Venezuela, a Spanish speaking country, is overflowing with culture and experience. Travelling nearly 1200 miles by coach across the country over the course of three weeks exposed our 22 strong team members to many of these adventures.

 

In the project phase of the expedition, the team attempted to teach Spanish to the local children of the Warao tribe situated in the Orinoco Delta (a rainforest filled with monkeys). Lack of familiarity with the language on both sides, ended with the children being taught western games; their favourites were the ‘Hokey Cokey’ and ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.

 

The next stage of the trip was a five-day trek up Mount Roraima, the mountain that formed the inspiration for Arthur Conan-Doyle’s The Lost World and Disney’s Up. The trek was strenuous yet thrilling, an experience many of the team are unlikely to parallel again. The top of the mountain was a world like no other. As a completely isolated ecosystem, it offered very little in the way of comfort, a fact proven by half the team sleeping half off a ledge under a rocky overhang!

 

We spent the final part of the expedition relaxing on the beach by the Caribbean in the North of the country where the team swam with dolphins, starfish, pufferfish and octopuses.  

 

Tired, tanned, and a ten hour plane journey later, all 22 were back safely in the UK, although no one wanted to leave.