Trip to Angel Falls

This is the view at the top of Salto Hacha where we boarded a boat to start the long trek to Angel Falls (Salto Ángel). The camp near Angel Falls was about 4 hours of boat riding, hiking, and a restroom adventure (more on that later). We had lunch at camp and then went on a 3 hour round-trip hike up to the overlook (mirador) closer to the bottom of Angel Falls. The return from the overlook had us hiking in pouring rain and increasing darkness to nightfall. Surprisingly the river was lower so we had to wade across the smaller bit of the river in the dark to reach the boat for a bigger river crossing and back to the comforts of camp. Dinner was on our covered patio which was the only shelter. There were restrooms and a trickle of a shower to wash off the dirt but that was about it. They strung up hammocks for us after dinner. We slept on the covered patio as the rain lulled us to sleep. It was an awesome experience!

our boat (above right) and the other boats just above the mist of the falls (below)

After a short boat ride we hiked for about half an hour while the boat continued up some rapids for which they didn't want us in the boat. There was an indigenous village built up for a documentary and left abandoned there on the trail.

We stopped for a swim break at Happiness Falls

The next break was a restroom spot where we had an extra adventure

This is where my wife was inadvertently locked in the restroom

Angel Falls: Escape Room Edition. One of the staff accidently locked my wife in the most secure restroom in the jungle. We didn't realize we added the Escape Room option to our excursion when we found one of our party completely trapped. The group ahead of us unlocked the restrooms for the day but they were well on their way to the 3 hour round trip hike to the Angel Falls overlook. The key to the restroom was having a nice stroll with them in our time of need.

We examined the door, window, and roof but everything was well protected with welded bars. The prisoner visiting hours were unlimited so my wife was happy for our continued company. The attempt to open the door was extensive but it refused to budge. Eventually one of the guides took the impromptu pry bar to the window and he was able to pop off those bars. The smallest guide was sent in to help my wife out the window. She didn't seem to mind being trapped, but in the end she was very much relieved as she left the throne room and we continued on our journey.

Back to our regularly scheduled program...

what's that in the distance?!?

 Is it? Yes! It's Angel Falls!!! These are shots from the clearing near our camp

some close-ups with my 30x zoom

After lunch we started on our long hike there and back again over a rocky, rooty, and streamy trail. It didn't appear to be all that worn after all of the use since the start of tourism in the 1950s/60s timeframe. I could count less than 20 people that I knew of hiking the trail on the Sunday we were there. That included the party of 7 from the same tour company who had the key to the restroom I wrote about above. It felt like a very special kind of trip to do this and even more special for us as Venezuela becomes much less accessible to tourists from the United States.

 

About an hour and half later we reached the overlook...

Wouldn't this be an underlook since we're below the falls?

here's a close up of the very top:

We started the hike back and after a while it started pouring down rain for about an hour while it grew darker and darker. There were flashes of lightning giving us little bursts of light and thunder gave us an ominous greeting in the dark. Our complete drenching from the waterfalls on the previous day made us think this totally soaked feeling was normal for the area.

The darkness became complete and we still had about half an hour to go. Fortunately the rain was done and we had flashlights. We reached the smaller river we crossed with the boat and surprisingly the water was lower even after the rain. Our guide said we had to wade across. We held hands and our flashlights as we walked sideways across the rushing water. It wasn't too deep or difficult but it was an interesting thing to do in the dark. 

We hiked across a little island to our boat which crossed over in the dark to the person waving a flashlight to show where to land. Then it was off to camp, dinner, and a night sleeping in hammocks under the covered patio. The rain started again as we slept after such a long and fulfilling day.