Salto Angel

---

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 the heat) reminded us we were back in Venezuela - the sights of colonial splendour, indigenous persons and interesting haircuts (received of course!) reminded us that we were back in South America.
The next day we made our way to the airport to board our light aircraft to Canaima. Parque Nacional Canaima is located in a remote part of Venezuela. Canaima (town) is inaccessible by land, hence the need to fly in. It’s a 50-minute flight from Ciudad Bolivar and a very spectacular route at that - deep green flat-top mountains (tepuis), sabana, forest and waterfalls all fed from a vast river network. We arrived in Canaima and transferred to our camp via dugout canoe past multiple waterfalls coming from mini tepuis. After claiming our hammock space and having lunch we joined our group and left our camp to explore the surrounding waterfalls.

Venezuela is a hot place as I’ve said before but now I’ve been to enough of the country I can vouch for the fact that this has to be the hottest country I have ever visited. Windless Canaima was an unbelievably hot place. So embarking on a trek into the surrounding sabanas would turn out to be another sweaty experience. After walking for 25 minutes or so we had arrived at the base of Salto Sapito. The group stripped off and walked behind the waterfall. The power and volume of water impressed all as well giving us a well-needed, cooling soaking. We then walked up and around the waterfall and ended up on top of the tepui. After admiring the different viewpoints of the Salto, the larger tepui in the background just adds to this unique part of the world. Rich in colour, rolling sabana grasslands and distant almost Jurassic mountainous views captivated us and, before we knew it, it was time to return to the camp. After another good dinner we found ourselves hitting the hammocks for another night swinging ourselves to sleep.
We set off from Canaima the next morning to Salto Angel by the only means possible - dugout canoe. We left the banks of our camp and started the long five-hour journey to our camp at the bottom of the falls. We had only been on the river for about an hour before we were told to disembark and trek for forty minutes through the grasslands of the sabana. Flat, dry and hot, with the sun beating down on us we trekked away from the river while our boat would continue and tackle some rapids. We trekked down to a lake under the stare of the overlooking surrounding tepuis and re-boarded our canoe. For the next few hours we motored through to a smaller network of rivers where rapids became a common feature. From this point onwards we didn’t leave the boat. Instead we powered our way against the flow and on quite a few occasions found ourselves bailing out buckets of water after the canoe became submersed as it cut through the strong rapids. We travelled along the tighter river systems which cut between the tepuis. We were surrounded by these giant flat-top mountains. They were formed by the erosion of the land area around the tepuis which themselves in turn were made up from a more resistant land mass. They have a massive presence and themselves are extremely large. Forest covered bases lead up the virtually vertical rocky tepui sides to the tops of these magnificent giants, which are covered in an ancient world. Trees, flower and fauna that have existed since the mountain top was the crust of the earth. Waterfalls flow from the rivers atop the tepuis, bird life circled and there wasn’t a soul around other than our canoe. It wouldn’t have been strange to see a tyrannosaurus rex storming through the forest or a pterodactyl gawking overhead, actually quite apt. Yet again South America comes up with these majestic goods. After the fun of finding our way through the rapids we arrived at our camp, legs cramped after spending hours sat in a canoe we finally got the chance to stretch them.
It was now time to see what we had come for. A trek through the forest for around an hour led to the viewpoint in the shape of a large rock. Standing on the rock gave us a full view of the world’s highest waterfall, Salto Angel. Its total height is 979m of which 807m is an uninterrupted drop. We gazed way up high to the top of the tepui, watched the water gush from the mountain top and by the time it had fallen by about a third of its journey down, the flow had already broken up and turned into a mist. A member of our group filmed the flow from top to bottom and said it took twenty seconds to reach the pool 1km below at the base of the falls. Although possibly a touch starved of water, Salto Angel was an unbelievable sight. We sat for quite a while and admired under the spell of the mesmerising waterfall and its equally captivating national park.

We made our way back to the camp, had dinner and slept in hammocks under a shelter. The following morning we awoke and managed to find another vantage point of the waterfall, this time well away from Salto Angel but what we saw was a panorama and views draped in cloud that really gave us a sense of the scale and size of her. After breakfast we made our way back to Canaima via the fun rapids and then caught our flight back to Ciudad Bolivar.

We then took an overnight bus on the military checkpoint-ridden route to Santa Elena de Uairen. We are now back on the border with Brazil and will travel again by overnight bus straight into the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
Full Canaima Photos on Flickr
Full Cuidad Bolivar Photos on Flickr

---