Brazil and Guyana done...now it's time to dip my feet into what Venezuela has to offer, as I'm sure I'll not be able to visit all the amazing places that this country has to offer, so I have to cherry pick, starting with Salto Angel (Angel Falls).

The journey to Venezuela is not an easy one from Guyana, as there are no border crossings over land between the two countries, or certainly not any that a sane backpacker would be willing to take. Given my experience from Lethem to Georgetown, I decided to fork out a little cash and fly to the border of Guyana and Brazil, here I pass through boarder security and arrive at the bus terminal in Bonfim, Brazil. Here I had a short 3 hour wait, and then headed back to Boa Vista which is the transit town to Venezuela. As it turned out there were no buses leaving for Ciudad Bolivar that evening, so I use my limited, but improving Spanish to tell a taxi driver to take me to a cheap guesthouse near to the bus terminal. There is very little to do in Boa Vista, so I just walked around and found a Centro Commercial (Shopping Centre), it wasn't much - just a few market stalls, but it passed some time.

I was up early to catch my 07:30 bus to Ciudad Bolivar and as always in Brazil the buses are on time and clean. The journey was during the day and somewhere around 17 hours which meant I would be arriving at about midnight, not a problem on this occasion as I pre-booked a guesthouse for 2 nights in Ciudad Bolivar - which basically gives me one full day to arrange my trip to Angel Falls. It really was nice to have a day trip through the South of Venezuela; the scenery was stunning as the bus sped through the narrow roads through the mountainous region. In fact the day trip has another bonus, as every couple of hours we have to pass through some kind to army security road block and present our passports...although on occasions we got waved through and continue swiftly on but that would have been rubbish if travelling at night!

So here I am, at Ciudad Bolivar and my first stop in Venezuela; the country famed for having won the most Miss World titles - about six I have been told...I'm in good hands! I arrived finally at about 00:45 to the hotel Laja Real, a little expensive but a good location as it is both near the airport and bus terminal.

My only day in Ciudad Bolivar was spent trying to find a tour operator, so I could book my Angel Falls and Los Roques trips. After walking around for about an hour, I decided to try and flag down a taxi to help in my search, the problem in Venezuela is all taxis just look like normal cars and some are huge looking battered old vehicles, the ones famous in films that the old drug barons use. Eventually I flagged one down and soon was in the tourist area, near Bolivar plaza...with a tour operator found and after about 30 minutes of broken Spanish, I manage to arrange all my trips...only to find out they only take cash...b******s! Another 30 minute walk and I stumble across another tour operator, great they take cards and the guy is English speaking, so here I book my trips.

I get an early flight the next day on a tiny 4 seater Cessna aeroplane and make my way to Canaima where I'll start my day long journey to the Angel Falls. The Angel Falls trip would be a two day, one night trip. The first day would be mostly travelling to the falls, then we'll camp out and return the following day. When I arrived the weather was great and I meet up with the rest of the group, in our group we had Japanese, South Korean, Spanish, Chilean, Venezuelan, Ukrainian, Italian and Dutch nationalities!!

The surroundings were forest, but the first part of the journey I walked along a beautiful beach in a lagoon. The beach was littered with mango trees, so everyone stocked up on some fresh mangos for the next couple of days. Then a short trek and I was up at our first falls, Salto Ucaima, a small waterfall and a good warm-up for the main event Salto Angel. It is here, as far as I'm concerned that the fun stopped...as we approach the boat, the weather takes a turn, the grey clouds lower and surrounded the mountainous forest and the heavens open. From here it is a 5 hour boat journey to Salto Angel as we'll be going against the current. Anyway, the next 5 hours were pretty tough, don't get me wrong as the trip was good overall, but for 5 hours we sat in a wooden tiny boat with the spray and waves constantly spilling overboard, the rain didn't stop for one second and the wind was bitterly cold. Me; in a t-shirt and swimming shorts, I don't think I prepared well enough - in all my time so far backpacking in South America this is truly the first time I have shivered!! In terms of the scenery during the boat trip, it was pretty amazing, one minute you are in a forest the next you'll come up against vertical tabletop mountains. That said, as like the Amazon boat trip the scenery can become a bit same same. When we finally arrived at Salto Angel (Angel Falls), I dropped my bag off at camp and then set off, camera in hand on a one hour trek to the falls. The trek wasn't at all demanding and finally I arrived at the falls, wow what a sight. We were at a viewpoint near the bottom of the falls and the sheer size and distance the water falls is magnificent, still raining and cloudy however didn't put off how magnificent the falls were - in fact it gave it a little mystic feel about it.

Since I have just come from the Kaieteur Falls in Guyana straight to the Angel Falls - I think I should write a comparison as it is pretty fresh in my memory. In short, the Kaieteur Falls wins hands down and here's why. Just because a waterfall has water falling from a magnificent height doesn't make it beautiful...it makes it intriguing but big isn't always best. I'm going to skip forward a bit here as later on in the trip I visited Salto Sapo, now this is a small waterfall but for me was much a much better experience that Salto Angel. Kaieteur Falls had better viewpoints, and you could get much closer to the action than the Angel Falls. Kaieteur Falls had a way of making you smile at the beauty and is a place you could spend the whole day admiring the views and for me Angel Falls had a way of making you gasp in amazement, take a few pictures then head off...which is what we did.

Back at camp the fire was already going and our dinner for the evening was cooking (chicken and rice), the hammocks were hung, so I picked a hammock, dried myself off and relaxed before dinner. The camp was basic, there was a small purpose built shelter which consisted of a roof and no walls - this is where the hammocks were hung from. There was a toilet lit by candlelight a large dining table and a kitchen...which was ultimately the fire and giant pot to boil the rice. That evening, the group sat down for the meal and we all bonded and got to know each other better, I was very fortunate to have been with such a lovely random mix of people.

The hammocks for the night didn't have mosquito nets, so I bathed myself in repellent and wrapped myself up in the blanket...surprisingly though there were only a few mozzies (maybe the altitude). The night was very calm too, even though we were in the middle of the jungle I didn't hear many nocturnal noises at all, much different from camping out in the Brazilian Amazon were all night you heard a frog's chorus and upon sunrise you would hear the birds go for it...here was pretty much silence.

The next morning, we arise early to start our journey back to Canaima then ultimately back to Ciudad Bolivar. After breakfast we headed off, this time with the current which would shave off 2 hours of the journey. The 3 hours journey back (again in the rain) flew by as the journey was broken up by a visit to Salto Sapo, this waterfall was amazing; to look at, it was just another waterfall but with the added benefit that you could walk behind the fall on a pathway in the rocks. As I didn't have a shower in camp, it was nice to stand under the falls and have one - the force that the water fell on me made it painful but nice! As the rocks were very damp, it was home to a number of small poisonous frogs one of which I managed to get a photo of.

All in all, a worthy trip; the journey home in the 4 seater Cessna plane was interesting as we sped past another plane that was within 100metres of us! Back at Ciudad Bolivar and that evening I'm getting a bus to Caracas overnight which cost something like 120 Bolivars.