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Published: October 20th 2008
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Canaima National Park
Small waterfall where we stopped to swim on our way to the camp at Angel Falls. Wow what a whirlwind the last few weeks have been. Our time in Venezuela is winding down. What a country! It has mountains, beaches, jungle, amazing waterfalls, and the list goes on. After leaving the island of Margarita we traveled north to the island of Blanquilla for a few days and then south to the island of Tortuga for a few days. These islands have pretty beaches and Blanquilla especially has very good snorkeling. They are both virtually uninhabited with only the coast guard and a few fishermen as residents. It made for a quiet restful time but after a few days I was ready to go.
We then traveled to Puerto la Cruz for just a couple of days to restock groceries and supplies and then headed into the Gulf of Cariaco where we met up with 3 other boats in Laguna Grande. The gulf is 35 miles long and 8 miles wide and is in the northeastern part of Venezuela. Laguna Grande is a large lagoon with mangroves along the edges of the water, abundant birdlife (especially pelicans), and tall hills surrounding the lagoon that are rust colored and have little vegetation growing. It was beautiful in a
Carrao River
Motorized canoes that the Pemon Indians use to take people up and down the Carrao River stark sort of way and unlike any other place I've seen in the Caribbean. Our next stop was Medregal Village for a couple of days and then we traveled to the Muelle de Cariaco to anchor for a couple of nights. While there we arranged a trip with a local "por puesto" (shared taxi) driver to take us to the Guacharo Caves. We started out at 6:30 in the morning for the caves and arrived there at 8:30 am. It was nice to be up in the mountains and enjoy the cool air for a day. The caves are inhabited with thousand of guacharo birds. Our guide spoke little English but with his English and our shared knowledge of Spanish (there were 7 of us) we managed to understand almost everything about the caves that he wanted to tell us. Later we ate at a very good local restaurant and took our time driving out of the mountains back to Muelle de Cariaco.
After a few days in the Gulf we headed back to Puerto la Cruz so that we could leave our boat in the marina for a few days while we traveled inland. We traveled to the
Angel Falls
View of Angel Falls from our campsite. The mountaintops are all flat in Canaima Park. Canaima National Park in Bolivar state a few hundred miles south of Puerto la Cruz. We traveled part of the way by bus and then had to fly the rest of the way into the park in a 6 seater Cessna plane. The park is in the jungle and the only permanent residents are of the Pemon Indian group. The Pemons have their own language although some of them speak Spanish as well. The first day we arrived in the park, we traveled by motorized canoe for 4 hours into the jungle to where we would spend the night in hammocks under an open air, tin roofed structure. Our canoe was driven by 2 Pemon men who knew the river well and expertly guided us through the rapids to our destination. It was a bit of a wet ride but we had a good time with it. We had a delicious chicken dinner later that evening that was roasted over an open fire. I slept pretty well in the hammock which was certainly a first for me. We had 11 tourists in our group and we were the only Americans. Our friend Pat who is English was with us as
Angel Falls
Jimmy in front of the lower section of Angel Falls. well as people from Lithuania, France, Switzerland, and Australia. They were all younger than us and we had fun interacting with them and learning about their countries.
The next day we hiked up to Angel Falls which took a little over an hour. We saw magnificent veiws of this very high waterfall (reportedly the tallest in the world and designated a Natural World Heritage site in 1994 by UNESCO). Hiking further into the jungle was just as interesting to me as seeing the waterfall. I was so in awe of this place. When I see places like this I am reminded that there is a God who made all of this and that people who don't believe in him must really be blind! No way could all of this beauty happen by accident!!! It was truly amazing. Later in the day we had to head back down the river. We spent that night in a lodge with walls and bathrooms (yippee!).
Our last day we visited some of the smaller but equally impressive waterfalls that empty into the Canaima lagoon. We were actually able to walk behind a couple of the waterfalls (that was a bit scary to
Pemon Indian Camp
Pemon women making cassava flour out of the yucca plant. me). We got soaking wet but it was fun. After we walked behind the last one I was happy to have only one more death defying experience ahead of me (the ride back to Ciudad Bolivar in the 6 seater plane!).
We are now back at the marina in Puerto la Cruz and preparing the boat for our journey to the western Venezuelan islands of Los Roques and Los Aves. Los Roques is supposed to have excellent snorkeling so we will tarry there as long as the coast guard will let us before heading onto Los Aves and then to Bonaire.
Donna
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