WARNING: RORAIMA-ANGEL FALLS TOURS

WARNING: RORAIMA/ANGEL FALLS TREKS

I went with B_ckpacker Tours from Santa Elena on a Roraima Trek and everything turned out great, although the equipment wasn’t as good as certain travel books claimed. The tents were way too small for 2 people and the sleeping bags and mats were pretty worn out. I also paid $390 for an Angel Falls trek with B_ckpacker Tours as well and they sent me off to Ciudad Bolivar to a second party group called Gekko T_urs. What Gekko didn’t tell me is that they knew that the river to Angel Falls was dried up before my flight on January 2 to Canaima. According to many other travelers that I met, they were only telling parties that did not book the riverboat ride up so that they could sell additional Angel Falls over flights to those parties. Gekko did not tell the other travelers that I met with a tour to travel up river and an overnight stay at Angel Falls as not to alarm these parties or to give them a chance for cancellation. I did not find this out until the next day-3 hours after my flight arrived in Canaima that the riverboat ride to the falls was cancelled and we could not see the falls. In Canaima we were sent to a third party group called Kavac Tours, which told me personally that they contacted Gekko the day before our flights to let them know that the river was too dry and it was impossible for boats to pass. I spoke with the owner of B_ckpacker Tours and he would not offer a full refund. He did offer other options, but none of these were acceptable to me for the amount of money I paid. I wanted to return to Ciudad Bolivar immediatetly with a full refund due to the dishonesty. He said I would lose over half of the $390 because he would not refund the flights or any meals eaten if I wanted to return early. I said this was not acceptable due to the dishonestly of his affiliate Gekko T_urs. We eventually saw Angel Falls as the tour owners sent us on an over flight before returning to Ciudad Bolivar, but that is not what I paid for and I feel that Gekko T_urs was very dishonest and unethical in trying to hide the fact that they knew that the river was dry. B_ckpacker Tours can sell tours, but not guarantee the tour when something like this goes wrong with an unethical partner. When I returned to Gekko T_urs, I told a German guy working there that their company was unethical for hiding information and he started swearing at me and claimed he didn’t know that the river was low even though Kavac Tours told me that they called Gekko T_urs to let them know. The guide at Kavac Tours seemed very frusterated as it appeared that this was normal practice with the other two tour companies at this time of year when the rivers run low. I would hope that these companies could start dealing on a more professional level with their clients. Maybe owning a bunch of Landrovers, Land Cruisers, posh posadas, and profits are more important than decent customer service?

I recommend for anyone going on an Angel Falls tour:

Arrive in October when the falls have the most flow.

Go to Ciudad Bolivar and book your own flight to Canaima and use Kavac Tours in Canaima. This way you will bypass the first and second middleman tour operators that are dishonest and don’t guarantee what they sell. You will probably save a bunch of money too.

www.excursioneskavac.com.ve

Thanks, that's good to know. Reviews of tour operators are tough to find since bad reviews tend to get taken off the net pretty quickly.

So, how safe is Venezuela? What exchange rate are you getting? 2.3/4.6?

Most of the year a visit to the Falls is pointless, because they only normally ´fall´ in spring and after heavy rain

Over recent months they have been nothing more than a trickle as a result of the droughts.

The weblink you gave for Excursiones Kavac does not seem to work - does anyone have the correct web link/email address?

Thanks

Hi there, sorry to hear that you were not able to do the trip.
Maybe I didn't understand everything correctly ... you booked through Backpacker Tours, right? Backpacker Tours mixed you up with a group from Gekko and the whole bunch of you was mixed up with Kavac Tours? So Backpacker must be responsible for letting you know if the tour is doable or not, right?
It sounds very odd to me that they shouldn't have known about the dry river. I am no expert but as far as I remember the river, it sounds unlikely that it should run dry from one day to another, so ANY tour company for sure has known.
Not telling you is Backpacker Tours fault. On the other hand, I don't know about the mobile signals around the place, and sometimes there might be difficulties to transport information from the guides on spot to the main offices if conditions happen to change quickly (which I can't imagine).

I travelled with Gekko some years ago and it was an excellent experience, so I feel I have to say something good about them... because they were very helpful and nice and serviceminded. Of course, you're travelling in Venezuela and no European country, so yes, things might be not too well-organized always... :-)

By the way, I can't quite understand you did not make sure to get the dry or not information before the trip... have you never heard that it might be a problem at this time of the year, while planning your trip in advance? Sorry for saying that, but the "river dry" issue is very present everywhere you look for information about the trip.

Hi,

Getting back to you all with replies:

The exchange rates I was getting in Venezuela was 5.5 (5500) Bolivars per US dollar. The best rate I got was 5.9 (5900) per $1 in Puerto la Cruz. Don't use atms or credit cards in Venezuela, because the true cost will triple. Make sure to take enough US dollars. I took about $1400 and left with $200. About $740 for Roraima and Angel Falls paid in US dollars and $500 or so for 12 additional days of budget traveling.

I did re-check the website address for Kavac and I typed it out correctly. Internet service is really slow in Venezuela so it may be hard to use and you may not even get reponses from the companies or websites could be down. Kavac emails are excursioneskavac@gmail.com, excursioneskavac@hotmail.com, and excursioneskavac@yahoo.com.

As far as the tour goes: I paid B_ackpacker Tours, who sent me to Ciudad Bolivar to Gekko T_urs, who sent me to Canaima to Kavac Excursions. I understand that these tour companies cannot fully predict weather, but Kavac had been calling Gekko for a month before my trip telling them that the river was getting lower and lower and contacted them the day before my flight telling them that the river was done for the season. The falls were still falling, we just couldn't get upriver to see them because of all of the exposed rocks in the river and canoes getting stuck in places. I just expect more honesty and professionalism from German owned companies and in this case I did not get it. Kavac is not to blame in this incident. I just want all travelers to be aware of B_ckpacker and G_kko's business policies. No guarantees, no refunds, no extra warning even if known in advance. You might not get what you paid for!!!

FYI,

The exchange rates mentioned above were blackmarket rates. Changed by someone on the street.

The current black market rate is between 7 and 8 now (July 13, 2011) for the USD. I got 7 at the Caracas Airport, 7.5 in Puerto Ordaz, 7.8 in Margarita and 8 in Ciudad Bolivar. Of course, be careful with whom you trade. If you have yet to arrive in Venezuela, you will only get these rates for cash or for dollars delivered to an account outside of Venezuela. Any official exchange of dollars will be at the rate of 4.3. Bringing extra cash provides for better rates, but then you need to make sure your cash is safe in a not always safe country. Happy travels.