Angel Falls

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40 hours, 3 buses, 3 taxis, 2 minivans, a hitched ride with a volunteer red cross vehicle, countless searches from security guards and we finally crossed from Colombia to Venezuela and arrived at our first Venezuelan destination "Ciudad Bolivar". Not the prettiest, safest or most interesting of towns but a necessary stop for our trip to Canaima National Park to see "Salto Angel" (Angel Falls) the world´s tallest waterfalls. I have been wanting to see these for years so it was pretty exciting...

We jumped on a 3 day tour to the National Park and were surprised to find ourselves on what must be the smallest plane in the world - a tiny 6 seater Cesna - that took us and 2 crazy Italian guys we met at our hostel on the 1.5 hour flight over and into the beautiful National Park.

We chilled out in a little village with beautiful views of waterfalls and a lagoon with orangey/brown coloured water, palm trees standing alone in the middle of the lagoon. We took a long boat to the other side and trekked to Salto Sapo (Frog Falls) where we heard hundreds of little frogs but couldn't see them. At the falls we stripped down to our swimmers and got ready to slip right in behind the falls. The noise was deafening as the coca cola water coloured thundered down in front of us as we tried not to slip. The water completely enveloped us (so grateful for my waterproof camera again) and it was an incredible experience being completely drenched and, laughing and unable to hear anything except the deafening sound of the water.

The next morning we took the 5 hour journey along the river in a small wooden longboat into the park. It was serene and majorly uncomfortable on the butt but worth it as we saw heaps of waterfalls trailing down the huge rocky outliers in the park. Eventually we saw the top of Salto Angel and then took a 1 hour trek through the jungle to reach the falls. Majestic, mindblowing, beautiful, reaching all the way to heaven. Stunning.

That night we slept in hammocks outside at our campsite which was an interesting experience. Felt kinda cool not to have anything under you but the back was a bit sore (probably more from the 5 hour boat ride). On the journey back the following day we stopped to swim in some waterfalls and the Italians entertained us all the way.

We took a night bus to Caracas and stayed in the dodgiest part of the city It's got a bad reputation anyway so probably didn't help that we stayed in the Kings Cross part of town. The first thing we saw was a transvestite that the cabby had to ask directions for. Our room was terrible and they rented out other rooms by the hour so we spent two days in a shopping centre watching movies for about $4AUS each!

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Photos

Behind the Falls
Salto Sapo

Salto Angel
The World's Tallest Waterfalls