If I thought trekking Mount Roraima was an amazing trip while in Venezuela, that’s only because I didn’t know Canaima and Angel Falls. Okay… maybe both trips are as incredible as the other, only different kind of breathtaking views. The whole Canaima National Park is stunning!

For this trip I went with my aunt. First we drove from Caracas to Ciudad Bolívar (to the south of the country) and the flew from Ciudad Bolívar to Canaima in a small plane. I might travel a lot, but I respect flying, while on a turbulence I might be calm if it’s a small one unless starts shaking a lot. On this one, I was freaking out on the way to Canaima😆. Really cloudy. Heavy turbulence. But only seconds away of landing at Canaima airport, the view was clear and I could see few waterfalls and river that made me forget the (almost) 2hours flight with turbulence.

Once at the airport, a bus took us to where our tour was going to begin. And also where we were going to spend the 2nd night.

The 1st day, once we were ready, we left, a group of 9 people, to Angel Falls.

We needed to ride a boat (a ‘curiara’) for about 4 hours. Stopping at one point to walk for 20min and another time to have lunch. It’s a long trip, not comfortable at all, but the view on the way to the falls was amazing.

Of course, a lot of things happened. One, we wanted to go (and it’s better to go) during raining season because the river is high to navigate (during dry season, maybe, there is not river and the waterfall might have just a very thin line of water. So, obviously, part of the ride the heavy rain accompanied us.

Part of that ride I was covering my camera (I had the GoPro -perfectly fine- and my Canon with no protection). Once the rain was over, the trip was beautiful.

And it felt amazingly good to see Angel Falls getting closer. Plus the size of the Auyántepui, which it’s the largest (not highest) tepuy (table-top mountain), it was incredible to see the same mountain, different sides, for hours during our ride.

Since I was a girl, I remember I wanted to visit this magical place. I felt something I’ve never felt before, such an incredible feeling that I was finally about to see the highest fall in the world, that I was almost about to cry. I hold it.

We arrived at the base of Angel Falls really late, so we had to hike, almost running, because 1) it was going to be dark before we could see the fall and 2) the rain. Of course, it wasn’t like my trekking to Roraima, I didn’t have a heavy bag on my back and it was much easy to walk.

Once I got to the viewpoint and stood in front of the Angel Falls, feeling that heavy waterfall just steps away… it was so magical, so amazing that I couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t stop the tears, I tried to hide it until one of the girls that was in our group said out loud “I can’t stop crying” I just laughed taking out my sunglasses saying “I though I was the only one”. I have no idea how to describe that feeling, it was stunning to see it in front of me. To feel all that amazing energy.

I just wanted to stay there for hours.

They told us the waterfall had about 60% of water, and when it’s 100% you can’t even stand there were we were. So I guess visiting during July (as I did) or maybe August is perfect timing.

We started to walk back to the boat, another hour or so hiking down. It was a bit difficult (easy after doing Roraima) because it was getting dark, not everyone had a light so I had to go with a group, my aunt with another.

Once we were down, before crossing a river, it was raining, and dark, I was holding my camera with one hand, and my sunglasses on my head, I needed to bend over to grab something from the river, I was already crossing it, so my sunglasses fell down, I tried to catch them so fast that I slipped and fell down into the river… I hit my leg so hard (laughing remembering that), the guy that was with me got scared and tried to help me. He later told me he was surprised how I managed to hold my camera and keep it dry while I was almost completely inside the river. 🙂  I only had a huge bruised, nothing more. Camera is safe 🙂

After the whole group was ready, we went back to the ‘curiara’ to cross the river where our camp and our things were waiting for us.

Completely different from Roraima. This time there were no tents but just ‘hamacas’ (hammocks), and there were bathrooms with shower (freezing water) and toilets! In the middle of nowhere it was so funny.

We had a nice dinner, and then it was time for us to sleep. It was going to be on those hammocks with no walls of any kind. I just got inside my sleeping bag, literally inside… because of the cold weather and also because of any mosquito or any other bug.

Enjoy the video about this trip and click CC for subtitles:

(read Day 2)