The village of Canaima is the small Pemón community on the eastern shore of the lagoon — a scatter of palm-thatched houses, a few simple posadas, a basic airstrip, and the agencies that organise excursions to the falls. Around 1,200 people live here, almost entirely Pemón, and most of the local economy runs on tourism plus a handful of subsistence crops.
It is not a place you come for the village itself — the focus is the lagoon and the falls — but it is the only base for visits to the western half of Canaima National Park, and the only place to sleep, eat or buy a cold drink for hundreds of kilometres in any direction. Expect very basic infrastructure, intermittent electricity, no banks and no mobile signal. Bring all the US dollars you will need in cash.