Complete Guide to Mount Roraima – Infographic

Posted by Wagner Nogueira

28/08/2018

Continue reading for more information about everything you need to know to conquer Mount Roraima!

Mount Roraima – From Oiapoque to Chuí?

First of all, making the trail to Mount Roraima has become a bit of an obsession for me, since I was 7 years old, or since I’ve known myself as a person, Mount Roraima has always been in my mind.

We have been to enough treks to mountains, such as The Owl Trek in Bhutan, Table Mountain Trek in South Africa, among others, but Mount Roraima has always been an obsession. When I was little, I had an old Atlas at home and I started to research where the flipping “Oiapoque and Chuí” were, that saying that we have all spoken at some point in our lives.

I saw, after some observations, that Oiapoque was not the most northern point of Brazil, but rather close to the triple border of Brazil with Venezuela and Guyana. For a physical geographer, that point is quite interesting. But where is this border located? It is located right on top of the wonderful Mount Roraima. For a 7-year-old boy who didn’t know anything, that was pretty cool! But also, for a boy of 7 years of age, Mount Roraima and the Moon might as well have been the same distance away, but not for a 30-year-old young man! As a result, here I go!

In this post, I will try to give a brief account of how it was the trip I waited so long for! With thanks to my friends Thomás, Yuri and Nivaldo, great travel companions!

Mount Roraima – How to get there?

To get to Mount Roraima, you must first get to Boa Vista, capital of the state of Roraima, in Brazil. This is the easiest, fastest and safest way to reach Santa Elena de Uairén. There are daily flights from Sao Paulo to Boa Vista, with stopovers in Brasilia or Manaus. If you are leaving from the US and some places in Europe, there are direct flights to Manaus, which is great!

If you have travelled through the Brazilian countryside (or seaside for that matter), you will know that taxis are expensive, and prices vary just for the fact that you are a foreigner. Terrible, I know. Arriving from the airport, you will have to take a taxi to the bus station, called “Terminal do Caimbé” (Caimbé Terminal), from where the taxi cooperatives operate. This will cost you around R$40-50, which is a little absurd, due to the fact that the trip lasts 10 minutes! Bus services to Pacaraima, a border town on the Brazilian side, are infrequent and sometimes cancelled at the last minute, so better try to get some information from Rivaltur tourism (the bus company that operates that route) before choosing this option.

Other Options for Transport

The other two options are private taxis from the airport, which would cost around R$450 (negotiable) or, coming out of Caimbé, a taxi manned by $50/person. The wait can be a bit long because the driver will only leave when the car is full. The latter is the one I chose and the option I would strongly recommend.

After 3 hours of travel, you will arrive at the border with Venezuela. Once you get there, you have to go through the immigration procedures that everyone knows about. After you pass through the Brazilian and Venezuelan immigration, have shown your Passport/identity and yellow fever vaccine international certificate, just wait for a few minutes at the border and a Venezuelan taxi will honk to take you to Santa Elena de Uairén, the starting point for Mount Roraima. Now the real adventure begins!

Who to hire as a guide to Mount Roraima?

While I was researching who to hire as a guide, some names appeared on Google, some with good reviews, others with bad ones. Some very cheap, others extremely expensive. Due to many factors, I decided to go with the name that was mentioned more often, Leopoldo Pillar. He organises the trips and hires local guides he trusts to guide to Mount Roraima. He was super receptive, always kept in touch and kept us informed of any change in the itinerary. As I only hired a company and only went to Mount Roraima once, I cannot recommend others. Our guide was Gerardo Gallegos, a very good person and a great professional.

If I were to go again, I certainly wouldn’t look for another guide. Gerardo will always be my guide to Roraima! There are ways to talk directly to the guide, without going through the “superior (Leopoldo in this case)” of it. Maybe don’t pay less, but the guides usually pay the other people involved in the expedition a better salary, so it’s worth thinking about, Gerardo Gallegos being one of them!

Mount Roraima – How much to pay for the full trek?

Another very important matter! On the way back from Mount Roraima, I met several groups and asked how much they had paid for their trek. I heard prices between R$600 to R$3,000 per person. Having seen the daily life of the staff and knowing how much a porter receives, the lower price is exploitation of the workforce and, on the other extreme, someone is earning a lot of money and that money is not for the guides or the porters, who are hired from local indigenous communities.

My costs were (8 days and 7 nights trek, January 2017):

Airfare from Sao Paulo: R$1200;
Price for the trek: R$1500/person;
Taxi from the Airport (BVA) to taxi stand to Pacaraima: R$40 (That really hurt!);
Boa Vista Taxi to Pacaraima (BR/VZ border): R$50 (the other alternatives were unviable for me);
Taxi Pacaraima – Santa Elena de Uairén: R$4;
Hotel in Santa Elena for two nights (I arrived two days before): R$50;
Hotel in Boa Vista for one night on the way back: R$40.

The reality of Mount Roraima

I still think the guides and porters are very poorly paid, so I recommend contacting the guide directly. Ask to hire the porters called Cururú and Diógenes. Two fantastic people! The porters will take your life on their backs, sometimes almost literally. This is because there have been cases of the porters coming down with people on their backs, as some people get hurt or cannot continue.

Mount Roraima – What to take?

Well, I’ll confess… I took too much stuff! But I managed to leave half of it in Santa Elena, at Leopoldo’s house! Good, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to complete the trail. Mount Roraima is one of the wettest places on Earth. It is very close to the Equator, it doesn’t make much difference between seasons. On a trip to Mount Roraima, wait for cold and humidity at the top. Things that are important and you cannot leave behind:

Sturdy backpack with raincover;
Black garbage bags to put everything inside, from your wallet to laundry, because carrying your backpack with wet clothes can double the weight of your backpack;
A pocketknife;
Waterproof clothes. Not that it protects if it rains a lot, but it certainly helps;
If possible, take a pair of extra waterproof clothes in your backpack;
Boot already well broken into (the climb will be mean to you!);
An insulating mat (preferably inflatable. Sleep on stone needs quality insulation!) and sleeping bag, comfortable to 0 degrees C;
Thermal clothing, two pairs;
Fast drying t-shirts. I took five t-shirts that I got from 10k races I did because they take up little space;
Socks, socks, socks! Always have a pair of dry socks handy;
Fine rope to make a clothe line. Trust me, you’ll need it;
General remedies (for pain, flu, muscle relaxant, antihistamine and corticosteroids), gauze, band-Aid, bactine (or alternative);
1l water bottle;
Clorin;
Baby wipes (a life saver);
Food high in sugar, such as chocolate or candy.

Depending on your size, try to keep the weight of your backpack at a maximum of 20% of your bodyweight. The hiking is very long and remember: let your legs carry the weight! The shoulders cannot bear to carry the luggage comfortably for long, even if it is light. Test if your trousers do not bother when you tighten the backpack belt, do some walks with the backpack loaded, and see if your boots are comfortable. These are measures I wish I had made before I went. My feet hurt a lot, but that’s a matter for comments!

Mount Roraima – Time to start the trek!

The same way I talk to my students that I take camping, your state-of-mind is the most important factor for a successful expedition. To be able to complete any trail, 70% is mental, 30% is physical. So, go and do the trek saying it will be difficult, but you won’t give up!

Day 1-from Paraitepuy to the camp of the river Tök

Now with the hired guide, lighter backpack and straw hat on my head, the time has come to leave. Gerardo hired a 4×4 pickup truck to take us to Paraitepuy (Mount Roraima and Mount Kukenan are called Tepuy, then the name of the village!).

On the way, we stopped to pick up Cururú and Diógenes, the expedition’s porters. The first day of the expedition is the flattest. Early on, a small hill caught us by surprise, being a little difficult to climb, but arriving at the top, we see the majesty of Mount Roraima and Mount Kukenan. They seem to be very far away, due to their sizes, but morale cannot drop! It’s just the beginning of the trip!

Distance to the Campsite

The first leg of the trip has a distance of 14km. The sights are wonderful, so you just don’t realize how much you’ve walked. But everytime I remember what I was doing, the fear of what was yet to come took me over. The fear that I would have to climb that mountain was becoming a reality with every step I took, but also the realisation of that 7 year old boy’s dream!

We saw plenty of birds on the way, some rivers, plenty of trees, but always secondary to that monster on the horizon. When Mount Roraima was getting very close, we arrived at the River Tök Campsite. That classic image of Mount Roraima to the right of the Kukenan welcomed us with a very clean dusk, with few clouds, about 2 hours before sunset.

First Day Experiences

We were looking at Mount Roraima while we waited for the sun to set behind us. But the sunset light lit up the rock wall and we ended up missing the sunset because of that. Since I had no way to charge my camera for the next nine days, I kept it and I was enjoying that wonderful view.

While it was still light, I went down to the river to take a bath (yes, baths will happen in rivers and cold natural pools). The guides always cooked highly fatty foods, lots of carbs, so we can take the next day’s stride. Finally, the day has come to an end!

Day 2 – Up to Base camp

That part of the hike is starting to get more interesting. Finally, the time has come to see if the races, fitness etc will pay off! The walk to the base camp is already harder than the first day, with the crossing of the River Tök and climbs. As we approach the Mount Roraima, the steeper the trail gets. The total distance to the base camp is 9km. Up to this point, you will see a change in the vegetation and temperature. The walk takes about 3 hours to the base camp, but already far more difficult than the first leg of the journey.

Given the dates of departures of expeditions and the return, on that second day we ended up meeting with a lot of people. It is at this point that you see what’s up with other expeditions; porters hired to carry backpacks, groups with one porter per person, whole families of all ages… It’s pretty interesting to see all this, but I digress.

That path has plenty of loose stones, so stopping to let other expeditions pass you by become quite frequency and there is no real progress. All of this helps to let the morale drop and all those thoughts of possible pains invade your brain. The big fight just started. At this point, you already see the monstrosity of the mountain, giving you a little whiplash to be able to see the top. With a constant drizzle and things starting to get wet, you have to maintain optimism, because it is at this point that many people give up.

Day 3-attack to the top

Getting up early to do the attack to the top generates a little bit of fear. From that moment on, you have to keep your mind on the money: get to the top of the Mount. That’s not an easy thing to do. The horizontal distance between the basecamp and the point where we reach the top is about 900m, but the vertical ascent is 1km. The steps of the walk, for those who are short like me, sometimes need brute force, using your arms to literally climb some parts. Up, up, up, down a little… Up, up, up, down a little bit. That’s the nature of the beast.

Now, things are starting to change. Palm trees turn into bromeliads, green frogs turn black, sand turns to stone, blue sky turning to clouds, drought turning to rain. At this point in the hike, you will be completely wet, your thighs and glutes on fire, the energy your had at the beginning already running out. But the scenery becomes amazing!

Have you watched the movie Up? So, at this point in the story, it’s all cloudy and foggy. Then the wind blows through all those rocks, and shapes start appearing on the horizon. The pains of the ascent go away, you forget that you are very close to hypothermia and just enjoy the scenery. It’s a wonderful feeling to be up there, setting up camp and sitting next to the fire. Take the time to hang the wet clothes and pray that they dry up, because, at the top of the mountain, blue sky is a privilege.

Day 4 – La Ventana

During the formation of Mount Roraima and Mount Kukenan, there was a geological explosion that made the mountains rise almost all at once. This great pressure and high temperatures of the explosion caused Mount Roraima to become a diamond paradise. But I’m getting off topic a little bit. During the formation, a huge gap was created between the two mountains. Still a little high, any humid wind that goes by and does not have the strength to climb to the top of the mounts, condense at “La Ventana”. Just being there to get the experience of this place.

This was the first night in a hotel (campsite) at the top of Mount Roraima. Dawn is the best time to visit Ventana. The warmth of the sun has not yet begun to stimulate the strong winds and the clouds are still below the top of the mountain.

Day 5/6/7-Hotel Coati, Triple Frontier, Lake Gladys and the prow

From our camp near La Ventana, we continued the trip to our next hotel: the Hotel Coati. This hotel is on the Brazilian side of the Mount, within the National Park of Mount Roraima, being part of the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous reserve. In this walk, we went through the great landmark that brought me here: The triple border between Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. It is a concrete landmark that apparently the Brazilian army has not visited since 1930.

We continued walking towards the prow, the other end of Mount Roraima. It was a 10km hike to reach there… and we don’t see anything. It was all overcast! But we didn’t waste any time, we went to Lake Gladys. Lake Gladys is a huge lake that sits on top of Mount Roraima, which doesn’t seem to be true. As soon as we arrived, we took some pictures and the mist found us. Again, we couldn’t see anything else.

We went back to the Coati Hotel and started getting ready for dinner. The sky opened after sunset and the stars were wonderful! The photo and creativity session began. The next day we woke up early to see the sunrise on the Raposa Serra do Sol Reserve. There was a cascade of katabatic clouds descending over the Roraiminha (another small hill on the Brazilian side). A hypnotic landscape, a place to understand why we do these slight follish things.

Day 8/9 – Time to go away!

The time has come to leave! But you have to have a drama, right? I’ve been through a lot in the last few days and I almost lost my strength to come down. But that’s when a high sugar energy gel was like Popeye’s spinach. In half an hour, I went from almost dead to getting from the top of Mount Roraima to the Tök River camp at once! Sometimes I still don’t know how I did it, but I did it!

Any questions, just leave a comment I will reply! Follow us on Instagram at @mochilaoadois! Back to the homepage!