"We find oursevles in the peaceful possession..."

"We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth..." - A. Lincoln

Thus we return home, to Marblemount, WA, to our little white kitten, Weasel. I am reminded that no matter how wonderful travels are, no matter the great things we see and the adventures we have--and I would not trade those experiences for anything in the world--it is still so refreshing to return home. No, I don't think we have the fairest land, per se, but it is fair, and it is fairer still after you have been dusty and tired and slept on buses and battled strange busy bus terminals, and struggled to communicate more than the basics in another language, and trained yourself to only throw the toilet paper in the wastebasket, and drunk all your water from plastic bottles rather than the tap... It makes me appreciate what we have, that we are lucky to have it, and that it is always good to come home. ras


Travel is a wonderful thing and we were pretty fortunate to have the opportunity to discover for ourselves a country as diverse and beautiful as Venezuela. It's really not that far away (only five hours from Houston), but so different in many ways. It is highly recommended as a travel destination! I'm glad to be home, but sad to leave. Thanks for reading and keeping up with us! msk

Lagoon of Canaima

The red sand beaches of the river, where the seven waterfalls of Canaima spill into this lagoon. Picture perfect, tranquil place. We could have stayed here for a week.

Salto Sapo

After walking behind this waterfall (one of seven that spill gloriously into the lagoon at Canaima), we got to walk to its edge and play in its spray. One of the highlights of any travels we have ever made.

Salto Sapo, Canaima

This is the same river Salto Angel runs into, only here we are 4 hours boat-ride down river. This is Salto Sapo. Take note of its size--this is the waterfall we walked behind, following a little chipped out stone pathway. At places the spray pounds down on your head, and the roar is deafening.

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.