Since we left Trinidad and Tobago in a rush some 5 days ago we´ve had a pretty hectic, and amazing time. I was sure that the lack of a vaccination card combined with my emergency passport and a obviously fake return ticket would get me thrown out of Venezuela and right back to Trinidad. Luckily, immigrationg in Venezuela was far less strict than i feared and they just welcomed us in after explaning the situation. A new acquaintance helped us with changing our money on the black marked for a good exchange rate and we hopped in a "por puesto" to Curopuna. That last sentance might need some more explaning:
1. The Venezuelan currency is on the official marked valued as 4-4,5 Bolivares per USD, whilst on the black marked your can buy Bolivares at about 7-8 Bolivares per USD. Since this makes Venezuela about twice as cheap, we accounted for this before leaving Trinidad and took out alot of USD for exchanging.
2. Por puestos is the most common mean of transport. It´s more or less a long-distance taxi. They also have busses, but the bus-system is pretty horrible.

We spent one night in Curopuna, a dirty, dangerous shipping - town in east Venezuela, and set our bearings for Ciudad Bolivar and Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world. We had to divide the trip into different legs because of the unorganized transportation system. We got a por puesto to Puerto La Cruz, and at arrival here we were litteraly dragged straight into a bus that was leaving when we arrived. Great timing, and we made it to Ciudad Bolivar by nightfall. As always, when two european - looking guys arrive in a city with a tourist attraction nearby, we were jumped on by tour opperators and taxi drivers while stepping out of the bus. We don´t usually have a habit of cathcing the bait and jumping onto whatever´s offered in theese situations, but this time the offer was just to good. The company, Conexion Tours, offered us a free place to stay, the two left-over spots on a trip leaving the next morning for a very reasonable price, 250 USD, and a free taxi ride into town to take a look at the place. The next morning at 0700 we were on out way to Canaima National Park!

The flight out was a CESNA, 5-seater, which we shared with a german couple and our pilot, who off course was suited up with Top-Gun goggles and a mustache. The view was beautiful, with great table mountains, rivers and rainforest all around. Unfortunately, we also vitnessed the vast amounts of deforestation in Venezuela upclose.
After a crazy turn-and-land with the plane we were hurled into a canoe and embarked on the 5 hour long boat-ride towards the camp by Angel Falls. We´d heard that the boat ride was supposed to be filled with beautiful scenery and also pretty rough. The boat rushed up several rapids, bouncing of the rocky bottom and passed narrow streams. A great experience.
On the way there you see throngs of waterfalls pouring down the "tepuis" (table mountains), and I cought myself thinking: Is this Angel Falls? every now and then. But when we actually arrived and caught a glimpse of the real falls, there was no doubt. Yes, this is Angel Falls. And, pardon my french, it´s f***ing amazing. Surrounded by mystic clouds, the great waterfall is just hurled over the 1000m ledge and turns into rain on the way down. It is really a marvellous sight. We spent a day in hammocks on the riverside by the falls, just bathing, enjoying the view and chatting with our co-travellers. The next day we trekked for an hour up to the falls and there we got an even better view. For me, it´s one of the definite highlights of the trip so far. Being in the rainy season, the amount of water was high and we got a really fantastic view with all the mystic clouds surrounding it.
The boat-ride back is every bit as exciting as the first one, only a bit shorter. Our trip also included a tour around the waterfalls surraounding the camp. I thought that after seeing Angel Falls, this would certainly be no fun, but that presumtion was proved wrong rapidly. We walked behind massive waterfalls and trekked around beautiful terrain. Yes, you get soaked, but seeing the waterfalls, where basically a big river just drops down 30m, from behind is pretty darned incredible. We spent the rest of the day exploring 3-4 waterfalls from every angle before we returned for dinner and a long, solid night of sleep. Before "Ole-Lukkoye" passed us his daily visit, we got two more ammusing sights. The first one being a bat who suddenly flew in our bedroom and crawled around on the bed, and the second a massive grasshopper flying around the dinner - table, causing quite the brawl. Check out the photos!

Our last day was basically a free day to relax in the paradise-like waterfront by the waterfall. There, we spent a good couple of hours building sand-castles, doing gymnastics on the beach and having an even matched long-jumping, where Ludo was announced the winner after several rounds of sudden death.

All in all our trip to Canaima national park was an amazing experience. Thanks to Conexion tours for setting us up with an excellent guide and making our stay here in Ciudad Bolivar unforgettable!

Next stop will be the largest tepui in the world, Roraima. We tried to get bus tickets for this night, but everything seems to be closed due to some strange holliday here. But tomorrow we´re for sure off for what is said to be the most adventorous trek you can do in Venezuela!