For Mom

Red rocks of Salto Angel. ras 

Where the Rivers Run Red

The river that drains Angel Falls. Known as a rio negro, or "black river" because it is dark with tanic acids, this river turns the color of burgundy as it flows over the regions bedrock. As you can see, the rocks in this area are red. The rocks are red, the dirt is red, the sand is red, the mud is red, cement is red. And so are you, when you swim in these rivers.

The water is fresh and clear, and as if all that weren't fascinating enough, the tanic acids keep the bugs away!

Salto Angel

Angel Falls drops over 3,000 feet from the top of a ¨tepui¨which is the name of the of the tabletop-shaped mountains scattered throughout the southeastern section of Venezuela. These odd mountains inspired Arthur Conan Doyle´s ¨Lost World¨and the fantasy of a part of the planet so remote that dinosaurs still roam there. Not hard to imagine how Doyle came up with this, as the tepuis and Angel Falls are in the middle of a vast wilderness that stretches across the Brazilian border and into the Amazon. The tepuis are often fog enshrouded and the area has endless rivers and valleys and thick rainforest. Each tepui is like an island in the sky and the flora and fauna that evolved on the tabletops did so in isolation from much of the world, so there are many unique, endemic species found only on these tepuis.In 1937, American pilot Jimmy Angel, looking for some of the rumored gold in ´thar hills, came upon the falls. He later returned, attempted to land, and crashed his plane on top of the tepui. He had a harrowing 11 day trip down. Thus his fitting last name now graces the non-native title for the fall.Gold was never discovered, thank god, and the region never developed in any way. It is now one of the largest national parks in the world. After our amazing flight to the village of Canaima, we immediately boated up the Rio Carrao for four hours through seemingly endless rainforest and further into the heart of the tepuis. Imagine a mix of the Grand Canyon, Zion, Monument Valley with waterfalls pouring off of every cliff into tropical rainforest. We got to our camp by mid-afternoon and walked an hour to the base of the falls.The pictures don´t do it justice, of course. It falls in lacy curtains of water rather than a thunderous crash, in a deep cleft carved out of the tepui by the water´s force. Truly stunning, made even more so by the fact that there were 20 or so other falls that we passed on the way almost equal in beauty and size. msk

¨To fly, dear lord in heaven, to fly¨

My grandfather used to fly a small 2-seater Piper Cub seaplane, and that is the first line in a poem he loved. Unfortunately I can´t remember the next line, but Mom, when you read this, could you post it as a comment? We flew from Cuidad Bolivar to Cainama, a small town accessible only by small plane, in the middle of a national park. The town is just to the right of the lagoon (picture below). There are 7 waterfalls that spill into the lagoon at this point (5 seen here), and they create a lovely, fine red-sand beach at the edge of town.

The flight was amazing--a little 6-seater Cessna that pops into the air within seconds of taxi-ing. I haven´t been in a plane that small since I flew with Pop-pop in his Piper Cub when I was 12. Michael had never been in such a small plane. Fortunately for us, the 5th passenger in our group was a Mexican who had his commercial air license, and had flown lots of Cessnas. So we felt pretty relaxed in the tiny plane. But better yet, the Mexican was on a one-day tour, where you seen Angel Falls by air. We were on a three day tour, and were supposed to land in Cainama, then boat up the river 4 hours, and hike an hour to get to the base of the falls later that day. But as we got close to Cainama, we could see that the weather was looking good, and the huge tepuis (table mountains, described in next post) were sticking out of the mist. The Mexican conversed with the pilot, and then turned and told us, ¨We´re going straight to see Angel Falls now, because the weather changes so quickly.¨ So, suddenly we were flying on up the river, into the land of the vast tepuis, mist swirling around, literally hundreds of waterfalls appearing, spilling off the table-top mountains everywhere we looked. And then, we rounded one more cliff face, and there, dipping off the right wing, was Angel Falls. It falls almost 3000 feet--a length almost impossible to comprehend. Just think of all the 3000 foot distances you know in your life, and then picture a waterfall that falls straight down a cliff face that entire distance. And there we were, flying over it. Pop'pop would have been proud.

Good grief, there's the pilot!

The un-nervingly small confines of our Cessna, that carried us from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima and Angel Falls.

Los Monos

Los monos ("monkeys," in Spanish), who lived in the mango tree at the posada we stayed at outside Ciudad Bolivar. We became friends, the monkeys and I. There were 2 monkeys, one who chose to live inside a fenced area, the other who went back and forth between this mango tree and the enclosure (which both monkeys could squeeze into or out of). One day I went down to meet them. I offered one monkey my hand, which he took thoughtfully in his, and sort of scratched on to see what it was all about. The other monkey came down, cautiously, to the bottom of his climbing perch. He then sidled over the grass to me, laid both paws on my shoe and looked up at me, then dashed back to his climbing post. I was so charmed I brought Michael over to meet them. They repeated the same actions, just as thoughtfully, with Michael, and again the morning we left. ras 

Rio Orinoco, Ciudad Bolivar

This lovely colonial city has a paseo, or pedestrian walkway, along the banks of the mighty Orinoco, seen here at one of its narrowest points. In the background is the only bridge to span this 2140 km long river. The bridge is about a mile long.

Next up, Angel Falls!

Meet Tookky, the toucan, who appears to live at Posada Casita, where we are staying just before we launch into the jungle of the Orinoco to see one of the greatest waterfalls in the world, Angel Falls. At 979 meters, it is the world´s tallest, and sits in the middle of one of the largest national parks in the world. We will be going via a small Cessna, then boat, then foot, to see the falls, and hopefully seeing monkeys and toucans along the way.

Here´s what we hope to be seeing, and the posada where we are currently staying.

http://www.gekkotours-venezuela.de/

Fishing boats line the river at Puerto Columbia

Puerto Colombia

We finally made it to the beach in Venezuela, but we paid the price. The picture is of Puerto Colombia, a small fishing village behind the palm trees in the middle of the image. The price for this lush, Hawaii-like setting was a white-knuckle, salsa blaring, 1970s school bus trip up and over the lush cloud forest of Henri Pittier National Park. Gorgeous, but we were about as green as the ferns when we stepped off the bus. Hot and sticky with bugs at night completes the story behind the post-card image. But it was beautiful and it bordered on a real wilderness, Venezuela´s first national park and home to 43% of the bird species in the country.
-msk

Mr. Stick Hitches a Ride

This incredibly cool stick bug hitched a ride on Michael's hat one day while we were walking a trail outside of town. What a great disguise! We left Mr. Stick on a blade of grass, which also worked well with his attire.
Puerto Columbia. 

Don't You Wish Your House Looked Like This?

One of many cheerily painted houses in Puerto Columbia.

Playa Grande, Puerto Columbia

A lovely orange sand beach where we spent a day playing in the surf and reading. At the end of a day, a man came along selling coconut drinks--wherein he cuts off the end of a green coconut, cuts a little notch for you to sip out of, and you drink the fresh coconut milk. Very refreshing. Only in the tropics. 

Survived the Swamps

And what a sight it was! Los Llanos, the vast, savannah-like plains that covers one-third of Venezuela, and contains such mighty rivers as the Orinoco and the Rio Apure, where we spent 4 days. Our guide, Hermes, had just gotten a new edition of the Venezuelan bird book: it is about the size of an encyclopedia. The page of hummingbirds alone is 6 pages, with about 30 hummers per page. I did not even look at the pages of herons, but there were more different kinds than I could ever have imagined, including the worlds largest heron, the white-neck.

We drove down from the cool, misty Andes into the hot, flat, Llanos, which are in the middle of the dry season right now. They call it "winter" which is pretty funny, since we could and did sweat all our bodily fluids out in about 2 hours. We had a base in a little fishing village on the river, very rustic by any standards, but the second night we boated up the river and camped out in hammocks, eating fresh beef cooked over a stick on a fire(Michael, not me. I know, I know, it is a travesty...). Now that is really getting back to the earth! We have never been so filthy (and we have known some backcountry dirt in our day), but it was an unbeatable experience, both for bird sightings and culturally. You could not turn your head one way or the other without innumerable, and I do not exaggerate, numbers of birds coming into view. Of course there were striped caimans (smaller crocodiles) everywhere as well. At night from our camp, we shone our flashilight down the river, and counted 14 little pairs of red caiman eyes looking back at us! It gave us a shiver, even though caimans are generally more afraid of us than we are of them (the giant caimans, which did eat people, are nearly extinct, of course, since we people generally do not tolerate things that eat us to linger for too long on this planet). In the morning we passed the riverbank where we had seen the eyes, and saw that they were all tiny baby caimans. Still.

We also drove through the plains on several bird-hunting expeditions, and saw a birdlovers cornucopia of wonderful creatures. The Brit on our tour wanted to know if we were "twitchers", which apparently is what Brits call serious birders. We said no, but we liked it enough to have nice binoculars (which were also a hit with the local kids). But by the end of the tour, when I was the only one left who was actually still excited to see yet another green kingfisher, tiger heron, woodstork, etc. I was beginning to wonder if we were twitchers after all. What a place! The photo above was taken early in the moring, and is a tree full of white egrets and the Llanos most beautiful bird, the scarlett ibis. The day-glo pink ibis might be more appropriate, as I have never seen such an other-wordly colored bird. They were almost hunted to extinction for French ladies hats, being the only animal of this color in the world, but fortunately some survived, French fashion changed, and they are still in the Llanos today. ras

Meet Pepe the Giant Amazonian River Otter

Yes, Pepe is a pet, at a farm on a huge island in the Rio Apure, los Llanos. These otters are not called "the dog of the river" for nothing--Pepe was just like a happy, fat lab, complete with crotch-sniffing and muddy paws. But Pepe was so much more endearing because, well, he's an otter, not a dog, and it is pretty funny to watch him playing and romping around at our feet. He lives on the bank of the river, where he can swim if he wants (he could leave if he wants, but he has been a pet since he was a baby). He has his own pool that he prefers to the river. When we were finally ready to get back in our boat and head down river, we took the farmer's wife with us, with her basket of fresh eggs and bundles of fresh herbs to sell in the town. Pepe followed us to the river's edge, where he waded into the water, but did not swim after us, all the while making mournful barks and woofs at our leaving! Pepe was a big hit with me. ras

Yes, They Can Strip a Cow Clean in 20 Minutes

The red pirhana (there are over 30 varieties, not all of which deserve the ferocious reputation of this one). Our group fished for pirahana on the banks of the muddy river. I was content to just throw in a fish tail and watch it bob...jerk...nibble nibble...vanish under the surface of the water in seconds, torn to shreds by pirahana. ras 

Anaconda #5

The one that got away. Or rather, our guide Hermes didn't catch, much to our enjoyment. These are beautiful snakes.  

Find the caiman in this picture

 

Sunset on the Rio Apure, los Llanos

Nevermind that our boat was actually broken down, and another small wooden fishing boat had gone off to get a wrench for us. We saw river dolphins and watched the shadows cast by the far-off Andes paint our sky. 

Storks, spoonbills, and ibis, oh my!

I don't know why this particular water hole in Los Llanos was so popular, but it was like a bird convention: the largest of all storks, the Jabiru (middle, with black head and red neck ring), plus roseatte spoonbills, scarlet ibis, the lovely woodstork (on the left, with black tipped wing raised). Oh yes, and hundreds of egrets and herons. Ho hum. Just another day in Los Llanos.

Corocora, up close

Corocora is what the locals call the scarlet ibis. I'm not sure, but I bet it means "day-glo pink bird" in Spanish. How would you feel if you were those other birds? 

Stone Church of San Rafael, Andes

Michael outside of the diminutive stone church built by hand, without cement, along the road high in the Andes. 

Andes hike

The high desert on a rainshadow side of the Andes, Sierra La Culata National Park. There are lupine here, just like home, only with spidery little leaves!

Going anaconda hunting...

We are leaving Merida (and the land of super-cheap internet) tomorrow, for the swamps of Los Llanos (see earlier post of the map). This is supposed to be one of the most amazing swamps in the world, sister-swamp to one of my favorite places on the planet, the Everglades of Florida. It is also one of the reasons I really wanted to come to Venezuela, so we are prety excited. This will be with a tour, follow the link here if you want to see what we'll be seeing: http://www.arassari.com/3-safari.htm

You will notice a lot of the wildlife 'viewing' is suspiciously hands-on. We will be looking for anacondas, amongst other swamp creatures. The anacondas are almost always then picked up and passed around for all to admire! We would be super excited to see one, but could do without holding it, for us as well as the snake. Hopefully, though, we will be seeing most animals without catching them!

We´ll also be out of internet access for about 5 days, so enjoy and we´ll write next from the Caribbean coast!
ras

The one where Rosemary steps in it, and gets bit by a dog

(parental note: this story has a happy ending)

Venezuelans, like virtually every other Latin culture I have spent any time in, are very laid back, accepting, and adaptable to a large degree. This might be because things are so much less rigid and certain than we might expect in the US. For instance, the bus might come when it is supposed to, or it might not, or it might stop at a different place. Things we have observed here: if you don´t like the looks of the road, it is OK to drive on the sidewalk for a little while. If you need to go the wrong way down a one-way street, it´s OK, if you inch slowly along. If your bus needs to pass on a windy, mountainous road, going uphill, it is OK to do it at any time, no matter the road striping (if there even is any) or curves. If you meet another car, one of you just squeezes over a little more. It´s all tranquilo.

So I had to take a few pages out of that book on our recent excursion to the town of Jaji. Michael and I walked part way back from the town, to see the waterfalls along the way. While scrambling up the little trail to some of the upper pools, I stopped to put my pant legs on (no doubt a unique gringo need itself), and stepped in some very cleverly disguised human poop, which was under a leaf, and which I then got on my pants and leg. Disgusting as this may sound, there was really nothing to do about it but wade into the stream (park rangering mentality cringing, but I suspect this stream has seen its fair share of poop...). After scrubbing with rocks and sand and beating my pants against the rocks, the pant leg went back on and we went on with our hike. This is the flip side of being tranquilo about everything. Need to poop, it goes under the leaf.

Later along our walk, we passed a woman and her son in the yard, and their dogs ran out at us. One bit me in the leg (same pant leg...hmmm)! The people were totally relaxed about the whole affair, not bothering to call off their dogs at all. The dog didn´t do any damage, and strangely enough, none of it bothered me much at all. When in Venezuela, I guess do as the locals do (except I still prefer a cathole.) ras

You hope the gods are smiling on you...

...when you are taking a por puesto (rickety van-type transport that fills in the public transport gaps where the buses don´t take you). Our particular driver had homages to both the Pope and Mr. Incredible posted in his van. I´d take either in a pinch. We returned to Merida via a different, equally precipitious mountain road. Suddenly, everyone in the entire bus crossed themselves. I looked back to see that we had just passed a church. Here is one of the many, many elaborate minature shrines along the road from Merida to Jaji, the Andean town high above the valley we visited yesterday. ras

Rosemary at Andean village (Jaji)

Rosemary and I took our first trip out of Merida today, to the small Andean hill town of Jaji. It was about an hour bus ride up in elevation. The town is well preserved and felt a bit like going back in time. We then had a wonderful walk back down the road towards Merida of about five miles and got to enjoy several waterfalls.

The people here are nice but a bit more reserved than in other Latin American countries that we´ve been to. Polite but not really warm. But it´s way to early to generalize on this front, and we have had the occasional interesting interaction. The spanish is getting warmed up for me, but Rosemary´s is a lot better!
- msk

Michael at Posada Montana

Still a little jet lagged, and most certainly not used to the sun after Washington´s record-breaking rainy spell, we squint at our rooftop view--the Andes! Today, an orientation to the uber-busy city of Merida and it´s environs, tomorrow off to explore in the area. Unfortunately for us, the teleferico (the world´s longest and highest cable car in the world) closed for maintenance the day we got here! Ah, mal suerte! But that is the way it goes when you are travelling. ras

Flying over Merida, in the Andes, before landing

We flew from Caracas to Merida, the university town in the Andes. The big peaks (up to Pico Bolivar, at around 16,500 feet) were shrouded in clouds as we flew in, but the next morning the sky was clear. Merida sits on a giant mesa between two rivers (you can see one in the picture, the green strip on the lower right).

We're starting in Merida in the western part of the country.
-msk

Where is this place? Before we started looking into the trip, I thought Venzuela was much further south, but it's pretty far north, less than a five hour flight from Houston.
- msk

Just Getting Started...

...is a trip for Venezuela.

This is a land of such diversity of terrain you could get overstimulated just reading the cliches about it ("If Venezuela were a television, you would wear out the remote changing channels", etc.). After much research into Venzuelan desinations, and dithering about whether we should go to the Andes first, or maybe the Caribbean archipelago of Los Roques, I was flummoxed to read on Lonely Planet's ThornTree forum one day, a casual post that the one, major road between the airport (into which we were scheduled to arrive on January 15, 2006, at 10:45 pm) and Caracas, bustling capitol city, was closed. Until 2007.

If you read the article linked below, you will get a little taste of what life is like south of the border.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1861

Can you imagine if this were San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge?

P.S. Not to worry about our story's protagonists: they are planning to skip Caracas for now and fly straight on to Channel No. 12, the Andes, and the town of Merida. Keep your remote handy. ras