The Pemón, a Carib Indian people, are thought to have come to the Gran Sabana roughly 600 years ago. Prehistoric stone tools, though, have been found that suggest humans lived in the Lost World as long as 9,000 years ago. Today, about 75 percent of the nation’s entire population of 20,000 people live within Venezuela’s Canaima National Park.

Though Mount Roraima was included on a map published in Paris in the mid-17th century, the Pemón had no known contact with the outside world until the 18th century when Capuchin missionaries arrived in the Gran Sabana to convert them to Catholicism. A series of five books by the 20th-century missionary Frey Cesaro de Armellado still provides the best source of information about the Pemóns’ traditional shamanistic beliefs.

Other Europeans soon followed. In the mid-19th century, German explorers Richard Shomburgk and Theodor Koch-Grünberg wrote widely about their travels in the Gran Sabana, sparking much interest in the region. Scaling Mount Roraima became the goal. Supported by the Royal Geographical Society of London, British explorers Everard Im Thurn and Harry Perkins in 1884 became the first to accomplish this feat. Lectures by Thurn about their adventures prompted Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, to pen the bestseller fantasy “The Lost World,” published in 1912.

Other explorers followed. One of them, American pilot Jimmie Angel, was on the hunt for a supposed “river of gold” to which he had earlier transported another explorer. Angel never found the gold, but in 1933, he did find a waterfall. Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world, tumbling some 3,212 feet from the top of Auyantepui. Seven years later, the Venezuelan Ministry of Development backed an ambitious exploration program of the so-called Lost World, largely bringing its isolation to an end.

According to Pemón legend, this animal represents the spirit that was instrumental in saving man’s fish supplies:

Water snake

Black frog

Giant otter

Lizard

Wonder about supper in the Lost World? Pemón cuisine relies on what’s immediately available. Like bugs. Termites and ants are ground up with chilis for spicy sauces to add a dash of flavor to meat. (Read more in Wildlife.) Given the Lost World’s abundance of rivers, fish are also popular — a spicy fish stew called “tuma” with manioc wafers is one common repast. Meat such as agouti (kin to the guinea pig) or deer can also make an appearance. Breakfasts feature dumplings — reportedly quite fatty — and coffee. Kachiri, a manioc root liqueur, is the preferred alcohol. Food remains an issue for the Pemón, who are resorting more to growing their own produce rather than harvesting wild food items. In the 1990s, reports circulated that electricity companies involved in the construction of a major power line through the Gran Sabana to Brazil offered free food to counter local opposition to their project.

With a population of 20,000, Santa Elena de Uairén, capital of the Gran Sabana, is the Lost World’s big city. Indian villages Wonken (in the Gran Sabana’s heartland) and Kavanayen (near Aponwao) make for spectacular viewing of the tepuis and boast airports. Parai-Tepuy (not far from Mt. Roraima) and the postcard-worthy tourist camp of Kavac (within range of the waterfall and canyon of the same name) are other popular urban highlights. At the northern tip of La Escalera en route to the historical Venezuelan town of Ciudad Bolivar, the desolate mining town of Kilometro-88 (yes, that’s Kilometer-88) is reportedly handy for supplies for the Lost World, but little else.

Waterfalls abound here — some seasonal, some not. Angel Falls, the world’s highest, has a free fall of 2,640 feet. Aponwao, also known as Chinak-Merú, stands at more than 328 feet. You can swim through a four-foot-wide canyon to the base of the Kavac waterfalls. To the south of the Lost World, Jaspé Falls (La Quebrada de Jaspé), a series of small waterfalls along a wooded stream, run over a bed of red, yellow and orange jasper. Its name in Pemón, Kako Paru, means “fire creek.”

Once on site, your travel options are usually to walk, fly, or hop a dugout river canoe piloted by local Pemón Indians. When navigable, one of the Lost World’s many rivers is often the best bet for reaching your tepui of choice. The hard bit is making that choice.

Angel Falls, Venezuela’s top tourist attraction, is located on the pinnacle of Auyantepui (”Devil Mountain” in Pemón). At 8,530 feet tall and with an area of 270 square miles, it is the largest of the Lost World’s tepuis. At 9,000 feet, Mount Roraima ranks as the Lost World’s highest tepui — only 44 square miles of it have been explored. Next to Roraima looms Kukeyan, the perfect pick for panoramic views of the Sabana. Another 97 tepuis, some explored, some not, remain.

Prefer to trek in a car? Good luck. In the Gran Sabana, you can find:

23 paved roads

10 paved roads

3 paved roads

1 paved road

The Lost World’s Canaima National Park is only about a two-hour flight from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, but trekking among the tepuis is not for those who like their vacations on the soft side. The Park asks visitors not to try and climb the tepuis without at least one guide and one porter. Though accessible to relatively fit visitors, Mount Roraima is described by tour companies as a “vigorous” climb. Auyantepui, home to Angel Falls, is sometimes termed as better left to experienced hikers. Whatever your mission, be prepared for adventurous living. En route to Mount Roraima — a three-day trek on average — you might stay in palm-thatched huts on the savanna (”churuatas”) and sleep in hammocks or tents on the slopes. Bathing facilities usually come in the form of rivers.

SUNDEW (Drosera roraimae)

Just call it the flypaper plant. The drosera, found throughout the world, features long leaves with tentacles sticky with nectar, digestive enzymes, and adhesive. Attracted by the nectar, visiting insects find themselves literally glued to the spot. Additional tentacles then move in to anchor the struggling insect. At times, the entire leaf will surround it. Once sure of its prey, the plant sends the digestive enzymes into action. Bug eaten, the leaves open again, releasing the insect’s shell to the wind. In the Lost World, the sundew lives on the tepuis’ surface, where it can soak up the maximum sunlight its multiple flowers — sometimes up to 50 per plant stem — require.

SUN PITCHER (Heliamphora)

A tepuis native, sun pitchers live for bugs. As rain fills the pitcher, the plant’s sides begin to curve in towards its upper section. The section, known as a bell, features a slippery surface that forces unwitting insects attracted by the pitcher’s red nectar stem to fall into the water below. Those bugs that don’t manage to fly out before hitting the water are absorbed through plant bacteria. When temperatures are moderate (61 to 80° F) with damp, humid atmospheric conditions, the sun pitcher flourishes in five species: Heliamphora heterodoxa (olive green, with a red line on the rim and pink and white flowers); Heliamphora ionasi (features a large red nectar spoon and can stand up to 18 inches tall); Heliamphora minor (at three inches tall, the smallest species); Heliamphora nutans, and Heliamphora tatei.

BROMELIADS

Though a relative of the pineapple, the tepuis’ two bromeliad species are more pitcher plant knock-offs than tropical fruit. The bromeliads use the same techniques as the pitcher plant to attract their bugs, but also will take in decaying organic matter and dust. They can be found on rocks or tree limbs. The tepuis bromeliads’ talent for insect digestion is not shared by other bromeliads elsewhere — it’s an attribute essential for survival in terra tepui.

ORCHIDS

Tepuis country is an orchid lover’s paradise. As one orchid tourist to the Lost World recalls in his Web journal, “We were approaching nirvana.” An estimated 500 species grow throughout Canaima National Park. Here, orchids are almost a casual wildflower and grow effortlessly on leaves, rocks, trees, sand, and soil. Some clusters can be found growing up to 6.5 feet tall. One native favored by the Pemón for decoration is the Cattelaya jenmanii, found at altitudes between 1,312 and 3,280 feet in the Roraima area of Bolivar State and in Guyana. Horticulturalists temporarily lost track of this purple orchid for 63 years until it was reidentified in 1969. BLADDERWORT (Utricularia)

Another insectivorous plant, bladderworts like the Urticularia humboldtii (named after 19th century explorer Alexander Humboldt) favor the tepuis summit where they can get steady sun. Their roots prefer cool, boggy land. Their flowers are usually violet with a sunny orange center. Found on Mount Roraima, this bladderwort digests insects via the “bladders” on its aquatic roots. The Utricularia humboldtii is the largest of the bladderworts and is prized by horticulturalists for its beauty.

Hungry for greens? The Pemón say sucking on the leaves of this fan-shaped plant could keep you alive for weeks:

Stegolepis

Chimantaea cinerea

Heliamphora

Drosera roraimae

If you’re thinking of walking off with a pitcher plant or plucking a rosy orchid as a tropical keepsake, think again. Only the Pemón have an official right to gather vegetation grown on the Gran Sabana.

Living Edens: The Lost World – Venezuela’s Ancient Tepuis explores a remote corner of the world — a land that time forgot.

“The eighth wonder of the world.” “An exotic, other-worldly landscape.” “It’s unlike anywhere else on Earth.” To explore it is to “walk on the moon.” The ancient tepuis of Venezuela, with their gravity-defying rock formations, thundering falls, and singular flora and fauna, deserve every note of praise and wonder they receive. Hailed as the land that time forgot, this virtually unexplored corner of South America hides record-breaking and breathtaking landscapes and evolutionary marvels.

NATURE’s The Lost World will take you to the very heart of a world that precious few have visited. Still only marginally explored, it has inspired several books, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous The Lost World, and remains a source of awe and humility for all who visit it. This land of incredible beauty and abundance, of harrowing rides and deadly climbs, harbors a journey you will never forget — and a story millions of years in the making.

Online content for Living Edens: The Lost World – Venezuela’s Ancient Tepuis was originally posted September 2003.