Guyana Highlands Trekking Adventure

Paruima is an Arecuna community with a population of about 500 persons of which about 45% still speak their native language. The community is made up of a combination of modern and traditional thatched roofed homes and has a strong Christian faith which is a result of English protestant missionaries converting the Arecuna at the end of the nineteenth century.

It is largely a farming and hunter-gatherer community with skilled and bush knowledgeable villagers. The Arecuna are known for their unique basket weaving skills, wood skin canoes, hunting technique including the use of blowpipes and their unusual diet of Tuma, Kachiri – a fermented drink and savannah termites. You will spend the rest of the afternoon learning about the way of life in the community and listening to stories from the local hunters.

After dinner, you will meet with your lead guide to discuss the next days plans and activities.

Overnight at Paruima Guest House.

After an early breakfast, you will set out on the first leg of your journey, a 7.5-miles (12,070 meters) hike ascending to about 2000 feet to the top of a plateau continuing to your first campsite. This hike begins with a steep climb to the top of the plateau followed by moderately flat terrain through primary rainforest for the rest of the day’s journey.

The region is unique for its tepuis, flat-top mountains which are the remains of mighty sandstone plateaus that once stretched across the entire area when it was joined to Africa in the super continent Pangea. With time the plateaus were eroded leaving only the tepuis as giant monuments to their existence. There are hundreds of tepuis of which only a few have been thoroughly explored, many of them are hidden by dense cloud cover for days at a time. Much of the plant and animal life atop the tepuis have evolved in isolation and is unique and endemic.

As night falls and the jungle comes alive you will have the opportunity to explore the array of unique bugs, spiders and other nocturnal critters with your guide.

Overnight at the Plateau Camp in a basic tarp-covered hammock camp.

After breakfast, you will deconstruct your hammock camp and begin the second leg of your journey. Today you will embark on a 4.7-mile (7,564 meters) hike through the rainforest before emerging into vast open highland savannahs surrounded by Tepuis in the distance.

During your hike, you may come across wild animal tracks including Jaguars, Peccaries, Foxes, and other large mammals which call these cloud forests and highland savannahs home. Upon arriving at your destination, you will have the oppertunity to enjoy a relaxing swim in the calm waters above the Kamarang Falls giving the elusion of having a private infinity pool sourrounded by tepuis in the background.

You will spend the remainder of the day setting up your hammock camp and scouting out the Kamarang falls area for potential sites to set up the Highline.

Overnight in a hammock camp at Kamarang Falls. Meals provided by the guides.

After breakfast, you will pack up camp and begin your 4.4-mile / 7,081 meters journey across the highland savannah to Uchi Falls. There are some hilly forested areas and streams to wade through but this leg of the journey is flatter than the days before. The many plateaus and tepuis in this region of Guyana allow for many spectacular waterfalls in close vicinity of each other. These form the main attraction to a backdrop of open highland savannahs dotted with patches of bush islands and tepuis rising in the distance.

The hike takes you through a few termite mounds where your guide will demonstrate how to catch and preserve this protein-packed delicacy of the Arecuna people. This is a custom that has been practised for generations. From many areas along the path, you will be able to see both the Kamarang and Uchi Falls in the distance with the constant roaring sound that they produce in the background. The scene is quite surreal being the only non indigenous person in this vast remote landscape with an incredible backdrop of Tepuis all around. Venezuela is a short walk in the distance.

Tonight, you will be accommodated in a simple shack with basic amenities including a bed, nets and blankets situated on the Uchi Plateau overlooking the Uchi Falls and surrounding savannahs. You will spend the rest of the afternoon hiking to the top of the Uchi Falls with exceptional views of its gorge and surrounding rainforests.

Overnight at Uchi Falls Campsite.

After a good night’s rest, you will begin your 4-mile journey to the bottom of the gorge of Uchi Falls to an area that has only been visited by a handful of individuals. Your journey begins with a hike on the highland savannah where it ends at a cliff overlooking the vast dense rainforest. From here you will descend a steep path for about one hour to the junction where the Kamarang and Uchi rivers converge. From here you will follow a bush trail with your guide upstream to Uchi Falls. This area is damp and wet from the constant mist produced by the waterfalls.

Return to the Kamarang Uchi junction where you will board inflatable rafts with your guides who will navigate a route about 8 miles downstream. This route can be calm or very rough depending on the level of the water at that time. If the water is too high this route becomes impassable. The route includes some areas that are too dangerous to pass and will require portaging. One such area is at the Paracema Falls which is located about 4 miles from the village of Paruima. This is a smaller but more powerful waterfall since it is fueled by both Uchi and Kamarang.

After a short hike, you will arrive back in the village of Paruima.

Overnight at Paruima Guest House.

This morning, join a scheduled flight from Paruima over the tropical rainforest to Eugene F. Correia International Airport.