Back in Manaus late at night, I got a room in what appeared to be the Bates motel. It was also probably the only hotel I have ever been to that had a bible AND a condom beside each other on the night stand. Some kinky scenarious came to mind though... The next morning it was a 12 hour journey to Boa Vista. Another night another motel, this time with TV but no remote. But the room was so small I could operate the TV controls with my toes. The next morning I got on the internet, did my research on Venezuela, got some US Dollars and took a bus to Santa Elena, Venezuela.
The first thing that struck me as I entered Venezuela, was how run down it was - especially in comparison to Brazil. Dogs roamed the streets, the cars were all big old American jalopies and Santa Elena had a general run down feel about it. But as usual the people were friendly and I found a place to book a tour to the Angel Falls - the highest waterfalls in the world and my reason for the quick diversion into Venezuela.
Another night bus, this time with 4 military check points along the way. Nothing like being woken up by an armed po faced soldier asking for your passport at 4am to start your day. I arrived in Ciudad Bolivar bright and chirpy at 5. Luis, the tour company owner with perfect English picked me up in his bashed up car and we had a good old blether about Venezuela. I must admit I had been initially captivated by Chavez and all his bluster about standing up to Dubya Bush.
On further inspection it turns out the man is an idiot. His foreign minister is a bus driver, his "security" minister was shot by criminals, there are power outages all the time, hospitals lack security and are falling apart (apparently if a hit man doesn't kill his target the first time he can just stroll into the hospital and shoot him again while he lies in intensive care), the official exchange rate is 2.15 Bolivars to a dollar (when using an ATM), the black market rate is 5 to 1, causing unsuspecting tourists no end of misery when arriving with no cash. Not to mention he is on the verge of starting a war with Colombia. But hey, at least the price of petrol in Venezuela is cheap. Actually it is cheaper than WATER. 1 dollar to fill a tank up. No joke.
I waited around C.B. airport for a while as legions of tourists were packed into 6 seater Cessnas and flown to Canaima, the nearest airstrip to the falls. I was lucky enough to get a seat up front and really had to resist the urge to take hold of the controls in front of me. I played some flight sims as a kid, how hard can it be? The scenery below us was fantastic - the Orinoco flowed peacfully along, followed by some lakes with millions of islands and finally rainforest appeared, which looks uncannily like Broccoli from above.
Midway into the flight the fuel gauge in front of my nose started to blink. I looked at the pilot who seemed not to notice or was supremely unconcerned. The gauge read 5. A couple of minutes later it read 3. I could see where this was headed. The pilot had still not studied the dial. By the time it was at 2 I was trying to use Jedi mind tricks to force the pilot into looking at the gauge. Of course I wasn't going to actually SAY anything to him. That would have been _totally_ uncool (god forbid). So instead I watched it go down to 1 and finally 0, at which the pilot, with minimal effort, reached a hand out and switched a level. Fucker. But at least neither of us looked like a newbie.
We landed at the beautfiul Canaima lagoon and stepped out into the opressive heat. The lagoon itself is filled by 3 waterfalls which are impressive in their own right. To complete things the lagoon is fringed by the whitest sand this side of the Carribean. We took a bit of a tour of the area, which involved walking under some of the waterfalls. No gold unfortunately.
On the second day we fell out of bed early and got in a dug out canoe. It was to be a 4 hour upstream motor to the basecamp from which we would hike to the Angel Falls. The ride was nice enough, if not hard on the arse - only 2 inches of wood between my precious flesh and the river below. After about an hour it turned spectacular as the Auyantepui from which the Angel plummets, loomed out of the distance. We kept heading towards it and the tepuy got larger and larger till it was nearly a block of rock a kilometer high in front of our noses. We docked on the lovely isla raton and strolled up to our camp and put on out hiking boots for the final ascent to the falls.
Despite the Angel Falls being famous as the highest in the world, the trek up to the base is still completely undeveloped. No signs, no warnings, no railings, no asphalt path. Instead we scrambled over tree roots, swung tarzan like on vines over mini-lakes and generally swashbuckled our way till the climb started. An hour later we turned a corner and there they were.
I use a lot of superlatives, but the Angel Falls deserve every one. Stick ¨amazing¨ in a thesaurus and see what comes out. They are certainly one of the few things that I have seen (along with the Taj Mahal) that are just as good if not better in real life. After shooting dozens of photos we hiked down to the base and had a good old swim. Nothing like a kilometer of water to give you the power shower feeling.
Photos of Venezuela
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