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| co-pilot or Pilot? Jaco |
The four of us left PLC about midday by taxi on a 4 hours drive to Ciudad Bolivar.
The following morning at 7am we left by small, VERY small plane to Canaima National Park.
The sixth biggest national park in the world.
About 65% of the park is occupied by plateaus of rock called tepuis, which are a kind of plateau of millions of years old, with vertical walls and almost flat tops.
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| From the plane on arrival at Canaima with our lodge at the Southern shore, in front of the falls |
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| Jaco, Panna (Johan) and Carine at our canoe. |
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| Panna and Carine ready for the wet ride! |
From Canaima we traveled by motorised canoes (also called curiaras) up the Carrao River, then the Churun river to a landing point where we hiked through the jungle to the falls.
We thoroughly enjoyed this adventure and admired the skillful skippers maneuvering the 40 HP engines, lifting it every few seconds for rocks!
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| Taking a short walk to meet the canoe again. |
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| going up |
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| going up there? |
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| try to miss the rocks |
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| the "bow thruster" in front steering with a wooden oar! |
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| arrive at the bottom of the Salto Angel |
Angel Falls or Salto Ángel is the world's highest waterfall, dropping a total of 978m from the summit, and with an 807m uninterrupted drop.
It is known as Parekupa-meru by the local Pemon Indians but gained the Angel name after US pilot Jimmy Angel crash-landed on the Auyan Tepuy while searching the area for gold in 1937.
His plane was later recovered and can be seen in front of the airport at Ciudad Bolivar
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| "VOILA" |
We did not have enough time to walk all the way to the falls but enjoyed the view tremendously!
Maybe it would have been better if we came here the following morning, but being Christmas made it difficult.
We had a lovely Christmas dinner prepared by the indigenous guides and slept in hammocks the night.
The following day on our way back to Canaima, we visited a few falls to swim in the cola waters.
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| The falls early morning from our campsite. |
We stayed in lovely double rooms at Bernal "campamento",
with a spectacular view of the Hacha falls across the shores of the Canaima Lagoon.
This afternoon we took a beautiful walk to all the water falls in the vicinity, walking through them, behind them or swimming in the pools in front of them!
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| swimming at the Sapito falls |
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| walking underneath the Sapo falls |
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| The powerful "Salto Hacha" |
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| Jaco and friendly Brazilian Walliven Dias behind the Salto Hacha curtain. |
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| On the shores of Canaima lagoon. |
