Biography

Venezuelan explorer sometimes referred to as the Humboldt of the twentieth century. Originally trained as a dentist, he has led nearly 200 expeditions in Venezuela's backcountry, making discoveries and publishing in an astounding range of fields (botany, zoology, entomology, geology, geography and anthropology) and has worked alongside renowned scientists from all over the world.

Charles Brewer Carías was born into a family of intellectuals in Caracas, his grandfather having moved to Venezuela as a British diplomat. Having graduated as a dentist in 1960 he practised in this field for almost 20 years, during this time travelling to the forests of the Orinoco basin to live with the Ye'kuana tribe and becoming active in the field of dental anthropology. He has published on many aspects of anthropology; speaking both the Ye'kuana language and understanding Yanomamö, he worked with the famous geneticist James V. Neel and anthropologist Napoleon A. Chagnon and was somewhat involved in the controversy surrounding the studies of the latter, publicised by the book The Darkness in El Dorado. Between 1961 and 1964 he had also studied biology.

In 1979 he left dentistry and worked as the cabinet minister for youth affairs and sports, giving him the opportunity to organise "frontier camps" for young Venezuelans to experience the wild areas of their country. In 1981 he was awarded the Land Army Cross and the Liberator Award for his expedition into the Esequibo territory (former British Guyana) to gain information about Russian and Cuban interests there. His expertise in jungle survival is widely acknowledged and he has led courses in Venezuela; he holds a 2.7 second record for starting fire with sticks and his own brand of survival knife is also renowned, receiving numerous publications and interest from some of the world's special armed and commando forces.

Since 1961 he has devoted his life to the organisation of expeditions in Venezuela's wilderness areas and in particular the south-eastern forests and tepuis, large, table topped, quartzite structures of the Canaima area. He has undertaken over 200 expeditions and at 70 shows no signs of stopping. His most famous discoveries are geological features in the tepuis such as the giant sink holes on Sarisariñama, the world's largest quartzite cave on Chimanta-tepui (which bears his name) and many other previously unexplored caves. However his expeditions are multi-disciplinary and many discoveries of taxonomic importance have been made by him and his associates. One expedition he led to Cerro de Neblina spanned four years (1983-1987) in which hundreds of new species were collected.

He has some 25 species named after him, including plants, reptiles, amphibians, insects and a scorpion. The bromeliad genus Brewcaria L.B. Sm. , Steyerm. & H. Rob. is named in his honour. He was also responsible for coining the phrase "Islands in Time" (1974) now commonly used to describe the character of these isolated peaks with their high levels endemism. Throughout fifty years he has worked with more than 250 scientists of many nationalities from a range of fields, including important characters in neotropical botany such as Julian Steyermark and Bassett Maguire. Added to this are thousands of associates that have shared experiences with him in mountaineering, sky diving, scuba diving and caving.

From his expeditions have come a great number of publications, including many that he has personally authored. His work with the botanist Brian Boom on the Yanomamö in the field of ethnobotany has awarded him the titles Honorary Research Associate at the New York Botanical Garden and Associate Researcher at the Jardín Botánico del Orinoco in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. An avid photographer he has hundreds of thousands of photographs portraying the culture, landscapes and biodiversity of Venezuela, displaying them in ten illustrated books and has also filmed documentaries. He has five children from two marriages. In 2003 thieves broke into his family home and he shot and killed one of the intruders, but sustained a bullet wound to his shoulder. His extraordinary stories have awarded him world wide acclaim, including articles published in Venezuelan, British and North American newspapers about his life and travels.