Angel Falls (Salto Angel) and its surrounding beauty

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Tim Version:
* Flew in a small plane to Canaima, boated (both by motor and by lots of pushing power) up to Angel Falls, and got to see its unclouded face and marvel and just how damn big the drop is!
* Saw a bunch of other local smaller waterfalls, smashed by little toe, saw another snake and loved it all.

The dropping, dropping, dropping... where the hell is the bottom? version:

With a contact given by one of the girls I climbed Roraima with, I found a good tour operator at a good price that I could join to go to Canaima and Angel Falls with, without any time waiting! I arrived by bus at around 6:30 in the morning, was picked up by the tour operator at the bus terminal and whisked to the airport, then after only maybe 1 hour waiting I was off and up in the air!

Its a fun flight down to Canaima in the little single prop 6 seater, keeping a low altitude of about 5000 or 6000 feet giving great views of the landscape unfolding beneath you. You get to view lots of river systems, small islands, desert to jungle, and then finally when entering Canaima you get to see more Tepuis and the local waterfalls. I noticed as we were flying a light effect that I hadn't seen before, the halo that can seen in the photo around the plane as a reflection on the cloud. While you cop a little more turbulence with it being a small plane, all in all it was a pretty smooth ride.

Rocking up in Canaima it was nice and hot, and its a small little airport with one grass hut kinda entry point off the tarmac. Its only small planes down there. A guy from the company I had signed up with found me very quickly and myself and some others were led to the hotel we would use for one of the nights of accomodation. Oh yeh, the usual package, its one day by boat to Angel Falls where you sleep the night, then in the morning you view the falls (or the day before if you arrive early...), return to Canaima, then view some other local waterfalls that afternoon. The order of the two activities can also be swapped and depends on how many people are around as you need a decent size crew for the Angel Falls part.

For me, the first part was straigt to Angel Falls! We hopped in our long thing motorboat and started heading upstream. The times quoted to get there ranged from 4 hours to 7 hours, and since the water was so low for us I was guessing the longer time... I guessed right. Heh not only that but I think we pushed the boat half as much upstream as it made it itself! Many of the sections where the water levels were low were just too much for our overloaded boat, and we got stuck many times requiring many of us to get out and push the boat upstream. The water is freezing and the rocks slippery so it can be a bit of a painful affair when you have to do it time and time again. In retrospect I should have just got my shoes wet but I didnt expect to be doing it so much. It felt like I would jinx us if I did. It was however still a hell of alot of fun and made the journey more interesting! Heh to be honest in many parts we didn't really push all that much as more what was needed was just to jetteson some of the weight i.e. US! After that it could make it upstream. We did however run into a bigger problem - our engine died! It was about 2pm when we should have been there already and they said itll probably take a couple of hours to get a new one shipped to us. However to our complete luck another boat with a spare engine rocked up and they happily gave it to us so it was only about 45 minutes until we were off again. It actuallygave us a good little break on a nice little rock island to stop and appreciate the view so much more! Surrounded by lush forest and numerous tepui mountains with their own swirling cloud patterns and numerous waterfalls, the trip up the river is just as amazing as the falls so never just think of it as transport as it is so much more than that. We also got to swim around and refresh as it gets pretty hot down there. It became a game of what looked like human whackamole though as there are these biting flies, a bit like Horse Flies but faster, and they love to bite you when you are wet so in the water you're on the constant lookout and when you hear that buzzing noise you quickly duck under the water for a bit untilit forgets you and goes after the next guy.

It was probably 5pm by the time we got there so we didn't have time to check out the lookout. Instead we just setup our hammocks for the night and chilled for a bit while dinner was cooked for us, roast chicken and rice and other stuff. A damn good meal. One thing we did get to see was that our camp had a killer view of the waterfall! Being on the opposite side of the river to the falls meant we had an uninterrupted view when it wasn't shrouded in cloud. After dinner a few of the fellas went back up to the hammock, and a few minutes after them I went to go but discovered a visitor. Well actually we were the visitors, he or she lived there... a nice long snake, apparently a python. The other guys musta walked right over it and by luck alone not stepped on it as it was in their path and wasn't moving! A beautiful snake as you can see from the photos, one of the younger guides we think wanted to kill it but there was no way in hell we were gonna let him to that so instead we disturbed it enough that it crawled back into the bush, back into safety for it.

Morning came quickly after a good sleep in the hammocks, something that seems to work really well for me, and we were up and walking by about 5am. At the lookout Angel Falls was shrouded by cloud, still not having woken up itself, but with a bit of time and some coaxing from us the cloud lifted for a good 5 minutes for some photos oppotunities and some "Man thats high!" comments, before it clouded up again. Its a beautiful sight and one Id love to come back and see again when there was more water. Of course in that season you run the risk of it never clearing from the cloud for days, but thats the risk you take... this time I got exactly what I was after =) Maybe I'll even learn to Base Jump before the next time, as thats something you can do off the top that would be an experience of a lifetime...

Going back down the river, much easier! We had to push a few times but not many. A very good thing for me as walking back from the lookout right near the end of the walk I smashed one of my little toes really bad and it felt broken. The freezing cold water numbed it but even the pressure of the current of the water was enough to make it seriously painful!

Back in Canaima, a few of the group had to go and fly back to Ciudad Bolivar, while a few of us did the local waterfall tour. Again the wrong season but still impressive. A few that were still thunderous waterfalls must be incredible in the wet season, while 3 others we saw that would have doubled in volume if I had of taken a leak into them they were so dry, were obviously not so impressive but would be good in the wet season. We did however get to see the rock bases that make them up, and they are natural formations that can be often so exact in their shape that they loo man made. Water is a brilliant carver of shapes. That took up the rest of the afternoon and that night with my toe throbbing I just relaxed in the hotel room after a good dinner all included in the package, and the next morning it was still killing so I did the same instead of going for a swim in the local river or anything like that.

We flew back that afternoon to Ciudad Bolivar happy with what we'd seen with all working out well, and despite my body now a bit more battered and bruised and my knees still killing as I never got to rest them (again: I gotta remember to fix them when I get home coz this is ridiculus...) I was bloody happy as that was basically everything I had specifically come to Venezuela to see all done in less than 2 weeks without hassle!

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