The Hike to Angel Falls

First night's rest in hammocks. A little chilly in the middle of the night, but lovely to hear the sounds of the jungle.

Hiking to Angel Falls lookout

Finally arrived at the lookout point

And finally the famous Salto Angel. So beautiful and fascinating to watch.

Opposite the Angel Falls

The pool at the bottom of Angel Falls where we could take a lovely dip and gaze up at the Angel Falls.

The group exploring the pool

First day of the Angel Falls tour

Colonial charm at the Posada Don Carlos

Flying to Canaima

Approaching Canaima

Posada in Canaima

First stop: Ucaima waterfall

Beautiful orange coloured sand

The boats that would take us to Angel Falls

The local architecture

On the Rio to Angel Falls

A little walk in the Gran Sabana before continuing the boat ride. Hacer mucho calor!

So now I have been two days in Valencia with my friends. It's a fairly big town, but not as big as Caracas and less chaotic. People here are also more concerned with their looks and are considerably slimmer than in other places I have visited.

So the Angel Falls tour....

It began with my friend waking me up early on Sunday morning, and telling me the bad news of not being able to get the evening bus as planned to Ciudad Bolivar. Tickets had been sold out already three days ago. Instead she found out that there was a bus going at 10am. So I had to get quickly ready and take my cachapas breakfast with me. My friend's father accompanied me to the bus terminal and after being on the waiting list for an hour and some extra persuasion in the form of dinero. I got on the last seat for the bus to Ciudad Bolivar. After 8 hours on the bus I finally arrived in a busy terminal. There I was picked up by a friendly dude named Carlos and driven to the Posada Don Carlos. A lovely restored colonial house with a cool patio in the middle. So after settling myself in the room, I came out in the cool night air and chatted with two Polish girls who had just been on the trip to Roraima, their legs covered in red ugly spots from the puri puri. Also a young local fellow living in the Posada joined us and also played some classical guitar music for me.

The next day started with a cool shower at 6am. (So far I have only experienced cool showers here in Venezuela, but anyway it's so hot here that it is all you need.) After a breakfast of fried egg, toast, strong coffee and a lovely parchita drink I was driven to the airport to get a plane ride to Canaima. Carlos helped me sort out the ticket and airport tax before I went through security and waited for the pilot. I was met by a small aircraft filled with goods going to Canaima. So I hopped in the front with the pilot. The take-off was great. I almost wanted to steer the aircraft along with the pilot. Such an amazing experience to fly in such a small aircraft and what a view to the landscape of rivers and acres of green jungle. After about 40 minutes of flying we approached Canaima, great flat-top mountains began to appear in the distance. Awesome sight!

The Canaima airport is super small. Just a small landing strip and a long hut giving shade to the travellers and Pemon villagers selling their local handicrafts. The guide for the Angel Falls tour met me and told me to wait while we waited for the other members of the group. Then when everyone arrived we were piled onto an open-roof truck and took off along a bumpy road to the posada. We would make the journey to Angel Falls already that afternoon. So after being told to pack only the essential things, we again piled into the truck and drove to a lookout point of one of the Canaima waterfalls. Next we had a pasta and tuna lunch by the river before getting aboard the boats that would take us to the spot of Angel Falls.

This four hour boat journey would take us through some unique and amazing landscape with varying vegetation, beaches, extraordinary steep and tall mountains and amazing wildlife such as butterflies, dragonflies and birds. We also stopped at one beach called Paradise beach.

Luis, one of the Pemon guides sitting in front, would also point out to some of the the loose rocks on top of the mountains and tell us how it resembled faces or other objects. Luis had the job of maneuvering the boat through sometimes shallow places along the river. The boat also suffered from motor trouble part of the way, but we managed to arrive at the base of the campsite to Angel Falls just as sun set. A 5 minute walk through the jungel brought us to a tin roof canopy with hammocks tied up all in a row. Quite cool and rustic.

Then a dinner of spaghetti bolognese was prepared by the Pemon guides and enjoyed out in open air. The Venezuelan couple in our group brought out some Casaque, a Venezuelan rum to enjoy while playing a few rounds of Dominoes. Quite a tricky game and even trickier when trying to learn it in Spanish. It was an amusing first night in the jungle with this group consisting of two Italians, four Germans, the Venezuelan couple, the Pemon boys and myself, the only Norwegian. The Italians, the German couple and myself went to look at the stars before going to bed. Beautiful!

Weddings are special no matter the size

Well, you are probably wondering what happened to me. I haven't had access to the Internet since I left Caracas on 4th November morning to embark on the Angel Falls tour, or in Spanish...Salto Angel, one of the world's tallest waterfalls of over 900meters.

But before my solo adventure would begin, we celebrated the marriage of my dear Venezuelan friend on 3rd November. A day I was looking forward to being a part of. The evening before we had been rushing around the mall looking for some special accessories for the bridal outfit. We really wanted everything to match, so it took some consideration, but we definitely landed on the right mix of simple elegance. We also picked up some more of those delicious bonbons from Kakao for the wedding party.

I accompanied the bride in the morning to the hairdressers. The din of hairdryers and chattering inside the hairdressers was a bit unbearable. Low ceiling and hard surfaces, bad combination!
Then it was back to the flat. I started to feel a cold coming on and so my friend prepared a lovely warm lime drink for me and I took a little nap before the evenings big event.

It was a real honor to assist my friend in putting on the final pieces to complete her outfit when the hour arrived to finally drive out to the wedding location. She looked ready for the red carpet! Those gorgeous Venezuelan looks:)

As expected in Venezuela, nothing ever happens as scheduled. The bride, myself and the photographer had driven up to the wedding location on time, but the person who was going to marry them had not even left her home. So we visited Hatillo, which was close by and is a popular attraction in Caracas. Something is always going on there and that day there was an arts festival. So it was lovely to walk around and look at the art installations. Since we were quite dressed up. Especially the bride. People stopped and glanced at us in a curious manner. Maybe Venezuelan movie stars?

When the wedding finally commenced it was an intimate event with a handful of family and close friends set in a charming colonial house on top of a mountain. The view over Caracas was amazing as the sun began to set. We dined on excellent Thai food and danced some meringue. The conversation flowed mostly in Spanish, but one or two people could speak some English. Thank goodness!

Alas, tiredness is getting the better of me. I have travelled many hours today to return to my friends now living in Valencia. They have also just served me a glass of whisky on the rocks, which is a popular drink over here. So I will sip on that now and write of my Angel Fall tour and more tomorrow. Buenos noches!

Preparation and anticipation

Hello and welcome,

I thought it would be fun to document this little adventure of mine and share my experiences of travelling to Venezuela for the first time. I hope you find it an enjoyable read.  Will try to post photos too.

This journey commenced in Oslo at 4am on 29th October 2012. I woke up to my surprise to find that it had snowed over night, and not just a little snow. Everything around was covered with a thick layer and it was still snowing. Prior to this we had had a gorgeous sunny, though cold weekend and the autumn colours were still vibrant. So it was quite a change. Not the best weather for flying either. So to no surprise my flight was unable to take off at the scheduled time and was delayed almost two hours.

I finally arrived closer to midday in a surprisingly sunny and warm London, my first pit-stop en route. Now a brief stay with my sister in North Greenwich and a little sight-seeing around the O2 arena and Canary Wharf before catching the early morning flight tomorrow to Madrid for a connecting flight to Caracas. Hasta luego!

Out on the balcony overlooking the leafy park

There´s a cute pond with thriving wildlife too!

Funky architecture

Hola from Venezuela

Hola from Venezuela.

After travelling for over 24 hours I finally arrived safely in Caracas yesterday. Surprisingly smooth entrance into the country. Even the immigration check was quick and minimal hassle. Caracas is a fascinating place, with the beautiful Avila mountain nestling around this massive and hectic city. Too much traffic though. So just going from the airport to my friend's home took us nearly three hours. We decided to stop off somewhere mid-way and have a bite to avoid the busiest time of traffic and even take a different route. I tried my first arepa, which is a popular food here in Venezuela. It is a kind of sandwich that can be stuffed with anything you fancy.

I am also surprisingly adjusting well to the jetlag. Today's agenda started early to go for my friend's beauty treatment, as she prepares for her upcoming wedding day. I also got tempted to take a massage and facial myself,  which was just the ticket after my long journey here. Not a bad start to my holiday:)

Afterward we visited a huge shopping mall to meet up with her friend who was in need of a dress for the wedding day. In the shopping mall I got to try some more Venezuelan cuisine; amazing fried plantain, grilled steak and spicy sausage. Then the eating experience ended with delicious gourmet chocolate at a cute place called Kakao. There are so many flavours! We stood there at the counter for literally 10 minutes looking at the display with all these fascinating exotic chocolate combos and figuring out which ones to get. Very tasty. And I had a great cafe grande to go with it. Venezuela is known for it's amazing cocoa and coffee.

Lots of love. Buenas noches amigos!