This is the long overdue report about my thrilling visit to Angel Falls, the highest water fall in the world. I am breaking this up into multiple posts (1) to spread out the fun and (2) because the download times for photos over my lame “high speed” internet connection is quite long.To prepare you for this adventure, I have put together some background information that you might find interesting. Here are links about Angel Falls:
Canaima and Angel Falls
Venezuela Tuya – Angel Falls
Google Map Auyan Tepui and Angel Falls
Here are some maps to get oriented ("waterfall" in Spanish is "salto" thus Salto Angel)
Angel Falls is located in Parque National Canaima. It was discovered by Jimmy Angel. It is located on a Tepui (sometimes spelled “tepuy”) called Auyan Tepui. Tepuis are table top mountains, much like the mesas of the Southwest U.S., only much larger.
My good friend, Greg Weiss, joined me on this trip. The night before we set out I picked up Greg at the Caracas Airport. Of course his flight was about two hours late and it took him over an hour to get through customs so we got home from the airport after midnight. As an interesting side note, the trip home from the airport requires passing through one of the worst areas in Caracas, called 23 de Enero (23 of January). It is common for thieves to setup roadblocks on the autopista to rob people. I was a little nervous, driving a BMW and all, but the trip home from the airport was quite uneventful. Our journey the next morning was to begin at about 5:00 am, and I wondered if it was even worth the effort to leave and return to the airport. Obviously we had to go pick up my luggage at home so that was not really an option. We were going to be operating on very little sleep.
The travel agency we used was Akanan Travel. This was our itinerary:
Day 1: Fly to Puerto Ordaz, drive to Ciudad Bolivar and spend the day touring Ciudad Bolivar.
Day 2: Fly from Ciudad Bolivar to Kavak deep in the Gran Sabana on the southern side of Auyan Tepui.
Day 3: Travel by boat on the Rio Akanan to campsite 1
Day 4: Travel by boat on the Rio Carrao to campsite 2
Day 5: Travel by boat on the Rio Churun to campsite 3 at the base of Angel Falls
Day 6: Travel by Boat to Canaima and fly to Ciudad Bolivar, drive to Puerto Ordaz and then to Caracas
I will begin the journey with the next post. Today just sets the stage.
My good friend, Greg Weiss, joined me on this trip. The night before we set out I picked up Greg at the Caracas Airport. Of course his flight was about two hours late and it took him over an hour to get through customs so we got home from the airport after midnight. As an interesting side note, the trip home from the airport requires passing through one of the worst areas in Caracas, called 23 de Enero (23 of January). It is common for thieves to setup roadblocks on the autopista to rob people. I was a little nervous, driving a BMW and all, but the trip home from the airport was quite uneventful. Our journey the next morning was to begin at about 5:00 am, and I wondered if it was even worth the effort to leave and return to the airport. Obviously we had to go pick up my luggage at home so that was not really an option. We were going to be operating on very little sleep.
The travel agency we used was Akanan Travel. This was our itinerary:
Day 1: Fly to Puerto Ordaz, drive to Ciudad Bolivar and spend the day touring Ciudad Bolivar.
Day 2: Fly from Ciudad Bolivar to Kavak deep in the Gran Sabana on the southern side of Auyan Tepui.
Day 3: Travel by boat on the Rio Akanan to campsite 1
Day 4: Travel by boat on the Rio Carrao to campsite 2
Day 5: Travel by boat on the Rio Churun to campsite 3 at the base of Angel Falls
Day 6: Travel by Boat to Canaima and fly to Ciudad Bolivar, drive to Puerto Ordaz and then to Caracas
I will begin the journey with the next post. Today just sets the stage.
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