And yet — when the clouds part, even briefly, and the sun illuminates the dark rock and the white quartz and the glistening carnivorous plants, the summit of Roraima is as visually extraordinary as anywhere on Earth.

The waterfalls pour white over the cliff edges.

The valley below is revealed in a patchwork of savanna and forest that stretches to the horizon.

The other tepuis appear as flat-topped forms in the middle distance, each one its own sky island, each one its own chapter of the same story.

The visit typically lasts one to two days on the summit before the descent — enough time to reach the main summit features, to get a sense of the landscape, and to begin to understand what makes this place so distinctively itself.

It is not enough time to understand the biology, the geology, or the cultural significance in any depth; that requires the kind of sustained engagement that the scientists and the Pemón community have developed over very different timescales.