On September 22, 2005, after spending nearly a year in Trinidad, we sailed away
into the sunset towards Venezuela (VZ). To avoid pirates and any other unwanted
encounters, we sailed at night traveling north toward Grenada before finally
turning south toward our destination, Venezuela. We made a few fairly
quick stops at out islands before reaching our primary destination Puerto La
Cruz, VZ.
One of our main reasons for staying in Puerto La Cruz, besides meeting up with
friends, was to take inland tours of Venezuela. We succeeded at
both. We had a fantastic time meeting up with friends we hadn't seen in
almost a year.
We also took two wonderful tours. The first was a trip to Guacharo Cave which
is located in a small, quaint town called Caripe. One of the most
interesting things about the Guacharo Cave are the birds who inhabit the cave,
called Guacharo Birds or "Fat Birds". These birds prefer to live
in the darkness of deep caverns and clefts which they abandon in flocks at
night, in search for food in palm trees. They spend the day in the nests,
digesting the food collected during the night. The fruit seeds and shells
they have regurgitated fall onto the soil, to form a layer of organic matter,
which serves as nourishment for a considerable number of species of the hypogeal
fauna. The birds build their nests on the cave wall's ledges and make them
with a paste comprised of regurgitated seeds (from the fruit they eat) and
excrements. The guacharo lays two to four eggs in the months of May and
June, with an incubation period of some 33 days. The pigeons are born
covered by a thin plumage and due to their oil nutrition, they accumulate big
quantities of grease, reaching a weight one and a half times the adult
birds. When their definitive feathers start to grow they loose weight
until they can initiate their night flights, approximately 17 weeks after their
birth. The plumage is brown with heart shaped white spots on the head,
wings and tail. The eyes are reddish-brown and very sensitive to
light. To guide its flight in the dark, the guacharo constantly emits
acute and penetrating sounds. This peculiar sound is capable of guiding
its flight in the dark by means of an orientation system known as
"echolocation", considered as an equivalent of sonar. Here's a
photo of this bird, click on play to hear their peculiar sound which this bird
is known.
Our second trip was to Salto Angel (Angel Falls) which has the greatest
uninterrupted drop in the world. One of our fellow cruisers wrote
about their experience at Angel Falls, and it captured the essence of the trip
so completely that we asked their permission to use part of it on our website.
Written
by Todd Fulks from the sailing vessel Blue Marine ... Thanks to Todd and his
wife, Lynn for capturing the spirit of this adventure.
Salto Angel (Angel Falls in English) is the world's highest waterfall where the
water cascades an amazing 3,212 feet (over half a mile) so far of a drop that
not all the drops make it to the bottom.
Angel Falls got its modern name from aviator Jimmy Angel (born in Springfield
MO,1899), who was obsessed with finding gold on top of Auyan-tepui (Devil's
House); a 435 square mile heart-shaped, flat-topped mountain. In 1937
Jimmy landed or should I say crashed his plane, El Rio Caroni, on top of this
mountain, where he had spotted the falls. He
searched but never found his lost river of gold. His plane, tipped nose
first in the mud, and with a ruptured fuel line, remained on Auyan-tepui for
33 years. It was later located at the airport in Ciudad Bolivar, and it is
now supposed to be preserved at a Venezuelan aviation museum. A replica
now sits in front of the Ciudad Bolivar airport. Jimmy Angel died in
Panama in 1956. He never dreamed that his banged up airplane would be of
interest to
anyone or become a national monument. He also didn't think the waterfall was
that big of a deal, since he originally thought it was twice that high. Of
course, the local Indians, the Pemones, already knew about the falls long
before Mr. Angel. They have called it Kerepakupai Merú, which means
"fall
from the deepest place". To see Angel Falls you can of course fly over as
Angel once did (but that would be too easy), or take an adventure that
starts with a 4 hour navigation up the Carrao River, and then the Churun
River. From there, a one hour hike up and over and through the densely
covered forest floor to the base of Salto Angel. That's what we did.
We scooped up our backpacks and hoofed it around the corner to the
airport and caught a couple small airplanes to Canaima. Canaima is a
remote
Indian village (developed in the last 20 years with tourist dollars) located on a river lagoon several hours downstream of Angel Falls. You can only
get
to Canaima by boat or plane. The lagoon is fed by at least seven
waterfalls
if you count during the rainy season. These waterfalls are just as much an
attraction as Angel Falls and rightly so. That afternoon, we were blown
away (almost) by the sheer power and magnitude of the Canaima falls as we
took a hike behind a couple of them. Millions of gallons of water rushed
past us in a loud deafening roar. We inched our way down a rocky trail behind the falls, blinding spray forcing us to hold onto a rope the Indians
installed for us tourists. I wiped my eyes for the hundredth time and
could barely make out a hand reaching through the torrent and took it, and quickly
I am pulled through to another dimension. This was so cool! I stood
there in a light mist now and we looked at each other trying to save this moment.
I brought my camera with the underwater housing so I snapped a few shots before moving into the next wall of blinding spray. My camera doesn't have
a light setting for 'churning tea colored water with eerie glow' so I fiddle with the flash settings randomly hoping to get a few shots of some of our
group before I finally ran out of memory. I didn't get any shots of the tiny moist flowers growing here and there and some
wild looking lush green water plants that have found this environment just perfect. Around the next
pile of rocks at our feet there was another pool to cross and the water overhead just pounds on the trail. As I hiked from one part of the falls
to another it felt like someone had taken one of those shower massagers and has been dialing it with every step. We walked through shower, mist, jet,
spray, stream, and my favorite...pulsating shower. I think that may just have been one of the best showers I have ever had. If you want to
experience this at home, go to your nearest car wash, tie a rope onto your bumper, hold on, and stumble through the car wash behind your car. What a
rush! We went behind two falls that afternoon, and the second one was more
fierce than the first. Too bad we had to douse our clean bodies up with
bug spray for our evening dining experience at the Posada (guest house).
Next day, we're off to see Angel Falls, so we are served a hearty breakfast.
Tip: big breakfast on a tour means yer in for a very long day, and of course night. We'd never slept in hammocks draped in mosquito netting before.
Our group and all our luggage fit into two of their long river boats. We climbed aboard, donned life vests, and took our seats. Our river guides
had everything well packed and covered in tarps. We were aboard a giant 45
foot boat carved out of one log with a large 48 horsepower Yamaha strapped to the
back and a spare at the driver's feet, plus a couple of extra props. Each skilled driver motored us upriver and through various sets of rapids,
lifting the motor the last second before hitting the rocks just inches below. A spotter sat perched on the extended bow with a large paddle at
the ready. Several times the huge paddle came out to nose the bow back around
before the boat went sideways in the river. At times it was a thrill-ride,
while other times we just sat in awe of the amazing landscapes before us. Around each bend were vistas that were
breathtaking. Large tepuis (flat-topped mountains) stood in the distance and as we got closer to Angel
Falls they were right on top of us. Finally we were in a canyon with rock walls towering up to 3000 feet above us and Angel Falls peeking out just
around the corner. A friend warned me last week about the hike and said
I'd stumble and trip over roots for more than an hour up and an hour down just to get to the falls. Yep! We huffed and puffed, but weren't about to give
up since we'd come this far. Finally we were rewarded as we came to a
large opening in the forest where we could scurry out onto a huge rock and sit and
enjoy a clear look at Angel Falls. All the cameras were clicking.
Joanna, one of our guides, brought along a special Indian outfit to wear and changed
clothes somewhere along the trail. At the lookout, every guy had to get their picture taken with this charming young Indian woman and Angel Falls in
the background. Before our hike back down our other English speaking
Indian guide, Jorge, said the pool at the base of the falls was safe for us to swim, so we hiked an even more treacherous trail to the base of the falls
and soaked our aching bodies in the cool water. After everyone had enough of Angel Falls another tour group arrived so we slowly began our hike back
down to the boats left at the river below. When we got back our boats were
gone. The drivers and a couple other boys took them to our base camp and unloaded all our gear and the supplies for the camp. Jorge took off his
shoes and dove into the river and was quickly whisked downstream nearly half a mile to the camp to get the boats. He's obviously done this a few times.
Our camp consisted of a bathroom facility and showers, and a large galvanized roof shelter with no walls, where we ate and slept. The
hammocks each had a mosquito net hung over them and were hung from long tree limbs
stretched the length of the shelter. At dinner I spent a while chatting with Jorge & Joanna. For dinner we ate the traditional meal that all
the tours eat when visiting the falls, chicken cooked on spears stuck in the ground around a bonfire with rice etc. Yum! It was delicious.
Jorge's tip was to try and sleep diagonal in the hammock and we might actually fall
asleep. Most people don't do too well their first night in a hammock, but
I tell you there were at least four or five in our group catching some Zs, by the sound of the snoring among the rows of hammocks. I
brought along a
pair of ear plugs, and even though it rained all night on the tin roof I could still hear the snoring.
We awoke to a loud raging river and a full cascading Angel Falls
across from our camp. The rain had ended and now it was lit perfectly by the crisp morning sun. The river that flowed 50 yards away from our camp
last night, was roaring nearly ten feet from the edge of the hammocks. The
heavy rain meant the river rose over 5 feet overnight. Our ride home was a
fast ride down the swollen river. It took us less than two hours for the return thrill-ride.
What an adventure!!! Here's a clip of Angel Falls, click play
to view.
We've completed two inland tours and we're ready to start sailing again.
We left Puerto La Cruz to visit the islands along the coast of Venezuela. Los
Roques is our next stop click on the link to take a look.
If
you would like to catch up on the latest travels, take a look at What's
Happening. Don't forget ... keep coming back.
