Angel Falls and other waterfalls in the Gran Sabana

The way to Angel Falls was a long journey into the Gran Sabana. To get to the area, I needed to take a small airplane trip for about thirty minutes and fly into Canaima Village. (There are no roads that lead into the area from anywhere in Venezeula.)  We spend a couple hours in the village before eating lunch, then we jumped into a speed boat and visited two waterfalls within sight of the village.

the view from underneath a waterfall

The next day, we woke up early, ate breakfast and jumped into another speedboat for a four hour boat ride along the river to get to the remote Angel Falls.  The falls are almost 1,000 meters tall (over 3,200 feet), thus making it the highest uniterrupted waterfall in the world. Fortunately, while the whole day was overcast and grey, we were able to see the top of the waterfall... unlike the next day which was rainy and obscurred by clouds.

flock of birds along the way to the falls

spider in the forest

So this is the current price of gasoline in Venezuela - seven cents to the Bolivare.  For those who want to do the conversion,  a liter is slightly more than a quarter of a gallon and the exchange rate on the black market on my last day in Venezuela was 17 Bolivares to $1 US...  in other words one gallon costs about  TWO CENTS in Venezuela... someone check my math... this just doesn´t make sense... but Hugo cuts a break for his people.

The next day I took a tour of the many waterfalls in the Gran Sabana, which is the southeastern corner of the country that borders Brazil and Guyana.  The countryside reminds me much of the Lion King or African Savanah because of vast tracks of desert land that is lined with palm trees along the rivers and the random forest patches of trees.  But with all the rivers, there are many waterfalls!

I particularly liked this waterfall called Jasper because of the red and yellow rocks...

view of the Gran Sabana

random fires keep breaking out due to the dry brush

Santa Elena is the one bright spot of Venezuela, despite it being a border town to Brazil.  Compared to the other cities where EVERYONE warned me of impending crime, Elena was very safe and friendly. It may help that there are multiple police and military checkpoints on the roads in and out of the city.

flag overlooking Santa Elena

the edge of Santa Elena