Rainforest River Journey to Pará Falls

Río Caura

You will be collected from your hotel in Ciudad Bolívar and driven with others (4hr) to La Trincheras on the River Caura where you stay at a simple lodge with private bathroom.

A full day’s journey by motorised dugout up the powerful Caura river through dense rainforest protected as a forest reserve since 1964. We reach El Playón—a wide sandy beach a short distance below Pará Falls. Opposite the camp the river emerges in a boiling maelstrom from the narrow throat into which it was channelled just below the horseshoe of Pará Falls itself. We make camp, sleeping in hammocks with mosquito nets in an open-sided thatched churuata supported by the local community of Ye’kwana, a vigorous people who have traded widely with European incomers since C18th, having evicted the early Spanish presence from this area. Respect and consideration, especially regarding photographs, are essential. The vast area beyond the falls is reserved for local communities and cannot be visited without special permission.

We trek through the rainforest on a very interesting narrow forest trail for about 2hr, emerging onto a clearing with viewpoints across Pará Falls’ spectacular horseshoe of 12 separate falls up to 689ft tall, reckoned to be the most powerful in Venezuela. There is plenty of time to explore the immediate area before returning to camp at El Playón. Second night in hammocks.

Full day’s travel by river back to the lodge at Las Trincheras.

Drive to Ciudad Bolívar where the tour ends.