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Published: December 17th 2005
Ooops its been a while since we updated the blog. Not that we’ve been having too much fun to write, quite the opposite we’ve been working hard taking Spanish language lessons in Argentina.
Anyway where were we? Oh yes, just about to set out on our expedition to Angel Falls. We were met at Caracas airport by Ben of Osprey Expeditions who whisked us to the bus terminal for our overnight bus to Cuidad Bolivar.
This was to be Bonny and Steve´s first overnighter and we were really lucky with the bus company “Rodavia” as the bus though freeeeeeezing cold was mercifully quiet and comfortable. This fact was not lost on us when we pulled into a service station in the early hours closely followed by a bus full of kids that was rocking on its axels the music was so loud.
We arrived in Cuidad Bolivar at 5.30am armed with a business card to call Luis of Adrenaline Expeditions and were dutifully waiting on the benches in the bus station until the allotted hour of 6am to call him when a beautiful lady in full make-up came over and introduced herself as Marie, Luis´s assistant. We got
in a cab which was one of those enormous 1970´s north American autos that Venezuela is full of and Bonny recognised from her childhood and went to Adrenaline´s offices for breakfast.
Getting to Canaima National Park where Angel Falls are requires a light aircraft flight so we packed mercifully smaller bags and within a couple of hours the four of us were airborne in our own plane flying over savannah and table topped mountains to Canaima accompanied by half a hundred weight of paper napkins - don’t ask me why.
Canaima is a lagoon which is fed by 5 fabulous waterfalls and as if that wasn’t enough its wine red in colour (tannins in the trees apparently). This spectacle was enough to have all four of us scurrying to the beach for a dip in the shade of some submerged palm trees, lovely.
That afternoon our band of entrepid explorers - the four of us, two Danish girls on their honeymoon (how cool! - yes you read that right) Brian and Emily from Kent and two Italians who had a sound bite for every occasion set of in our canoe led by Kevin our jovial, hard working,
Guayanan guide.
First stop - Sapo Falls where you can walk behind the water curtain and get to experience what it must be like to be in a washing machine. Claire got turned back for inappropriate footwear, but Simon forged ahead in his flash new shoes courtesy of Steve and Bonnie (which he then lent to Claire so she could go in) into the washer. The trip took about 10 mins to walk under the water fall, all the while being pummelled and almost thrown off the cliff onto the rugged rocks below. Then we made our way up river for some hours to the camp for the first night. Unfortunately we arrived in the dark and were soaking wet from the rain, we could do nothing about the former but a beer and lashings of talcum powder in places that towels just cant reach sorted out the latter.
After a surprisingly tasty dinner, Kevin gave us some puzzles to while away the hours. Unfortunately the poor guy didn’t bank on our group having some seriously fiendish puzzlers in it that could solve them in minutes. This left a gap which was nicely filled by a couple of
bottles of rum (if you´re going on the trip take your own rum and ciggies as supplies are limited and expensive) an absolute must for any self respecting hammock sleeper.
And so to bed in our hammocks, and despite the room spinning and the hammock tipping poor Bonny on to the floor and the smelly dog coming and sleeping under Steve, the drumming of the torrential rain on the corrugated iron roof lulled us to sleep and we awoke the next day relatively hangover free and refreshed and ready for another couple of hours on the hard seats of the canoe.
The canoe goes through some fantastic tepui (table mountain) scenery on its way to Angel Falls (think of the cliffs in Jurasic Park) and our first glimpse of the falls from the canoe was amazing. To get a better view you need to walk in the jungle for a couple of hours and so we set off through the vegetation. Boy was it worth it, the water falls from the top of a Tepui for almost 1km straight down and then crashes over boulders and more cascades at the bottom. At the time we visited there were
few clouds and you could see the whole 1km drop. It’s really mesmerizing to watch and feels completely natural and untouristy (except for the overhead buzzing of aircrafts!).
Later that day after a snooze in our hammocks we went to the local swimming hole for a “bath”, I doubt we´ll ever have such a great view whilst washing our hair again as there as the backdrop was Angel Falls with the Tepui glowing red in the sunset.
The camp for night two was very rudimentary, awful loos and despite the torrential rainfall again that night none of it was captured so there was no running water for loos and showers. Thank God there were no mosquitos though.
Not much to report on the canoe journey back really except the moment in the canoe when Brian (who had been stung the day before by ‘sound activated wasps’ - we kid you not - in the jungle) realised that the thing tickling his knee wasn’t in fact his wife but a huge spider. Brian yelps, Bonny who is sitting directly in front of him realises that its a spider and if anyone hates spiders its Bonny and the two
of them are deciding who is going to jump out of the canoe first when Alexander the cool calm Italian wades in and throws the spider overboard. Disaster averted - phew.
Hours later with our numb canoe bums we arrive in Canaima and take the flight back to Cuidad Bolivar where we toast our successful expedition with good old eggs, chips and beer for four (you can take the Brits out of Britain…) before catching another overnight bus to Santa Eleina on the Brazilian border.
Now, whereas the bus company Rodovia was a delight to travel with Oriente Express made sure they made you as miserable as possible. First off they wouldn’t allow us to take our small day-bags on the bus, insisting we checked even these in the hold “because of terrorism”. Then other people were in our seats and then they insisted the curtains remain shut even though it was only 8pm - doh. So we dutifully went to sleep at 8.30 only to be woken past midnight by the film and several times more in the night at various military checkpoints. This is the most irritating part of travelling in Venezuela - they are obsessed
with military checkpoints.
And so, several hours late we arrive in Santa Elena where we are met by Francisco of the Santa Elena branch of Adrenalin tours. Francisco feeds us yummy empanadas and coffee and books us into a day room in a hostel so we can shower properly for the first time in several days. We´re also given the choice of sleeping in an indigenous reserve in the Gran Sabana that night or coming back to the hostel. One look at those lovely, dry, flat beds with real mattresses and we all quickly vote for returning to the hostel.
And so we meet Frank our guide for the Gran Sabana. We all pile into the back of his Land Cruiser and go to the local liqueria for some beers and the petrol station for some fuel. Not as easy as it sounds. Fuel in Venezuela costs about 5 cents a litre, in Brazil much, much, much more. Consequently savvy Brazilians come across the border to fill up on fuel. This results in queues that are miles long and take hours to get to the pump. Most people in the queues turn off their engines and push their
cars along to the pumps. There is one saving grace, if you have tourists with you, you can jump the queue (with permission from the spotty-faced eighteen year old soldier with a big gun of course).
Filled up on fuel we set out through the savannah looking for all the world like African plains minus the elephants for some waterfalls. Agua Fria where Bonny and Steve walked down to the viewpoint over the savannah and Jaspe falls which cut through stunning red rocks. Mercifully, Simon kept to himself that he saw an enormous spider on the rocks near Agua Fria whilst we were swimming taking just a photo of it for posterity.
Par for the course it rained on us that afternoon and that prompted Frank to come up with the good idea of going over the border to Brazil for a Churrasceria instead of visiting more waterfalls. Dinner in Brazil was fantastic, more steak and sausages and grilled pork than you could eat, all washed down with bring your own beer. Whilst we were eating there was a huge storm right above us and it put the power out in the town several times. The thunder claps
were amazing and it was only slightly unnerving that we were sitting under a tin roof in the middle of it all.
After a night in a bed (hurrah) we set out on the last day of our trip together to the Diamond mines. The previous night Frank had confided in us that he had joined an internet dating service and that his first date was arriving to spend the day with us. When he arrived to meet us that morning he was full of apologies, the young lady was not the women of his dreams and to confound things she was staying with him for the next 3 days!
On the way to the Diamond mines we spotted something on the tarmac in front of us, a three toed sloth. Sloths cant walk and so it was clawing its way across the road on its belly very, very slowly. Frank had a broom handle in the LandCruiser and he helped the sloth to the other side of the road and therefore to safety by hooking it under its claws and carrying the bemused looking creature across the road. The sloth was so stunned it trained its big
panning for diamonds
if this works i'm not going home!black eyes on us and just sat there, arms still above its head grasping the now removed broom handle - gawping. We did our best to gawp back at it until we were satisfied it wasn’t about to head out on to the highway again!
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JulieBoolie
non-member comment
Sloth Antics
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. That is the funniest thing I've read in a long time...and the photo is hilarious!! Poor bemused Sloth.Lucky Sloth! ha ha