The Great Journey

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[ Standing in Solitude for 2 Billions Years: The Highland of Guiana ]

The Highland of Guiana is one and a half time as large as Japan and extends from Guiana in the east to the Northern Brazil in the south. Through an astounding 2 billion years, the numerous gigantic plateaus that look like tables were formed here and they are called "tablemountains." Since ancient times, each tablemountain has been isolated from other tablemountains because of its height of more than 1000m; the life forms on each tablemountain, therefore, have evolved in a unique way.
The top of Auyantepui, the largest table mountain in Guiana, is the size of all the 23 wards of Tokyo combined. The Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world (979m), rushes over the edge of the table. At the foot of Auyantepui, an old man lives by himself in a hut. He said he had seen dinosaurs on the top of Auyantepui. "In 1955, when I was looking for diamond on the top of the tablemountain, I saw some creatures I had never seen before sitting in the sun. There were three of them. They were about 1 meter long and had a long neck. Their bodies were covered with scales and they even had some dorsals. Later I found out that they might have been Plesiosauri which have been extinct for 6 million years. "
I walked around the top of the table for 10 days with him. Even though I could not meet dinosaurs, the sight there was something that transcended the real world. Flowers, insects, small animals, strangely shaped landscapes, all of which I had never seen before. "Am I looking at our planet Earth?" I felt as if I had come to a different planet. On the last day, the rumbling of thunder started to approach. Suddenly, with a gust of wind, my eyes and mouth were hit with merciless heavy rain from the side. Lightning incessantly streaked across the sky. It was just wild and violent, with no trace of gentleness. Yet there was a strange holiness in the sight. I realized in the roaring sounds of thunder. "This is not some other planet. I'm looking at the Earth at her own birth."