Plunge pool
Idiot
Canaima
At Ciudad Bolivar airport resides El Rio Caroni, the reassembled aircraft of Jimmie Angel, founder of Angel Falls - it was a very cool sight, only wished that I could have got a sneak peek inside. (The plane remained atop Auyantepui from 1937 until 1970 when it was disassembled into parts and lifted down by Venezuelan military helicopters.)
We took a small plane out to Canaima and got set up in our lodges. Spent some time chilling out in Canaima lagoon. Water was quite shallow and it took some time to get out to an area deep enough to be fully submerged. Took a canoe and went to see some nearby waterfalls. Even did a walk behind Sapa waterfall, filmed in 'The Last of the Mohicans'. Utterly beautiful to see, and got terribly drenched - luckily I allowed myself to be convinced into leaving my big camera at the entrance. After emerging from the waterfall we went to a plunge pool where the more adventurous amongst us jumped off rock ledges into the water below. I wasn't going next to near the water (as I couldn't see the bottom); instead I happily played paparazzi for the jumpers.
Headed off to see Angel Falls in a little 6 seater Cessna plane. Now this is more like why I expected Venezuela to be, lush green rain forests, table top tepuis, stunning jaw dropping scenery. Simply gorgeous. Breathtaking in fact. Due to it being the dry season, I had prepared myself for seeing a smaller Angel Falls than normal, however it took me a while to register what I was seeing when we eventually got to it. Being at the back of the plane I missed the pilot's comment identifying the falls, instead I wondered why we were spending so much time at a misty, practically dry, waterfall. By our third circle around the falls my lightbulb finally went ding - OOPS, idiot! Twas fairly funny. While the falls might not have been as spectacular as I would have liked (will have to come back in the wet season), I thoroughly enjoyed the scenic beauty that I saw on the way to and from the falls - mesmerising!
The flight back from Canaima was quite the experience, I think it must have been some kind of extreme endurance test that was secretly being filmed with hidden cameras. The temperature in the plane was about 36 degrees and we slowly, over the space of forty minutes, lost about a third of our body weight in sweat. I was dripping from head to toe on landing back on the Tarmac in Ciudad Bolivar. All the safety leaflets on board were ragged as we had used them as makeshift fans to help generate some form of air circulation. Still, it was a good excuse to order an ice cold drink on returning back at camp.
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