The main reason for going to PLC (as Puerto La Cruz is widely referred to) was to take a tour inland and so it was that, with our good friends from the Dutch boat Orion, we hired an old Toyota Land Cruiser and a driver called J-P for the princely sum of USD35 per day (about £18) and we took a 10 day tour inland visiting the Gran Sabana region, an area of barren, open land with massive ‘Tepuy’s (a Tepuy is a small table-land) across the landscape. We camped in tents pitched under thatched ‘Churuata’ belonging to the local Indians amidst breathtaking scenery, all so incredibly different to life on Clarabella. We walked, talked, drove, climbed, swam and were eaten alive by industrial-strength mosquitoes in the most beautiful settings. We made our way back to PLC via the mighty Orinoco River, a river I’ve always wanted to see since the Wombles hit kids’ TV show in the 70s!
Date(s): August 2006. Album by Gerard Coulson. Photos by Gerard Coulson. 1 - 74 of 74 Total. 5428 Visits.
Our first encounter with the Orinoco
In Cuidad Bolivar
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This chap is EVERYWHERE in South America
Capucin monkeys in a local park
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The kids let off steam
Arjanne in control!
A gold mine shanty town
The mine
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and the miners. Many of these are on the run from the law for major crimes
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These chaps had never seen themselves on camera before and could not belive the playback LCD on the camera!
Screenwash local style
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Stocking up with supplies before 'going bush'
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The kids looking at a roadside shrine
The kids enjoyed lollies wherever we went from the local old ladies!
J-P and Momo
Our truck
The view from our tent
The tents under a churuata
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Getting ready to go upriver
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The view from the top of...
this waterfall - the Aponoa
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J-P very fed up as some of our group got lost!
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A much smaller affair, but still very hard to swim under
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Dugout canoes
Local indian kids fish in the evening
and so do the visiting kidds
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Local evening rush hour
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Thunderclouds gather
Sunset and clouds over a distant tepuy
Messing about with mulitiple exposures!
Arjanne enjoying the fresh morning
Pieter and J-P
Breakfast
Gran Sabana - big country and big skies
On the Brazilizn border tourists fill up here...
Whilst others queue here for petrol that is very expensive in Brazil but dirt cheap in Venezuela
