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Published: September 22nd 2012
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Thanks partially to the Brazillian Border Police being on strike again, we arrived in Ciudad Bolivar much later than expected. The journey from Boa Vista took 23 hours and was a real grueller especially due to the rather “fresh” air-con.
We stayed at Posada La Casita, a 20 min ride out of the town centre but really handy as they provide transfers to and from the bus station and a shuttle into town. That apart though, this place is a little piece of paradise with beautiful grounds and extremely hospitable Peter the German host/owner and his nephew Alejandro and all the lovely smiley helpful staff. After a couple of days chilling by the pool and drinking several bottles of Venezuelan Polar Beer (with our fellow travellers Suzanne from England, Steve and Andy from Germany and our host Peter…(he’s a “liddel bit crazy” you know) to help us to recover from our back to back bus journies, we set off on our trip to Angel Falls.
On the first day of the trip, we were off nice and early for our flight to Canaima in Peter’s private plane (‘it’s the best in the world you know”). It was a diddy
plane and there was barely room for us, our 2 co-travellers Kat and Tom (just good friends!!), from London and several bin bags full of tomatoes! An hour long flight took us over impressive, stunning views of the Orinico river and the Venezuelan jungle. We were greeted at the airstrip in Canaima by our guide Fernando and after a brief meeting where we met up with the rest of our group, we went off for a swim in the local laguna. Lunch followed and once rooms were sorted, we were off on our first expedition of the trip. We took a small boat on the Laguna past the Canaima Laguna Falls until we reached the opposite shore. After a short walk, we arrived at the Sapo falls. The best was yet to come as we descended on a tricky path which took us under the falls. The path was at times quite precarious and the volume of water and spray was at times breathtaking but once through, we were treated to a dip in the large rock pool and a massage from the water falling from above at great force! Pure Heaven and one of the coolest things we’ve ever
done.
On day 2 we set off at around 8am for our visit to Angel Falls (Salto Angel). Our boat was a a bumpy 10 min bus ride away. We were on the boat for about 20 mins and then had to get off and walk some of the way as the boat was going over rapids and at danger of capsizing, 45 mins and a quick dip later and we were off on our 3.5 hour river journey and our first view of the flat topped mountains (Tepui) and the falls. After stopping for lunch and wading through a shallow creek, we headed off on a tricky hour long, tree root and rock filled jungle path on our ascent to the mirador for the falls. Our opinion of our first up close and personal view of the falls was simply W O W! What else can we say…look at the photos! A further 5 mins trek and we reached the pool at the bottom of the falls before it finally drops into the river. We treated ourselves to a diperoo and it was rather fresh! We have often said how privileged and lucky we are to have visited
some of the places on this trip and this one was certainly one of those places, what a wonderful once in a lifetime (maybe…who knows?) adventure.
We climbed back down to meet our boat to cross the river and head off to the jungle camp – our bed for the night. Hammocks again…it’s like a reunion with an old friend. Chicken, barbecued over an open fire, extremely heavy rain and Fernando’s tall stories brought our fantastic day to a close.
The final day and we were lucky enough to get amazing early morning views of the falls bathed in sunlight before heading back to Canaima and on to Ciudad Bolivar.
From Ciudad Bolivar, we travelled via Barinas over to Merida (home of our Angel Falls buddy - Victor and his girlfriend Maria) a small city set up in the mountains, the bus journey took us on windy mountain roads through small alpine style villages and the scenery was stunning. Due to our diminishing number of Venezuelan Bolivars, we were only able to stay for a couple of nights which only gave us one day to explore. It wasn't enough! The city itself was bustly and atmospheric during
the day with some beautiful historic buildings and the traditional plaza for chilling but nothing to get excited about at night. We had a walk to the Guinness record Breaking ice-cream parlour (apparently it has over 1000 flavours)....but it was closed! We decided to take a trip on the cable car - the highest in South America......but it was also closed and being repaired. Everything else of interest and beauty was out in the countryside and so that was basically our Merida trip in a nutshell. A slightly disappointing end to our Venezuelan adventure although we did get a decent pint and to see Andy Murray win the US Open in a cool studenty bar called El Hoyo del Queque.
We were a little unsure about what to expect from Venezuela, especially given the issues with the exchange rate here but it has been a fantastic trip. We have felt part of something really special and met some lovely people along the way.
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