Venezuela & the Angel Falls

---

Another long bus journey of 28 hours took me from Brazil into Ciudad Bolivar, a smallish city whose only attraction is being a base for excursions to the Angel Falls.

Although Cuidad Bolivar has quite a nice old center, is is basically deserted, and it is a struggle to find a restaurant there. The city, along with the rest of Venezuela, suffers from regular shortages of milk, sugar, or even toilet paper, balanced out with more than enough corruption.

I was lucky enough to book a tour to the Angel Falls the day after arriving. The falls are in quite a remote area, so the only way to get there is by organised tours. This involves a one hour flight to Canaima in a small cessna. Canaima is a small village, beautifully located on a lagoon being fed by two waterfalls. After arriving in Canaima we walked along the lagoon, checking out the waterfalls. One of the highlights was that both waterfalls had an overhang, so we could walk behind the curtain of water, getting a nice cold shower!

We spent the night in Canaima, and the next morning started our journey to the falls, which is only possible by taking a 4 1/2 hour canoe trip upriver. I was expecting a calm cruise upriver, however, due to the rapids, the trip was often more like a ride in an adventure parks, with the canoe threatening to capsize twice. The views along the way are a great as well. Lots of jungle, and towering table mountains (Tepui's). We made it to the base of the falls safely though, and then hiked another hour through the jungle to get to the viewpoint for the Angel Falls.

The Angel falls is the highest free-falling water fall in the world, at 979m. The view is pretty spectacular, as the falls start as your classic waterfall, but as they are so high, winds disperse the water, until it arrives at the base as a thread of mist. The thread of mist weaves its way down in a constantly changing pattern. Pretty cool to watch!

We spent that evening in a jungle camp at the base of the falls sleeping in hammocks, before heading back to Canaima and then Ciudad Bolivar the next day.

And that was my short stay in Venezuela. The same evening I took a nightbus to Caracas (10 hrs), and then a flight to Quito the following afternoon.

---

Photos

nasty little termite
one bite from these and you're sick for 24 hours