Google
 

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Canaima, Venezuela




Yesterday was my birthday (34!) and it also marked the end of a wonderful 3-night-2-day tour into the Tepuy region of Venezuela. This region is famous for its waterfalls and its table-top shaped mountains known as Tepuys. The most famous water fall is Angel Fall, found on Auyan Tepuy, named after an American explorer who "discovered" it in 1931 while flying over the area and prospecting for gold. He landed his plane on top of it and was later unable to take off so he and his three companions just left it there and hiked down the Tepuy for 11 days to get help.
We took a plane from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima where we promptly got on a boat to take a four hour ride upstream, with only a short stop for a hike and one for lunch, to arrive at Salto de Angel before sundown. Our travel companions were a group of 19 rowdy middle-aged Venezuelans on their summer vacation. It was great fun and well worth the time and expense. After climbing for about one hour to reach the viewing area, we descended the mountain and crossed the river to reach our camp. We ate delicious roasted chicken, toasted with our new friends and turned in for a great night's sleep on our hammocks.
Early the next morning, we were back in the boats for the ride down-river.
We reached our other camp by lunch time and after a nice afternoon rest we headed over to the Salto Sapo and Sapito falls where we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the cave behind the huge and powerful waterfall and hiking up to get views of both waterfalls from above.
This evening we slept in our "honeymoon cabin" on a real bed! It was quite luxurious compared with the prior evening.
Yesterday, we slept in and around late morning we took a boat ride to the falls directly accross from our camp. I got so inspired by the beauty of the nature surrounding us that I disrobed and let Kevin take a picture of me in my "birthday suit" wearing nothing but my birthday present (a lovely sun-burst necklace made from seeds) and my sunglasses to protect my eyes and to a degree my innocence! But, since I am a professional woman, I will not post such a picture and avoid any future scandal. Here's the PG version though...

After we arrived back in Ciudad Bolivar, we had dinner and topped off my wonderful day with a yummy banana split.
Today, we rode an easy 200 miles to arrive in Puerto La Cruz, a coastal city not far from Caracas where we will probably spend the weekend catching up on emails and relaxing on the small beach or in our sexy time hotel suite.