From Salto Acaima we still had about a hundred kilometers ahead of us to get to Angel Falls, so we got up before the sun and started our journey up the Rio Carrao river in a motorized pirogue. The journey was said to take 3 hours in the wet season (may-sept) but could take as much as 10 hours when we were there as it was in the dry season.
The road up the river was the highlight of my Venezuela trip. The mountains next to the river reminded me of pictures I had seen from Roraima national park, with steep mountains that were flat on top and had small waterfalls running down on the side, almost like in the movie Avatar.
Along the way we had to get off several time to push the boat up the rapids. We also stopped at a local home to taste bread and beer made from yukka roots (similar to yam, cassava etc) and had a good break for lunch at a beach. The total time for us to get up to the camp was 5,5 hours and when we got to the camp and saw the waterfall, all the being wet, freezing, sunburned, and tired from pushing the boat etc was forgotten. We made camp, where we could see the falls right from the hammocks we were sleeping in.
On our second day by the falls we did a one hour walk to get to the first viewpoint, then fourty minutes more to the second viewpoint and finally ten more minutes to get a swim in the waters in front of it. Angel Falls has been one of my best travel experiences ever and I will keep my fingers crossed that the situation will not get worse in Venezuela so that I can return to see the falls again in july/august.
