Stuck in Venezuela After Mountain Climbing Expedition, Brazilian Woman Describes Chaos and Escape Through the Forest

12/23/2016 - 12h26

Gabriela (not her real name), 60, arrived in Venezuela on December 9th to climb Mount Roraima with nine other Brazilians. One week later when she returned to Santa Elena de Uairén, she found the city in chaos caused by the decision in Caracas to withdraw the 100-bolívar note from circulation.

The border with Brazil had been closed since December 14th. The group crossed over to the Brazilian side through the forest in a rented jeep.

*

Our group arrived in Boa Vista in the state of Roraima on December 8th. On the 9th, we went to Santa Elena de Uairén in Venezuela. We were a group of ten Brazilians, and we came to climb Mount Roraima.

On the 16th we were camped at our last campsite, when the guide told us at dinner that the border was closed. Next day, we began the hike down the mountain on our way back. The plan was that we'd get to Santa Elena and then go straight to Boa Vista.

When we got to Santa Elena on the 17th, it was chaos. People armed with baseball bats, wooden clubs and iron bars, to protect their property or to loot, you couldn't tell who was who. The National Guard was in the street, and we were told to go back to our hotel and stay there.

There was no place left to buy food in town, and the hotel had pasta, chicken hamburger and rationed bread. The water required a pump, the phone required electricity, but there wasn't any, so we sat there in the dark with no water.

We found out that there was an alternate border route that people could sometimes get through, sometimes not. The guy from the travel agency refused to help us get across.

The woman who owned the hotel referred us to a driver we could hire for the crossing. It was something of a dilemma. Some wanted to wait for a solution from the consulate, others wanted to make the crossing. Finally, everyone decided to go for it.

As we approached the border it was lunch time and there were just a couple of guards. From a distance, I saw a girl talking to one of them, he made a gesture with his hand pointing to a road.

So that's where we went. We saw lots of people, probably Venezuelans, incredibly loaded down with food, running, it was crazy. The crossing on foot starts in a forest, a swamp where you sink in up to your knees. It's about a kilometer and a half. There's no clear boundary to show what's Venezuela and what's Brazil.

When I saw two or three [Brazilian] federal police officers at a guard post, it was just the most beautiful thing. They were very kind, they called a car that took us to the Federal Police building in Pacaraima. The first thing I did was go to a payphone to call my family.

You don't know what it's like to be in a strange country with no one to turn to, in a tiny little town that's just been totally looted. It makes you feel so sorry for the people there. It ended up taking the glow out of our trip, the energy, the whole aura of Mount Roraima I'm never going back there.

Translated by THOMAS MATHWESON

Read the article in the original language