Day 97 - Canaima, Venezuela

TRAVELLING TO AND AROUND CANAIMA NATIONAL PARK (08/04/09)

Hardly able to contain our excitement the day of our Angel Falls trip had finally arrived. We arrived at the airport where we were given our hand written boarding pass!

We could see our plane but we had to wait for the other three passengers to arrive before we could take off. Adam was so excited - he has wanted to fly over the jungle in a five seater plane since he was about five years old.

There is no road access to the Canaima area so all supplies, such as eggs, have to be brought in by the tourist planes.

The plane was the height of 1980s technology.

Aerial view of Ciudad Bolivar.

On the one and a half hour flight we gradually left civilisation behind.

Eventually there were not even dirt tracks, just trees and water.

The dense rainforest, even from the height of the plane trees stretched as far as we could see.

Our first view of a tepuy, the local name for a table mountain. This is Nonoi Tepuy one of about 160 in Venezuela.

There were many incredible views from the plane.

Coming in to land we could see everything in greater detail.

We saw these amazing waterfalls - little did we know that our first nights accomodation was a 3 minute walk away from them.

With a couple of hours to kill we walked to Canaima Lagoon into which the waterfalls flow.

We were misinformed about the necessity of sandals for the first day of the trip where we would be getting very wet. Luckily Liz managed to find a friendly local lady who when asked pulled out a huge black bag full of all sizes and shapes. We purchased a pair each ready for our afternoon.

Liz´s were a delightful colour, Adams were less interesting but left in agony for several days afterwards.

Our first trip was on a boat accross the lagoon to get closer to the waterfalls.

The enormous Hacha Waterfall.

We were so happy that the sun was shining as we had heard that it normally rains. As it turned out we had been very lucky - it had only stopped raining the day before.

The next part of our adventure was a walk under the 60 metre high and 200 metre wide El Sapo waterfall. This was the only picture we got since further in we got completely drenched by the torrent of water gushing over our heads. Luckily our guide had a waterproof bag for our cameras.

The other side of El Sapo. As you can imagine with this much water the noise was deafening.

The top of the falls.

Overwhelmed by the incredible landscape.

We were shocked when our guide waded into the water and crossed about a third of the way. We were even more shocked when he told us to follow him and it was quite a struggle walking knee deep in such fast flowing water.

About as happy as Adam has ever been. Note the rainbow in the waterfall and the Tepuy in the background.

Our canoe did not have enough room for many people so we waited for it to return to pick us up with a view of the waterfalls at sunset to keep us entertained.

Our returning canoe with our local guide Miguel sat on the front.