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Published: December 15th 2006
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Our Chariot
The massive plane we flew in from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima Hey everyone. I apologize for the serious delay in updating my blog... it´s been a crazy last few weeks and I really haven´t had much time to access the computer!
I have so much to add, but really can´t do it all now. I´m currently living in a 32 child orphanage in Naguanagua, Venezuela (a suburb of Valencia, Venezuela). I sleep in the same room as the 11 kids between 1month old and 4 years old. It´s a very interesting experience and needless to say, I´m not getting much sleep! I´ll write a blog shortly filling everyone in on how great this place is... and how much poop I´ve been dealing with!
Last Thrusday I left the beautiful beach that I had spent almost a month searching for. After all that I burned the crap outta myself and could only spend 2 days in the sun... carrying my heavy backpack on red-raw shoulders was something I NEVER want to repeat! And please don´t write me messages about how I should wear sunscreen because I was wearing 30, and reapplying it every hour and a half... little did I know that it was virtually useless and I should have been using
Waterfalls EVERYWHERE
One of the falls that was on the outskirts of Canaima... we were able to climb up behind and walk in the little cavern the water had cut away in the rocks. 50! The beaches themselves were beautiful... it´s the Caribbean, of course it´s amazing! The sand flies that came out at night weren´t so beautiful, but we were usually tucked away in some airconditioned restaurant (not that it was expensive, it´s just that pretty much EVERYWHERE has airconditioning as it´s cheep to run, and so bloomin´hot you really can´t live without it... although none of the hotels I´ve stayed in have had it yet, maybe that´s ´cause I refuse to pay more than $8/night for a room!)... anyway... we´d be eating stellar seafood and drinking ice-cold Soleras (the local beer) until it was cool enough to return to our hotel. I don´t know if I wrote about my dear travel companion Antonio, the 40-year old hairdresser, I think I did... and he was wonderful, I was sad to see him go! It´s a whole different experience travelling with a man! It´s incredible how much safer I felt and how much more at ease I was walking down the street with a man by my side. It was a treat not to get cat called by EVERY man, or get followed, hissed at, or just plain oggled. Thank goodness I´m not blonde
What´s that? A beautiful Mermaid!!!
Posing like the little tourist I am in front of the first falls we were able to visit! The Japanese tourists wanted to take pictures with all the white girls in our group! anymore!!!
From Tucacas I headed to Ciudad Bolivar where I immediately booked a tour the morning I arrived, and flew out 20 minutes later to Canaima, the jumping off point to Angel Falls. We flew in a little 6-seater Cessna that looked to be about 100 years old. Jo, a 27 year old American chef, David a 32 year old German doctor, and his high maintenance princess of a girlfriend (i really can´t remember her name!) who brought kitten heels and make-up on the tour and I were the passengers, and all of the princess´luggage took up the last seat.
When we flew over Canaima I was pleasantly surprised at the waterfalls! I thought that we were just going to Angel Falls... but nope! Right on the edge of town is a massive river that splits into 5 large and a few small falls. That day we got to hop in a lancha (a hollowed out tree/boat) with a dilapidated motor and cross the mini-lake. We spent hours hiking around the falls, hiking BEHIND them with water streaming down and battering us as we tried to navigate the slippery path, and then climbing up the sides of them to
Tepuis everrrywhere
This is what I mean! It looks like a table! take some amazing pictures from the top. (mom and dad, this made me think of you guys in Hawaii many many years ago... when you left us with Grams and Papa and got caught in the rainstorm! I had a little moment to miss my family and to think about you! Mom, you would have been in your element here! I could have seen you swimming like a little fish in all of the pools... you really gotta come here one day!!).
After the day in the water we relaxed, had a few cold ones and then hit the sack early. Up and at´em the next day bright and early to make the 4-5 hour trip to the mother of all falls. A 1/2 hour hike, a 1/2 hour boat ride... another hike to avoid some seriously huge rapids... a break at a mini falls to swim and snack, and then 3 hours more in the boat. Those last few hours were what almost drove me to jump outta the lancha and swim back to Canaima myself!! It was SO scary! We were going up the river in a verrrry sketchy boat, full of 9 tourists (2 Americans, 1 German,
Another Tepuis
This one looked like it had a Venezuelan Stone Hedge (Henge?) on top... it was what we woke up to in the mornings and were able to see from our hammocks! 3 Spaniards, 1 Austrian, 1 Brazilians and yours truly!), 3 guides, all of our stuff, food, an extra motor, gas, water and a load of other crap... I don´t think I normally would have been afriad had I not been able to see the look on some of the guide´s faces. At times they looked like they were going to have a hernia! When they looked scared, that´s when I knew that we were in trouble. Unfortunately there was no other way to get to the falls, and so we just had to tough it out. I have to admit, I was pretty exhausted by the end of it - I think had we been going down it would have been a lot easier, but there were times that it felt like we were going to go completely sideways and were taking on some serious amounts of water... if we had flipped I have NO idea what we would have done!
At one point we went up a HUGE falls and took on more water than we left out - right before the guide did the holy cross (hand to forehead, chest, shoulder, shoulder, and then mouth)... and then afterwards
Our Fulllll Lancha
not only did we have our group, but we also picked up some passengers on the way who were heading upstream!
p.s. you see what I mean about it being incredibly small... the boat sure doesnt look too safe for me!!! the guide kinda laughed nervously and told us that a few weeks ago they had dumped 1/2 of the tourists into the water on the same falls! It was quite awhile before they were able to right the boat and then pick up the frazzled tourists!!!
The entire way up we were surrounded by giant Tepuis. These are geographical anomalies that are only found in the Gran Sabana of Venezuela. I really don´t know how to explain them but to say they´re like little mountains that look like flat tables. They can be anywhere from a few hundred metres high, to over a kilometre (as Angel Falls falls off of one of them, and its longest uninterrupted drop is over 970m high!) in height, and each of them has evolved independently, creating a number of original biospheres (is that the right word?)... if you have a chance, look them up, they´re amazing!
Anyway! We made it to the camp safe and sound. Our ´posada´ consisted solely of a roof, some poles to hang hammocks and a long table. There was a ´kitchen´ attached to the side with an open-air fire pit and a few counters... a bathroom with toliets but
The top of Angel Falls!!
Here it is! The Tallest Waterfall in the entire world! yikes no running water, and a fare share of mosquitos! Luckily our hammocks had mosquito netting! The best of all was that from the river which was only about 30metres away we had a FABULOUS view of Angel Falls itself... it just towered over the camp! The funny thing is that most people don´t even mention the tepuis or the amazing natural beauty of the journey to the falls... although the falls were absolutely incredible, the entire trip was what made it so special!
We immediately trekked the 2 hours to the base of the falls; walking through dense and moist jungle terrain and finally arriving at the bottom. We were able to swim in one of the pools and take a million pictures to try and take home a glimpse of the beauty that we were surrounded by!
We spent a few hours there and then returned back to camp to eat and play cards by candle light.
The next day we headed back to Canaima in a mad rush. Such a rush that the driver had us barrelling over the falls at break-neck speeds. It was pretty fun! Even the falls that we were supposed to walk around we
Another Poser Picture
At one of the view-points on the hike up to the falls braved to save time as some of our group had to get back for a plane flight!
It was a trip that I´ll never forget; full of fear and danger (well, not THAT much danger, but at the time it sure felt like it!) and amazing sights! If you can, everyone should go to Angel Falls at least once... I know I´d love to return!!!
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