Angel Falls (25-29/Aug/06)

Belem, Brazil

Ciudad Bolivar is quite nice. In the space of a week we seem to have gone from the worst hotel in the universe to the best (considering our budget) - a lovely colonial building immaculately restored, with a huge patio and amazing rooms (and air-con, wo-ho!). Sadly just one night, the second night it was in the hammocks in the pleb area as all the rooms were fully booked.

Apparently we arrived here in the middle of some fish festival (some fish appear down the Orinoco river for just 2 weeks at about this time) though there didn't seem to be much fish-related activity. There are a bunch of boats in the river, but no fry-ups on the sidewalk. Anyway, the main mission of the day was to organise the trip to Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall on the planet.

Next day we flew in a small 5-seater to Canaima, and from there to our lodge at the other side of the lagoon. After a quick lunch we set out in a small group to one of the other waterfalls in the area, which has a path going behind it. You get completely soaked and buffeted by torrential wind currents; I think I rate it as even better than Angel Falls. And the sights around the area, at the top of the waterfall, as well as swimming in the pool under it, are amazing.

Second day of the tour we all hopped into a small motorized canoe upriver for about 6h, stopping for lunch at a mini-fall and pool. With us there was a young couple, a Basque (not Spanish!) trio, one of which was a manic depressive, her boyfriend hardly spoke, and their friend seemed normal, as well as a lovely Venezuelan couple with a 7-month baby and grandparents. Arse completely destroyed from the wooden seat, we then walked for about an hour to the viewpoint. Not the best time of day because light was beginning to fade but we had been slowed down a bit by the older couple. We decided to split and return at our own pace, so we got lost in the middle of the night and in some torrential rain, but our boatman saw us and "rescued" us (we were about 50m from the campsite). The family took ages to come down, so long we were getting worried. In the end it turned out that granddad had some knee trouble, and the baby had survived the ordeal asleep and was completely dry.

It rained heavily all night, so next morning we awoke to an Angel Falls about 3 times the size as the day before. Absolutely amazing. From there it was back to Canaima, this time downriver (with the river pretty big now as well). We had decided to spend an extra day just lazing about, which you can do at no extra cost as long as you forage your own food. We just hanged around the lagoon beach, took the photo which is on the Lonely Planet front cover (albeit digitally enhanced to show blue water instead of brown), and then flew back to Ciudad Bolivar to get the night bus to Santa Elena.