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So, Venezuela - a land renowned mainly for its president, Hugo Chavez, but for all the wrong reasons. He keeps himself well in the news, mainly due to his aid and support for left-wing candidates and regimes in other countries while crime and poverty in his own country get worse and worse. Venezuela is also famous for its beauty queens as it has more Miss Universes than any other country (4) and 5 Miss Worlds plus countless other obscure titles (btw, what IS the difference between Miss World and Miss Universe?!).
Its biggest claim to fame (certainly on this continent) is that it gave Latin America one of its greatest heroes - Simon Bolivar. From Caracas, Bolivar is regarded as a hero, revolutionary, visionary and liberator. He abolished Spanish rule over South America and led Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru to independence. He also helped to lay the foundations for democracy in much of Hispanic America. For this reason, he is often referred to as the "George Washington of South America".
Chavez became president in 1998, 6 years after leading a fatal coup and 4 years after being pardoned for it. He compared himself to Simon Bolivar, promising help and handouts to the poorest people and positioning himself as an oppose to the US-influenced free-market economy. This is interesting as, although a staunch anti-US land, everyone here eats McDs, BK and Wendy's, they drive Fords and Chevroletsl, they bank at Citibank and they watch US TV and films. At least a country like Cuba practices what it preaches - not that I'm saying it's right. The only related 'rule' that seems to be enforced is that 50% of all radio must be Venezuelan music and, of that, 50% must be traditional. I have to say that when I first heard Venezuelan music I quite liked it but then realised that it all sounds exactly the same - most of it like the intro to Bazza Manilow's Copacabana!! Anyway, through a 2004 referendum, Chavez has basically protected his presidency until 2020 which is a scary thought as he allies himself to all of the extreme leaders of the world, in particular Fidel Castro.
Phew! Right, onto my next adventure. I arrived at the airport to catch my flight to Canaima, home of Angel Falls. Luckily my posada man came with me as I would never have fathomed out the process without him. We had to go to a pokey little office where I handed over cash for airport tax (no receipt or anything) and was then told to wait in the coffee shop and they would come and find me. And. No - no need for a boarding pass on nay proof of flying. My itinerary said that my flight would be at 'around' 8.30am and when I asked at the airport, they just shrugged. Half an hour later, a guy turned up with a slip of paper that basically had my name and my route and then half an hour later again, he came and said my plane was ready. It was like walking through a carpark - loads of little cessnas and then we found ours, a 2-door, five-seater battered old mini! It was a bit like the plane in Nazca, only about 100 years older! The captain flipped the front seat forward (honestly!), people got in the back and I got in the front - yay! The plane looked ancient - the dials were really old fashioned with those big numbers that flip and there was nothing digital at all. Scary! No sooner had we sat down when we were hurtling along the runway (which may aswell have been a country lane) with the windows wide open - surely this can't be right? All the way through the flight he kept twiddling with 3 screwdrivers that didn't look as though they were attached to anything. I'm sure he knew what he was doing! Anyway, it was all good and we made it - with some great views along the way!
I was picked up at the airport (well, shack with a landing strip) and stocked up on mozzie repellant as I'd been warned about this place! Antony was our guide and there were 13 of us in the group - not a sociable group at all I might add - nobody even introduced themselves! There were a few oddballs, as usual, and one guy who was camper than a row of tents continuously asking really dumb questions. He claimed he worked on Wall Street and, as we were discussing banking (he knew where I used to work), he asked if I'd heard of Morgan Stanley. Er…hello?
Antony announced that we would be going to Angel Falls there and then and staying overnight in a camp so we were bundled onto a large canoe thing and embarked on a 4 hour, very sore-bum-making journey! I was at the front and it was during this journey that Antony decided to try his luck. He started by asking the obligatory questions about marriage, kids, boyfriend (so that fantastic guy came up again!) and then told me to forget about my 'boyfriend' and spend the 3 days with him. Er…no thanks I said to which he asked over and over again 'why not?'. There are only so many times you can say no and I ended up just laughing at him and telling him he was crazy. Undeterred, he kept trying to hold my hands. It all got a trifle embarrassing really.
After a pretty impressive boat ride over rapids (the river was clearly very high as we could see the tops of trees poking out and the trees on the banks had their bottom branches underwater), we arrived at a pathway which would take us to the viewpoint to Angel Falls (Salto Angel). It was a strenuous 45 minute climb and we had to do it quickly as it was already 4pm. We got to the top and it was impressive. I wasn't blown away (well, I was in the literal sense as it was bloody windy) like at Iguassu but the height was amazing. There was just so much water as now is the rainy season so you couldn't see the whole drop. Part of me thinks that it would be more impressive in the drier seasons when you can just see a thin ribbon falling down but I was glad I got to see it in any case.
Salto Angel is the world's highest waterfall at 979m with an uninterrupted drop of 807m which makes it about 16 times the height of Niagara. It's not named after an angel (Veronica or otherwise!), but actually after Jimmie Angel, an American pilot, who landed his plane at the top of it in 1937 while he was searching for gold. It's located in the middle of the jungle on the top of a tepui which is basically a kind of table mountain or plateau. There is no road access to the falls and they are 50km from the village of Canaima, which is also only accessible by air so it's a bit of a mission to get there! There are 7 falls nearby and right on the lagoon in Canaima are Sapito, Hacha and Sapo Falls.
We made our way back down to the river by which time it was almost dark and it was announced to us that we had to cross the river on foot. You have got to be joking! The thing was a raging torrent. Nope, no joke. The water came up to our thighs. I panicked a bit halfway across as I lost my footing and thought I was going to go hurtling downstream so I just stood still looking white and scared! 2 of the guides had to come and help me (what an old biddy eh?!). I didn't sign up for this! We finally made it to our camp which I was very impressed with - several rows of hammocks with good quality mozzie nets under a tin roof and a proper toilet and shower block. Showers? What luxury! I took advantage of the facilities (not even any spiders!) and then we had a BBQ dinner which was good. Not much to do after that as the lights went out so I went to bed with my headtorch and book, keeping one eye and ear open as Antony had strategically placed me on the end of the row, next to him.
People seemed remarkably chirpy the next morning and were up and about (and making far too much noise) at bout 5.30am. It was cloudy but we got a glimpse of the falls from our camp before taking the boat back to Canaima. As we were with the current this time the journey was shorter but a bit hairier as we zoomed over the rapids and got totally soaked! After lunch we went to Salto Sapo (Frog Falls). In some ways these were more impressive as they were really wide and gushing and we were about to walk through/behind them!!! What an exhilarating experience. There is a pathway carved into the rock behind the falls and you walk for about 5 minutes through the spray which, every so often, changes direction and blasts you so you can't see anything and you get knocked off balance. Quite scary really but gets the adrenalin pumping! Again, I had to be helped through parts of it as I simply couldn't see where I was going! At the other end we climbed up to the edge of the falls before going back through. I tried to take a video so you could see what it was like but not long after I started, I got attacked by the water and got totally disoriented. The red thing you can see is the guide grabbing my hand and leading me through. Anyway, it was a marvelous thing to do and very hard to describe but a great experience to be enveloped by so much water. It felt much more interactive and real than just looking at it from a viewpoint.
The following day was a bit of a write-off. Actually our tour had been changed around and I personally think it was for the worse. We were initially supposed to get to Salto Angel at lunchtime which would have given us plenty of time during the day to see it and hopefully for the cloud to clear. Instead of course, we were rushing to try and get there before dark. As a result, we had nothing to do on our last day. We had to be out of our rooms by 9am and there isn't even a coffee shop or bar in the village where you can sit. I headed to the beach by the lagoon but it was just far too hot. Anyway, I spotted some outdoor sofas that belonged to a hotel so I decided to nab one of those until someone chased me away - nobody did so I spent a contented couple of hours reading in the shade. After lunch we headed to the airport where there seemed to be some confusion over which plane was going where, at what time and with how many people. There was no checking of anything this time and no security check. I suppose since this is the only way into the area, they know you have to get out and since you can't buy anything there except for mozzie repellant, waterproof ponchos and tourist tat, there's no need for security!I was on a larger plane going back (18 seater - woohoo!!). Luckily my ride had told me that he might be late as I sat like an orphan in the airport as every other plane landed and all the other foreigners were met and greeted and whisked away. As the time reached an hour, I was just beginning to think I'd been forgotten about and was about to attempt to phone someone and then he turned up! Went back to the posada (in the middle of nowhere) and chilled out for a couple of hours before heading to the airport for my light back to Caracas - which ended up being delayed by 2.5 hours and then the there were problems with the luggage so I didn't get to bed until 1am - ugh!
- comments
Mum I am exhausted just reading about this experience. You must have been done in after all that to-ing and fro-ing, no wonder you needed to sit and relax!!