Blogs from Canaima National Park, Guayana, Venezuela, South America

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Canaima Venezuela I left Caracas to go to Maiquetia airport at 6:30 AM for a 10:40 AM flight to a Puerto Ordaz. Everything went smoothly and by 8:15 I was already sitting down and enjoying a delicious Venezuelan arepa de queso telita. I walked around bought some water and snacks and found my gate to sit down and wait for my flight by. The airport of Maiquetia is well equipped. It has a connective area for international flights , wifi, food and drinks, a couple of souvenir and other stuff shops, charging stations and screens and announcements. The flight left on time and I arrived at Puerto Ordaz around 11:30. I grabbed my backpack and headed out but first I stop to get some merry turron and a few more snacks. It took me while to ... read more
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South America » Venezuela » Guayana » Canaima National Park December 3rd 2012

For a completely different Thanksgiving, I and six other teachers ventured to Canaima National Park to see the number one tourist attraction in Venezuela - Angel Falls or Santo Angel. We started off the day before Thanksgiving with a four+ hour bus ride to Ciudad Bolivar where we spent the night in a hotel that was already decorated for Christmas. It was a bit strange seeing a Christmas tree all lit up and decorated when it was still over 80 degrees outside. We were up early Thursday morning for an hour long flight into the national park. Our plane was small, though we saw smaller ones leaving the airport, and it was a pretty bumpy ride. Once we landed, we were picked up by one of the guides with a few other people and shuttled about ... read more
Small plane
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Dereek, Allison, and I

South America » Venezuela » Guayana » Canaima National Park January 25th 2011

Dzis wrocilismy ze wspanialej wyprawy do najwyzszego wodospadu swiata - Angel Falls! Po relaksie w Choroni czas przyszedl na rozpoczecie naszej wyprawy na dobre. Pojechalismy busem do Ciudad Bolivar i nastepnego ranka wyruszylismy do Canaima. Lot: trwal okolo 1 godziny 10 minut, maly samolocik 8 osobowy razem z pilotem!Clint jako ´big man´ zostal posadzony obok pilota a ja z tylu z bagazami - i tak w obie stony,hehe. Widoki oszalamiajace to tego stopnia, ze az mi zaczelo sie w zolodku przewracac i musialam, zastosowac metody wdech przez nos i wydech przez usta gapiac sie w jeden punkt, zeby sie zrobic bu bu. Przezylam! Niestety jak zwykle musze sie streszczac wiec w skrocie: jak wspomnialam wyzej samolocikiem ciut ponad godzinke, drewniana lodzia motorowa 6 godzin w gore rzeki( lekki hardcore - trzeba byla pchac lodke wiec faceci ... read more
Waiting for our ride back to Ciudad Boliivar
Plane to Cainaima
Posing before an interesting flight


Today I began to understand the term "prickly heat" - the sun was so strong it felt as if hundreds of hot needles were prickling my arms and back. We got in our 3rd six seater plan to travel back to Ciudad Bolivar, expecting our agency rep to be awaiting us at the airport. Naive. No-one was there to meet us and our luggage was locked up in one of the offices. So we sat ourselves on the floor outside the office until someone was called to let us in. We had a few hours spare time in the bus station before our first of two nights buses to Brazil. We were told the journey across the border to Boa Vista would take 15 hours, but of course it was longer - 19. It was somewhat ... read more


A 5am wake up call saw us leave at 6o'clock on a 1.5 hour hike to Angel Falls. It was a 4 hour round trip in total, on empty stomachs and with no water provided until we reached the falls where we got a stingy one cup each after sweating buckets in our long trousers (tucked into our socks to avoid a bug whose name I don't know that ventures under clothes and leaves pussing reminders) and raincoats. Venezuela is not ready for tourists! Nonetheless it was a scenic walk through rainforest and rivers (the flow so strong it nearly toppled me!) and across pink sandy beaches. The falls themselves were magical, nearly 1km in height, the water reduced to a fine and far reaching spray near the bottom, with a rainbow affront. We arrived just ... read more
Walking to Angel Falls
Angel Falls
Angel Falls


"South American time" was at play today - despite a 7am departure from our hotel and a five minute drive to the airport we didn't fly until 8:30-9am, and whilst landing at 10o'clock we didn't start our 4 hour canoe ride to the falls until 12:30pm! Angel Falls is not accessible by road, hence the 1-1.5 hour 6 seater Cessna flight (an activity in itself with beautiful views) followed by four hours in a motorized canoe, and finally a 1.5 hour hike. We got a taste of the Venezuelan tradition for all things deep fried - at breakfast of all things! A deep fried, corn (instead of short crust pastry) wrapped beef empanada at 8am! Greasy as you like, Chris couldn't even finish it! A bizarre coincidence awaited me when the Cessna landed - a friend ... read more
View from the Plane
View from the Canoe
Canoe Ride

South America » Venezuela » Guayana » Canaima National Park January 20th 2010

Having bought a ticket to fly from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima National Park (one of the largest national parks in the world!) on Saturday, the tour operator then informed me that the plane had a mechanical fault so he would put me up in a hotel for the night and start the trip the following day. Needless to say I wasn’t pressed for time and a free night’s stay in a good quality hotel will always be appreciated. On the Sunday morning there were no such problems with the plane. The 6-seater Cessna got us to Canaima Village without any problems, but because of it’s size there is no room to store bags, so I was incredibly cramped on the back seat with luggage all around and couldn’t wait to get out. The flight took us ... read more
One of the Canaima waterfalls
Angel Falls

South America » Venezuela » Guayana » Canaima National Park October 19th 2009

We left Ciudad Bolivar three days ago for our 1 and a half hour flight to Canaima National Park. Our plane turned out to be a six seater airplane which was awesome. It reminded me of the little mini that my dad used to drive us to school in. The inside felt like it was around 20 years old with huge circular dials for the speed and altitude. It took off after around 50 meters on the runway, was like we were only going around 50 miles an hour. On arrival we were greeted by our tour guide "fready" who is also indiginous to the area. Our first day was spent going to the local waterfalls and swimming every 10 minutes in the ice cold river. We got to walk underneath two of the waterfalls which ... read more
The Cockpit
Rene and Yoshi
Friendly Parrots

South America » Venezuela » Guayana » Canaima National Park September 4th 2009

So difficult to get a taxi on Sunday night here in Sta Elena, been waiting for 30 minutes with some backpackers from Hotel Michelle also going to the terminal on their way to Puerto La Cruz.Finally a private car took pity on us and took us to the bus terminal for 10 Bolivares for the 3 of us. Confusion about the bus that I actually need to take, Francisco said he booked me with Expreso Occidental but there was no one at the counter when I arrived at the bus terminal so a man took me to Los LLanos bus, he said it arrives at the same time, same terminal in Ciudad Bolivar so I went with him. Freezing cold in the bus! Arrived around 5:30am,in Ciudad Bolivar a 10 hours bus ride from Sta. Elena. ... read more
Parque Nacional Canaima
Parque Nacional Canaima
Parque Nacional Canaima


We had arrived back in Venezuela well over a week behind schedule. So unfortunately some things had to give - well, quite a few things. We ended up deciding to cut our losses and only go to Canaima. There were too many trips and places left that we wanted to visit in Venezuela but felt it was worth leaving as there would be more than enough to return for. After two days of travelling we had arrived in Ciudad Bolivar and the centre for trips to Canaima where lies the highest waterfall in the world Salto Angel. After booking on a trip we were left with a day in Ciudad Bolivar - as ever an interesting place, as all have been in Venezuela. The usual talk of Chavez, Simon Bolivar, propaganda and graffiti (not to mention ... read more




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