ON VENEZUELA

In the Venezuelan landscape, as mountains run into hills and hills into plains, as deserts melt into waters and rivers into deltas, the Canaima National Park’s Sand-Rock Table Plateaus rise defiantly against the skies. Separated from other natural forms, Canaima reminds its visitor about the God’s creation and the ages of the earth– One of the natural wonders of the World.

The flight took no more than two hours. At a low altitude the sight of the Venezuelan plains with its haciendas and rows of trees offered a pleasing view. After midday, the air’s warmth caused turbulence, obligating us to fly higher at around 10.000 feet. The details blurred, but there it was the plenitude of the Venezuelan land with plains extending flat in any direction till the horizon; yet, it does not matter how high are you flying because, eventually, you will discern the Orinoco River, third widest in the world. When I looked at it, the sand banks betrayed that the Orinoco was low at this time of year and so would be the Guri lagoon and the Canaima´s jumps and rivers. December generally promises a better time to catch the full strength of waters. Soon afterwards, there was the city of Puerto Ordaz with its sordid industrial landscape. I could see a damp, diggings, and plenty of the factories standing at the edge of the Canaima National Park, reminding me of the fight of civilization against nature, of the storm before the calm. The Great Plain starts with undulating lowlands, then the Gran Sabana flat plateau at approximately 1000 meters above sea level, and, at last, the Tepuis´ summits reaching heights above the 2500 meters.

The excitement of approaching the Tepuis is only equaled by the excitement of flying between them. Already hundreds of kilometers away the summits arise over the clouds as enormous shadows. The solid sand-stone plateaus draw an uneven line over the horizon. I was dreaming a documentary in front of my eyes; one without embellishments, special lenses or tricks. As we approached the Table Mountains the more Tepuis kept appearing to the southeast. It was the right time for the plane to start dropping some altitude. Seconds later, we all had our noses against the windows, and we began appreciating the summit’s pioneer vegetation atop the reddish Precambrian rocks, cliffs, cracks and walls. 600 million years of erosion and evolution produced extra smooth rocks, deep black-water ponds, freezing humid breezes and genetically diverse insects as if you were in another planet. Next, the plane dropped below the summits and we navigated the Devil´s Canyon with walls that appeared even taller than their 1.500 meters: the perfect preamble to the Angel Falls, the highest water falls in the world. And we had sight of it. Being the dry season, the Angel Falls stream drops more than a kilometer before it transforms itself into drizzle dew of all of colors of the rainbow. The sight evades description, take the height of twenty Niagara’s for instance. Or as it name captures its beauty remind us angel like forms and according to the locals, getting wet by the dew is really just touching the Angel’s wing. After enjoying the splendor of nature from the air it was time to land in the Canaima Lagoon Village and set the adventure on foot.