Trek to Angel Falls
B. Joshua Rosen
suggestions about who to go with?
Josh
nto...@yahoo.com
travel guide... they have info on just about everywhere... check out the
link:
http://www.planetout.com/bounce/content/travel.html
happy trails!
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Dennis
more and more confused. Its nice that they put out a guide for the
falls.
http://community.webtv.net/N0336/CostaRicaTravel
B. Joshua Rosen
preferably without any risk of sodomy.
Rod North
$250 (possibly more) each - the tour operators have this area stitched up -
you could pay thousands of dollars if you wanted to. We booked a 3 day 2
night trip with Thomas Bernal tours which we found to be quite hard going
but definitely the best deal there at the time. We got to sleep in the
jungle overlooking the falls and trekked up through the forest to the foot
of the falls - but didn't see them properly close to because of cloud. This
is the big problem with the whole trip - to get there by land (well water)
you have to go in the wet season when the fall is at it's best but often
obscured by clouds. In the dry you can see it more often but there's hardly
any water coming over it. It's quite an expensive gamble really - we were
lucky in that we got clear views from the campsite when we arrived. We also
got to walk behind Salto Sapo back in Canaima which was brilliant - and
completely unsafe!
We travelled to the falls by motorised dug out - the boatmen we had were
excellent although I believe that could be the luck of the draw too.
Accommodation was in hammocks in the jungle one night and in Bernal's base
camp for the second. The guide was knowledgeable and very professional. All
food was provided and there was no pressure to buy anything - although there
were some indians selling souvenirs on the way.
We booked the trip in Ciudad Bolivar through an agency in the town. There is
always a lot of competition between the agencies which often seems to result
in people being given one way plane tickets to Canaima and finding
themselves stranded for days at the airport. When we were there we met a
group who had booked at Hotel Caracas and were about to spend their 3rd
extra night in Canaima. We managed to negotiate a flight back but were
stranded ourselves for about 8 hours.
Our advice would be to check amongst other travellers in Ciudad Bolivar and
try to find out who is the current best tour operator and then book directly
with them (they all have offices at the airport) - even if this means paying
a few dollars more.
The whole trip's a big gamble - if I were to go back to the area I would
skip Angells Fall and go for a trip around the Gran Sabana instead - and I'd
book it in Santa Elaina.
There was no sodomy being practised as far as we could see!
Rod & Anne
"B. Joshua Rosen" <bjr...@polybus.com> wrote in message
news:39A5D76A...@polybus.com...
B. Joshua Rosen
Josh
Rod North
> When is the wet season?
>
> Josh
Roughly the equivalent of the northern summer. In July it didn't rain all
the time - not at all on Margarita - but on most days there was a heavy
shower, sometimes very heavy. It's hot enough to not bother with wet weather
gear - maybe a lightweight waterproof would come in handy. I think it can be
just as wet in the "dry" season judging by the catastrophic mudslides that
hit the coast last January.
Rod
roypd...@my-deja.com
http://www.explore.co.uk/
do a trip to Venezuela which includes a trek up Mount Roraima, the
mountain that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel "The Lost World",
followed by a journey to the Angel Falls in a canoe with an outboard
motor. I did that trip at the end of July and beginning of August and
enjoyed it very much. The actor Brian Blessed did the same trip a couple
of years ago and has written a book about it, called "Quest for the Lost
World". See Amazon's UK site for details.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
Roy Davies
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/inca/
Rosalie B.
>I'm still looking for some advice about trekking to Angel Falls,
>preferably without any risk of sodomy.
>
For an explanation of the trip possibilities, a journal of the trip, and a
guide recommendation, see www.thetwocaptains.com/logbook This is the
logbook of some friends of mine who are cruising on their own boat. They
spent some time in Trinidad, working on the boat.
Part of what is on the webpage is:
>5 August 2000 Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela (10.12N; 64.39W)
First part describes the trip to get to the falls and the plane ride to see
them.
>....
> Landing at Canaima Falls, a base-camp Indian village dedicated to this particular tourist industry, we transferred to dugout canoe for the trip upriver. We had a captain, his wife/mate and a bowman (all three Pémon Indians) for the three of us plus Rangel. Normally this 36'-long (4' beam) craft, powered by a 50hp Yamaha, might carry 8-10 passengers! Not only was our group small, but tourist traffic on the river was way down, due, we were told, to the uncertainties surrounding the Presidential elections the day before. This gave us the vivid illusion of being solitary adventurers.
>
>The four-hour trip upriver (hard plank seats, no seat backs!) wound through incredible scenery, turn after turn. The river was high, its water flooding well into the trees lining the banks. The tepuys rise as high as 2500 meters in straight cliff sides, each like some sort of layered trifle: a layer for trees, a layer of red rock, a layer of yellow rock, and a top layer of fractured rim through which leak dozens and dozens of waterfalls.
>
>The farther upriver we went, the more frequent became sections of rapids. It also got sharply cooler, and just before out arrival at the camp near dusk we got caught by a swirl of rain and mist just as we had to negotiate giant boulders in the roiling water! Pretty exciting stuff. By the way, the water is the color of Cherry Coke syrup, right from the falls on down! The rivers we were on empty eventually into the Orinoco, which empties eventually into Paria Sound. No wonder Trinidad's water is the color it is!
>
>Rangel hustled us up at 0530, and we were fed, clothed and on the trail before 0630! The hike itself was moderately easy, the biggest challenge being the network of tree roots threading the path. This is primary growth rainforest! Never been cut! We admit, the big Trinidad hiking duo was not quite in the shape we'd been before a month of floating sloth so that keeping up with Rangel who moved like a gazelle with a fire on his butt was a bit of a struggle. His goal, of course, was to get us up there before the clouds rolled in, ...and it was worth it!
THen there is other description of the trip back down etc.
>
>BTW--Anyone interested in doing Angel Falls or any of a number of such trips in Venezuela with our guide Rangel Zabala can contact him by email at ecoave...@hotmail.com, telephone (014) 395.44.51 or fax 095-642529. Rangel intends to make his business catering to cruisers and their friends.
>
grandma Rosalie
B. Joshua Rosen
Sander van Hulsenbeek wrote:
>
> Roy's message may give you the wrong impression that, coming down from
> Roraima, your canoe to
> Salto Angel is waiting for you.
>
> No such thing as first one has to travel, by road or plane, to
> Canaima, about 500 km away, at the other end of the Gran Sabana. Then
> somewhere, you will have to find your canoe!
>
> Never mind, I walked the Roraima trek 3 years ago, and it was great!
> Recommended!
>
> I find the Explore website singularly uninformative about their treks. They
> give only
> very general information.
>
> Sander van Hulsenbeek
> Amsterdam, Holland
>
> <roypd...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
> news:8oij3k$og5$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...