Canaima National Park and Angel Falls

Quick Tips:

If you have five or more days, stay in some of the Pemon villages and explore the park further. Angel Eco-Tours is a company that does an excellent job with this type of tour.

Best Way To Get Around:

There is one large open-air eating area alongside the landing strip. The food served was surprisingly excellent. It was a nice mix of western cuisine such as spaghetti and fried eggplant, with more traditional Pemon food such as cassava bread and fish stew.

Try to bring a few extra shirts or hats to leave with them as gifts.

Our whole group stayed in a large, open-air hut with a thatched-roof. We all slept in hammocks that were tied to large wooden posts. There is a bathroom about 20 yards away and when you ask for the shower, you will be directed towards the river. There is nice pink sandstone on the riverbank, with which you can give yourself a natural facial. The food here is excellent, again with a nice combination of western and traditional Pemon dishes.

Seeing the falls by air is spectacular. It is also important to see it by land. After a boat ride of varying lengths (depending upon place of departure), you will need to hike for roughly an hour and a half through the jungle. It is amazing to find no trash, no signs, no plaques, and very few other tourists. Towards the end of the trail lies a fantastic vantage point of the bottom and top of the falls.

You can follow the trail to a mini-falls below the area where most of the water collects at the bottom of Angel-Falls. You can take a refreshing dip under these falls, but be careful with the strong current.

They are one of the few companies to offer the complete tour of Canaima and they stress the interaction with the Pemon, to whom they donate 5% of profits. They are the only group that stays in the village of Uruyen and they employ all Pemon guides and cooks.

The company also runs excursions to Venezuela's other hot spots such as the Orinoco Delta, the Los Roques marine reserve, and Isla Margarita. But as their name suggests, Canaima and Angel Falls are their real passions.