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3 day / 2 night trip to see the tallest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls.
We were a group of 4 people to go to the falls, me, a german woman(Karen) and a couple, Austrian woman(Silvia), Dutch guy(Eilko). Somehow we got totally lucky to have such a small group, when the trip was over we saw other groups of 10. In the beginning I expected that the trip would be completely rushed and surrounded but other tourists, but actually it felt like we had the falls to ourselves the whole time.
Like always transportation can never be easy, On the first day, half of the group didn't leave on a plane till much later than planned. It seems like there are just a bunch of 6-seater planes which fly until everybody has left the airport. Unfortunately, there were not enough planes and the Siliva and Eilko got left behind, so they had to wait for a plane to go and come back... they weren't too happy about that.
The place we flew into was called Canaima, which is on a lagoon full of waterfalls. While Karen and I were waiting we just walked around and checked out the lagoon. When Silvia and Eilko arrived, we were immediately off to take a motor driven dugout canoe up the river for 4 hours. We were a bit later than usual so we got to brave some rapids where passengers normally have to get out and walk... safe to say, we got really wet and had a to bail out the canoe. The whole trip was actually a bit wet as we got sprayed by water off the front of the boat.
The ride up and down the river was really beautiful. Both sides were surrounded by jungle. For some reason it seemed like there wasn't really that much wildlife. During the whole trip we did see a snake crossing the river, some huge parrots, some vultures, nice butterflies and a couple of Kingfishers... plus lots of insects.
Ok, little geography lesson. The Angle Falls are falling from something called a Tepuis (Important because I climb one on my next trek). It is a big table with cliffs totally separating it from the land below. A definition can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Tepuis. Basically because of their size and shape they create their own weather system around them, getting a lot of rain at the top year round, allowing the falls never to dry up. Also meaning that they are very often covered in clouds. People can do this entire trip, and not see the falls.
Anyway the whole river trip was next to one of these big Tepuis which made the scenery really nice with the jungle and the sheer cliff in the background. There are also lots of other water falls coming from the Tepuis, Angel Falls is just the tallest.
Ok, after about 4.5 hours we arrived at the campsite, which had a direct view of the falls. Cool!!! The guides roasted some chicken over a fire for use and we had a delicious dinner and drank some venezuelan rum. And then we got to "sleep" in hammocks. I already knew that I don't sleep in buses or planes, and now I know I don't sleep in hammocks either.
After me sleeping for maybe 2 hours in total the whole night we got up around 5;30 for a hike through the jungle 2 other viewing points of the falls. We were the only people in the jungle. I think Most groups do the hike in the afternoon.
We went back for lunch at the campsite (check out the pictures) and then back down the river. The rest of the day was spent in the lagoon near the original camp going from waterfall to waterfall. Some of them we were able to walk behind, which was a fun, wet experience.
Then the next day it was all over and we flew back to Cuidad Bolivar for New Year Eve....
previous travel blog entry
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