Our Angel Falls Adventure - getting there

Our trip to Angel Falls was upon us in a flash. After a leisurely start in Santa Fe we caught a local bus to the city of Puerto La Cruz and literally stepped from it onto a coach that was pulling out of the terminal next to us for Ciudad Bolivar. Five hours later, we were crossing an enormous bridge over the brown, very wide River Orinoco to Ciudad Bolivar. We headed for a posada that had been recommended to us. Run by a bizarre Swiss guy, we were told that we could only have a room if we went the next morning at 7.45 to Canaima, where we would begin our trip to Angel Falls. Up at 6am the next morning, we paid by bank transfer in Euros, and so avoided the awful exchange rate. Instead of 7.45, they decided we were leaving at 7.15 and chased us out of the posada and in the boot of the jeep and we headed for the airport.

We were expecting a small plane but hadn’t quite prepared ourselves for the tiny six-seater plane we found ourselves sitting in. I was excited, Rachel was not so keen and was fairly fraught as the plane taxied and set off down the runway with us, a large German couple and a Dutchman named Crane. The journey was fantastic; such amazing scenery. We flew from the city across a giant manmade lake, mighty rivers, savannas and on into the National Park with giant flat-topped mountains rising from the jungle. Even Rachel relaxed except when the pilot rocked the plane to show us sights below or when we were flying blind through thick cloud. Our pilot was very keen to speak to us but as he was shouting a mixture of Spanish and broken English and the plane was incredibly loud we really didn’t have a clue what he was on about. The journey took a twist as we flew further south than Canaima to drop off the German couple at a tiny tourist settlement with a mud track runway. After a dramatic landing we found it was a lovely little place and they gave us free coffee as we chatted with a local and the pilot. A bumpy takeoff and on we went, looking below the whole way at waterfalls and cliffs. The plane trip alone was fantastic and we still had the Angel Falls trip to come.