Our guide, Elliott, wants myself, Christi, Kelvin, Ashley, George, and Chow-Lung to begin hiking to the base of Angel Falls at 5:30 am. The neighboring camp sites have a different plan, however, and loud voices disturb me at 4.15 am as hikers stumble past our hammocks. Elliott suggests we follow along and we scramble to comply. Elliott hikes fast through the root-infested rainforest, eventually leaving George, our Joe Pesci look-alike, lost in his wake. I complain, not for the first time, to Elliott who is not impressed with me. The hike is longer and steeper than I expected, but after 45 minutes we finally reach the Angel Falls lookout; there is still another 30 minutes to the base of the falls and the ‘swimming pool’ but no one in our tired, bedraggled group has the enthusiasm to continue. The lookout, a precipitous, rocky outcrop, is overly packed with tourists making movement dangerous and photography problematic. The falls are clear of fog, but the water levels are very low giving rise to a thin ribbon flowing off of Auyantepui that disappears into mist before reaching the bottom of the cliff. At one point the wind catches the ribbon of water sending it swirling off to the side. The falls themselves are 979 meters (3,212 ft) high, with an uninterrupted descent of 807 meters (2,648 ft). In total therefore Angel Falls are 19x higher than Niagara Falls and 12x higher than Iguazu Falls.
Having spent so much time and energy to get here it would have been nice to enjoy the spectacle a little longer, but Elliott insists we start back down the Carroa River. The return journey is much easier. Kelvin and I only get out of the boat twice on the 4-hour ride, although our failing boat is till the last to arrive at the docks in Canaima at 12:45 pm. Our local tour operator, Miriam, greets us with the news that there is insufficient time for our free scenic flight (a 350B pp value) before we return to Puerto Ordaz on our scheduled flight at 1:30 pm. Well that’s just dandy, isn’t it. We voice our disappointment that nothing she has organized has panned out as promised and Miriam reluctantly agrees to give Kelvin, Ashley, Christi, and I a partial refund. I feel bad for Kelvin and Ashley. I tell them that of all the countries we have visited in South America to date Venezuela is the most challenging. Apparently my fears are groundless as Kelvin and Ashley assure Christi and I that they are having a fantastic time!
We leave Miriam on remarkably good terms, eating a packed lunch at a hut at the airport that doubles as the check-in center. Naturally, we proceed to board the wrong flight to Puerto Ordaz and have to return, rather embarrassed, to the ‘departure’ hut and wait for the next plane! Once we do find the correct airplane, the return flight to Puerto Ordaz is smooth and arrives on time.
For the first time on our Year of Wonder we have no plans and no onward connection. We are in the height of the Venezuelan tourist season and flights are at a premium. Ashley, Christi, and Kelvin trawl the airline offices in Puerto Ordaz looking for 4 seats to anywhere in Venezuela and eventually find a flight to Margarita Island (via Caracas) for the following day. We are lucky to have flights at all, but accommodation is a whole other issue that will need to be faced tomorrow. In the meantime we spend the night in a hotel in suburban Puerto Ordaz, but there are no restaurants nearby and we are left to forage for dinner at a local convenience store. All in all quite a frustrating day.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching tale.
Speak Your Mind