Angel Falls, Venezuela.





Kara says:

Angel Falls. Fan-bloody-tastic.

Karl got his hobo baggage (see photo) and we got in a canoe and headed upriver. We ran rapids! Upriver and downriver!!! Can't decide which is more exciting, downriver is much faster but upriver has the added tension of praying that the engine doesn't die. We went through a section of huge rocks like the shotover jet in Queenstown only narrower and with an actual risk that you might crash and die. Pushing hands were deployed at key points. The river winds it's way through rainforest and tepuis. A tepui is that mountain sticking up with shear sides and a flat top. As the flora and fauna on the top have been effectively isolated for a gizillion years each tepui has species that have evolved uniquely. I'm sure it's wildly exciting if you're a botanist. Don't know what creationists make of it all though.

The rocks are various shades of pink and the rusty tanins in the river mean the shallow areas have a fabulous ruby colour in the sun. Stopped along the way for a swim in a rock pool/waterfall called "the happiness pool", aw. Photo of Karl doing a handstand in the happiness pool 'cause he was so happy.

Photo of mini-rapids with Angel Falls in the background. It spills off the top of a tepui but there are lots of temporary waterfalls coming off the tepuis whenever it rains.

We had an hours trek through the rainforest to get to the falls - see photo of Jungle Karl with bright blue camoflage shoelaces. The falls are beautiful, 980m high, that's very high. The main uninterrupted drop is about 800m.





But then the good bit - there's a pool at the base of the falls you can swim in. It's fantastic, with a view of the surrounding mountains and down into the valley below. The gale-force (poetic again, see Canaima entry) wind blasting off the falls - and it really blasts after falling nearly a kilometre I can tell you - and a view straight up to the top of the falls. The local indiginous tribes believe the water has healing properties but I still have a grazed knee from a canon injury in Cartagena. The best thing about this place is it's completely natural - no souvenir shops, no roads, no walkways, no steps into the pool, no signs warning about slippery rocks, and just our group of 10 people there in the middle of all this wilderness. You can just lie back and float in the pool looking straight up nearly a kilometre of waterfall that's all headed straight for you. Just fabulous.

Then to spoil it all we had to sleep (I use the word loosely) in hammocks. Also photo of Karl enjoying the view of the falls with his morning coffee.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

back to school

Image
Back to reality! Alarm clocks, deadlines, homework, it's all too much. So, going to spanish school every morning (and yet somehow, still not fluent?) we have joined the throngs of Buenos Aires commuters squeezing themsleves into the magic subte (underground) trains. The trains are magic because even though they are clearly packed to capacity when they arrive on the platform it's always possible to fit loads more people in. Magic! I think they actually have some sort of vacuum packing device fitted to the aircon. And managed to drag Karl to tango class. Alas there doesn't seem to be the concept of a beginner class here so everyone else is very fancy schmancy flying footwork. We got "special attention" from the teachers and were confined to the retard corner. There must be something special in the air here because Karl has almost found rhythm! And one of his left feet occasionally behaves as if it were a right one. Some photos here. A touristy visit to an old ship ...
Read more

Tigre, Goodbye BA & random photos

Image
Kara Says: Right. Apologies for the quality of this entry - I started with the bottom half, then decided to add these extra photos and now i'm out of time 'cause we off to our last milonga (can you hear Karl's anguished screams in the background) before we leave BA. So. Photos up here - Karl when his lips exploded. I think they did that just to worry me and so i'd figure out where our closest hospital is. Course now we're all going to die from dengue fever anyway it doesn't matter so much and the doctors are on a 48 hour strike so gong to hospital wouldn't be much good. He recovered - see below for proof he is still alive. Other photos here of a trip to Tigre yesterday - a little town/suburb of BA up a river. Very pleasant and quiet (good antidote to Karl's city-outtedness, see below), transport by boats, it's on the delta of the parana river so there's houses on the river and people get around in tinnies which they drive just as insanely as the...
Read more

Valparaiso, Chile

Image
Kara says: Valparaiso - a port town near Santiago with little colourful houses climbing up the hills behind the bay. Thoughtfully, they have provided funiculars around town to help you up the hills. Photo of me enjoying the very healthy Chorrillana - a pile of chips, fried onions with egg, meat, melted cheese and whatever else they feel like piling on top. Also photo of a street and a market spilling out onto the street. We wandered around and did mostly nothing. The Amazing Race came to town - we spent a whole lunchtime in a plaza waiting for the couples to come running by chased by their out of breath cameraman and soundman. It was funny (in a slightly cruel way) to see the teams that went down streets that none of the others had chosen. Losers. How we laughed as we sipped our beers. We headed to the beach, see karl posing, and down a very spectacular coast to see one of Pablo Neruda's (Chilean diplomat, poet and Nobel Prize winner) houses. Have picked out a nice little second ho...
Read more