Anyone been/Knowledgeable - Venezuela?

[stevo]

I am planning a six week trip with my best mate to venezuela in february. The trip is a bit of a compromise - I get to organise a bushcraft filled two weeks of jungle trips/native village visiting/wilderness trekking/bushcraft learning, and he organises the rest..........4 weeks of beaches/drinking/chatting up girls I expect!!!

I need some help on the bushcraft front. I plan to visit two areas, Amazonia which is largely forest and rivers, and native people Yekuana, Yanomami etc......Then I plan to go to the Gran Sabana to see the tepui and the pemon people and their grassland environment. This was inspired of course by Ray's shows last year................

anyone been/offer advice.....anything on this type of trip.........or venezuela in general, I'm sure my mate would like to hear of good bars for example for his part!!!!!!!!

cheers,

steven

 

[moko]

Hi Stevo, Ive not been to Ven but I have travelled a fair amount in central and south America before. The only advice I can offer is, when planning on getting from one location to another in remote areas remember it can be frustratingly slow at the best of times. Two remote locations in two weeks may not leave you much time to tune in and settle into your bushcraft experience given travel times and so on. Have a great trip, it sounds like its gonna be alot of fun.

Moko.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Check out the BBC site.
IIRC Bruce Parry led an expedition from coast to coast with a group of disabled people a couple of years ago.I can't remember what it was called tho'

 

[davedd]

hey

yea i've spent 4 weeks out there a month back. Great place, great people but as moko said they do everything at a snails pace. if they say 5min they mean 15 and if they say they will be there at 11 am they will be there at 12 30. give extra time for everything.
i went to the west side with the andes so don't know too much about where your going, but have a great time.

 

[Damascus]

The advice of everything takes time out there is pretty sound the hardest thing you will find is adjusting to it. I have travelled South America a fair bit now and this November will be my first to Venezula, I will give you any up to date info on my return in December. have a good trip

 

[Gmac]

Hi Stevo,sorry I can't help you on the bushcraft front but on the beach front I can.If you can you MUST get to Los Roques Archipelago National Park.The atoll is composed of 50 islands, about 292 keys of pure paradise.Camping is free,you can get dropped on one of the uninhabited islands and stay on your own.I have been three times and plan to go twice next year.There is not a day I don't think about the place.It just happens to be one of the best places in the world for Bone fishing.On each occassion my wife has got the biggest fish,typical.Check it out on the Net.

 

[crazydave]

I did a huge post elsewhere on jungle stuff. It applies everywhere as the same rules are used. http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=14428

if you're doing jungle then the current bbc2 ben fogle thing will give a better view of jungle travel for novices

they are working on doing 3k a day and thats with guides and porters so be warned, make sure you have lots of meds and purify the water.

If you are planning on a river crossing then get some 1 inch webbing (50m) and stick a caribiner on the end so you dont get lost downstream - thats the one thing they could have carried to help the weaker swimmers - jungle troops carry a modern version of the toggle rope which they can link together. It packs small and wont go to waste as you can use it for washing lines and such.

You could also look at using the same stuff for hammock tapes etc.. which you can loop together to make a rope rather than carry the extra.

If its just the two of you plus a guide then get used to carrying a huge amount of weight - that way you will get fit to a certain standard so that carrying a lighter jungle pack wont tire you out. If you can arrange a guide and food drops from over then your trip will go a lot easier - dont be afraid to send a parcel of dehydrated food out there before hand or even buy some stuff off US ebay and get it send down to the hotel/guide.

I've also been reading recently about treating your jungle kit with permethrin before you go as it lasts through washing and will help keep the bugs, ticks, chiggers, blowfly, botfly, mossies, leeches etc.. off you. they didn't do that when I was a lad

if you need a hand then I'll help where I can if you want to carry the thread on