Venezuela: Santa Elena de Uairen

Before you read much further, go and take a look at the map and find out just exactly where Santa Elena de Uairen is. Roughly speaking, you'll need to be looking at the bottom right-hand corner of Venezuela. Just about on the border with Brazil, and fairly close to the border with Guyana. There's just one road. The rest is pure, pure countryside. This area is called Grand Sabana, and the beautiful, lush, undulating forest and grassland is punctuated by the astonishing and other-worldy tepui which rise up solemnly and vertically from the ground. But being so close to northern Brazil (and only five degrees north of the equator) it's Amazonas. We're in the Parque Nacional de Canaima: there are two main modes of transport; boat and plane. Sometimes the rainforest is just too dense for anything else. But if you're expecting us to visit the Angel Falls, well, humble apologies, for during our planning stage we realised that now it's the dry season and that the famous waterfall would just be a mere trickle. Frustratingly though, do you remember that our Orinoco visit had been thwarted back in January? This was due to unusually high levels of water in the river: this dry season has been exceptionally wet! And we have just heard that the falls have been worth seeing after all. This might well mean another trip to Venezuela!
It's a country that needs a little time to be loved. After Colombia, it came, quite frankly, as a bit of a shock. It's just not the happy playground of the Caribbean that Cartagena turned out to be; it's displaying so many of the 'indicators' of a third world nation. And the growl of the monster sized engines in virtually every vehicle (almost every tiny bus seems to have been re-engined and tuned up to growl like a racing car!) is bordering on the bizarre. But the oil wealth seems not to touch the ordinary citizens, who, quite frankly seem to be struggling very badly.
So our little love affair with this country is fairly on-and-off and very much rollercoaster. The landscapes are fantastic, but Chavez is a disappointment. Yet down here in Santa Elena, we've managed to find something special: a little town that is far more than simply a border post. The surrounding countryside is spectacular, the climate is varied (sometimes unbelievably hot, followed by refreshing breezes) and the town itself is great to spend just a few days.
Remember the food halls of Asia which we raved about last year? Well this afternoon, as we walked along regretting the omnipresent burger stalls and arepas hereabouts, wishing for a Malaysian-style food court, we turned a corner and lo, as manna from heaven, there immediately in front of us was an impressive covered hall of about thirty independent snack bars, cafes and restaurant serving everything from menus del dia, to Brazilian-style Churros and fruit shakes.
The Brazilian influence extends to language here, too: conversations swing between Spanish and Portuguese with ease and fluency.
Here the indigenous people are the Pemon, and yes, of course they have their own, unique language. But this area might be considered somewhat isolated today, in times past it was considered to be the last frontier. Remember the film The Mission, which tells the story of the Jesuits and the Guarani in the 1760s? Well here the Pemon lived completely isolated from the outside world until 1922, when the Capuchins began to set up missions to convert the tribes throughout Southeast Venezuela. And this is exactly the year of the founding of the cathedral of Santa Elena, which we stumbled upon during a walk out of the centre of the town.