Having travelled through some wonderful countryside we headed towards Guyana, capital of Venezuela, dropping from 2800m to 120m within about half an hour, the brakes red hot on the twisting descent. We were running along the border of the country with the same name " Guyana" through some serious jungle. With Chavez, the president, passing away the country was in disarray with everyone wanting the safety of the dollar. We managed to obtain an exchange rate of 20 Bolivars to the $ instead of 6, so we felt like millionaires. Pete filled up with diesel, 213 litres which cost 35 pence, incredible. That explains why there are so many 6 and 8 litre V8 " yank tanks " around, beautiful old cars falling apart around their powerful engines. Heading through the capital and over the Orinoco river, surrounded by massive steel industrial sites we headed out of town to a beautiful campsite run by a Swiss guy. This was our base for our trip to Angel Falls. The following morning we headed to Thomas de heras airport where the group split into two groups. First group in a BaE Jetstream flight time to Canaima 35 minutes, load your own luggage and get on board. Kirsten, Francois and myself in a Cessna single prop light aircraft flight time 1 hr 35 mins. It had a lawnmower engine !! The only benefit was we had a personal flight attendant who assisted us load, place our luggage and generally made sure we were strapped in. She was rather a buxom lady looking extremely cool with tight fitting clothes, pilot shades and a harness. The six seater was full, no room for her but she waved us goodbye as we taxied down the runway. The flight was fantastic, the aerial views stunning as I wondered how this thing was staying up as we were blown about by a constant change in airwaves. We landed at Canaima and the Parque National Canaima. The local passada was clean with good food. The village surprised me being totally unspoilt, with little modern day amenities or outside influence. Over the next couple of days we explored the local beach and waterfalls, Rio Carrao, by longboat canoe, all incredible scenery. The following day it was back to the airfield and into the Cessna with the same pilot along with Steve, Karen, Lisa, Francois and myself as co- pilot. The flight through the incredible flat topped mountains with forests, rivers and waterfalls was just amazing, like so many other things on this trip. Cloud was just covering the tops of the mountain peaks which gave it an eerie feel.
Flying around another rocky outcrop and it was there "Angel Falls" the tallest falls in the world at 977m high and 807m being the longest single drop ( Iguazu Falls are the longest and widest ) We made several fly pasts at different angles observing this thin wisp of water dropping almost to extinction before it hit the base. We were in the dry season but it was still amazing to see the rock colours, the vegetation and the awesome beauty of this site.
After a great couple of days we arrived back at the campsite and after dinner we relayed our different stories from our adventures washed down with numerous Cuba libres ( rum n cokes ). Heading north west towards the Carribean coast we stopped off at Maracay after a 15 hr long day with a couple of events thrown in. Firstly backing into a lamppost after the security guard kept waving us backwards and secondly as a result of that the spare tyre coming off and bouncing down the road thankfully not hitting anyone or damaging anything. We stayed at Passada Limon, Maracay which was a lovely place made better by a pizza take away. Great pizza !!
13.03.13 Back on the road up into the cloud forest crossing the mountains into Henri Pittier National Park. The sometimes single road through this pass had incredible switchbacks and Pete completed an incredible drive to arrive in Porto Colombia our destination for the next few days.
Adios
Tony x
1-4. Catching our Cessna to Angel Falls and our Air Stewardess
5-8. Aerial shots en route of the amazing scenery
9-17. Beautiful waterfalls local to where we were staying
18-28. Our flight to Angel Falls, cloud cover was low, and yes that little wispy thing is the Angel Falls, not much water at this time of year.
29-33. More aerial shots showing surrounding countryside
34-39 local village scenes with a parakeet.
40-41. Me at the controls and after landing.
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