing that ten years ago one could come here by jeep! We now board into a motorized dugout canoe and, in about an hour, we join the rapids Salto el Hueso where we are welcomed by a pemon family . Repairing swim at the foot of the falls, and first night in hammock (under roof).

DAY 3
Things are getting serious! A climb of about half an hour in the savanna, and we then plunge in the virgin forest, which we will not leave until our arrival at Kuana. Very quickly, we encounter the first difficulties: rivers to be crossed on unstable tree trunks, roots made treacherous by moisture - all elements that we will very quickly assimilate as part of our new reality.

After 7 hours of walk, we improvise a campsite in the jungle, near the river Churue. The occasion to see our guides at work, preparing a makeshift campsite with the cutlass, using all the resources of the forest: trees are used for the walls and roof, the branches make a small impromptu kitchen and the lianas hold the whole! You can also prepare a fire, then have nothing any more to do but enjoy a meal which will undoubtedly have a very particular flavour.

From now on, rain or not, your clothes will be wet and will not dry any more.

DAY 4
Today will be a new long day. Departure at dawn after a hearthy breakfast rich in proteins for a day of walk in the forest. We will probably make a few scratches and small cutaneous allergies caused by unidentified plants (but were they ever already inventoried?), perhaps we will see tracks of tapir or jaguar and feel the attacks of horseflies and ticks. Nothing serious, you are already a bushman!

We reach at the end of the day, marked by the effort, an extraordinary point of the Gran Sabana: Teunepatei, the point of separation between the basin of the Karuay river and the Akanan river; the water flowing either towards the east in direction of Kavanayen, or to the west towards Kamarata. Atop a hill, we could observe an exceptional sight: a forest of "broccoli", yellowish clouds on a sunset and even a rainbow in the background. We sleep under roof, in hammocks, in "the House of the thousand cockroaches".

DAY 5
A healthy walk to recover from the previous days - only 4 hours of walk in the forest. We will perhaps even have right to an Indian speciality, succulent spicy termites, and will reach in the middle of the afternoon a well maintained conuco (if it is still there, which is very aleatory!), it is even equipped with a table: luxury! With a little chance, we will have fresh pineapples and lemons, and sugarcane to be licked as a dessert. Just besides the camp flows a river rich in bagrecitos and mincabas. What could be better than a small fishing party tonight?

DAY 6
The morning, in forest, is punctuated by a lunch on a great site: "the Swiss rock". In the middle of a delightfully refreshing river, a stone accomodates us for a repairing buffet. The stone bears this name for the first Swiss explorers (hum!) who survived (hum!!!!) the expedition and ate a tapir killed by their indigenous guide.

The afternoon, we will meet with the dreaded "laid down trees", cut down by a most terrible storm. It is a long climb (90 minutes approximately) where we will have to by-pass or climb half rotted tree trunks laid down in the jungle.

At night, after 7 hours of walk, we will improvise a campsite on an unstable ground, praying that an enormous tree will not fall on us during the night... ("that almost happened to us, it did not fall far... it appears that it made a terrible noise when it was uprooted ... but I was sleeping so deep that I didn't hear anything!!" - Patrick M.) .

DAY 7
After walking all morning, another delicious spot to lunch, on the bank of a small river. The occasion to make a bit of washing, possibly! In the afternoon, we have right to a beautiful descent towards Kuana.

6 hours of walk. Last night under a plastic cover, in the jungle - definitively time to take in hands the construction of the campsite, and to listen, sitting around the fire, your guides tell us pemons jokes and legends.

DAY 8
Only 2 hours of walk separate us from the Indian village of Kuana, where live only a few families, all confused to see us arriving from nowhere. They lend us the "communal hut", we drink the traditionnal welcoming cachire, and then follow by a never-ending bath in the river Kuana, under the eyes of the children who will observe you wash with delight all your clothing, by then at the limit of rot and mould. It is what the psychiatrists call the feeling of "the super baronnée" - James !

Free afternoon, in the village. Later arrive our new Indian river guides with our dugout canoe and fresh food (at last a change of menu !!) and we celebrate the crossing of the jungle by an anthological barbecue.

DAY 9
We will now continue our trip by river. We take initially the Kuna river down to the Akanán River, which we will descend down to the Carrao river. We will still camp in our hammocks on the edge of the river at a place called Arenal.

DAY 10
(only if there is enough water in the Churun River)
Sailing the Carrao River we will go upriver the Churún into the Devil's canyon, in order to reach the island Ratoncito, where we leave the dugouts and continue walking up to the base of Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall. Then back on the Churún, and to the campsite Arenal where we will spend the night..

DAY 11
Down the Carrao again to the waterfall El Sapo, where we can walk behind the curtain of water and then Canaima, our final destination. We spend the last night in Canaima in a comfortable rustic lodge, a bed!!.

DAY 12
Leaving Canaima by plane to Ciudad Bolivar. Magnificent aerial views of the tepuis
End of excursion. Transfer to your hotel.

Departure from Puerto Ordaz (Ciudad Guayana):

was $1490

NOW us$ 1,190. p.p.

for the whole 12 days expedition for a group of 6 or more persons. In theory we leave for 12 days, but you understand we may experience delays for difficulties related to weather conditions, river crossings, etc...

for a group of
5 persons: add $100.p.p.
4 persons: add $295.p.p.

These prices include:

everything: the guides, porters for the food and camping equipment, all meals, ground, water and air transportation, hammock and mosquito net.

Do not include:

insurance of any kind, lunch and dinner the first day, dinner and breakfast in Canaima, hotels in Ciudad Bolivar and Puerto Ordaz, gratuities, airport taxes, souvenirs and items of a personal nature.

Departure from Caracas

the airfare to Puerto Ordaz is $45-85, a hotel room in Puerto Ordaz is about $40 dbl. contact us

We can make the arrangements for you