Canaima and Salto del Angel

These natural wonders, Canaima and Angel Falls, were the two final destinations of the journey and I can only say that they are awesome.

I booked the trip with Bernal Tours(also known as sapitotours) which was suggested by a couple from Barcelona that I met in Los Roques. Eusebio Bernal is the son of Tomas Bernal, a Peruvian explorer who built the first camp in Canaima. Eusebio and son were extremely helpful with flights, acomodation and trasport. They also have the camps in the best locations.

The trip started from Canaima, flying in a Cessna, a 5 people airplane.

The trip in the Cessna was quite an experience every part was shaken during the flight: obviously no toilets, no emergency exits, no tv, no food, no cabin crew, only some unforgetable views




The plane landed in soil, not on the ranway. I thougt the pilot missed the ranway, but all of them landed that way. There must be a reason. I will find out.

Here you lost conection with the outside world: no tv, no internet and no mobile phones...
In Canaima you will find Three beautiful waterfalls surounded by a gorgeous landscape.
It is even possilbe to walk behind one of them.




The warter is golden brown color due to the tannins from the plants and it has a sweet flavour.
Here we had to slep in hammocs. It is not the most comfortable way, but it is worth it. I was able to sleep but I still can't explain how I woke up upside down, with my head were I had my feet when I went to sleep.

In the morning we woke up early to travel in a curiara, a canoe made of a single piece of wood.

The trip up river takes around three hours throuh a beautiful jungle.

In the way to Angel Falls we had time to stop for a refreshing swim in a little waterfall.

Finnaly we arrived to Salto de Angel, the highest waterfall in the world 979m. The view here is unbelievable.

I literally risked my life to take the following picture, it was very slippery and we were in the middle of the waterfall. I have to thank my Polish friend Robert who helped me to get back.

We slept again in a camp with hammocs, this time with no electicity and no shower(just the river). We had to use candles for the dinner, very romantic... but we were only blokes... I had a great time though with three funny Polish travellers: Robert, Gregosz and his other friend.

This is a view of Salto del Angel in the morning.

It has been an amazing trip. I think I managed to visit all the places I put in the banner on top plus a few more. I wish I had more time and visit other regions and countries, maybe next year.

I will post an epilogue, one last post with all the videos I could't upload due to the filesize.

Now a different journey starts, I hope this one will be much longer.

The Broker

This is a story that happened to me in Caracas Airport and I would like to share with you to show you how this country works and in case any of you is planning to travel there(even with things like this is a beautiful and unique country)

I arrived from Los Roques to Caracas for my final destination: Canaima y El Salto del Angel.

I booked the tour with Bernal(sapitotours), very nice guy who even booked and paid my ticket to Ciudad Bolivar(the starting point of the tour). The only remaining thing was my return ticket after the tour back to Caracas. No problem I thought, I had plenty of time at the airport; not so fast Renato.

First problem: I had to return on Sunday and the Company which flies to C.Bolivar doesn't fly on Sundays!

Well, I managed to find another company that flew to from another city wich is only 40 minutes distance from C.Bolivar. The guy at the Airline desk told me that there was only one seat available. I needed to change some dollars into bolivares. I still had some local currency so I only changed 60$.

When I got back to the desk, the guy told me the ticket had been taken and there were no more left. I called inmediatelly the agency (Bernal) and explained the situation. They suggested another company and to put my name in the waiting list with the company that was fully booked:
a) the other company had the system down and they were unable to make reservations
b) there was no waiting list in initial company

Bus was not an option as I had to take an early flight the following day and the bus arrived afterwards.

Basically I was in serious trouble. I was going to get a flight to Canaima with no possible return. The only option seemed a 5 hours taxi!

I was chatting and explaining the situation to a couple I met the previous day in Los Roques when the guy who had changed me currency 10 minutes before aproached me again and asked me what was going on.

After I explained him the problem, he said he could get me the ticket if I paid him 150 Bolivares($35). I was surprised, at the airline desk I was told there were no tickets. I inmidiately understood: they made reservations until the flight is full and then they re-sell the tickets.

Then the Argentinian couple noticed and advert reading "Say NO to brokers", which confirmed how things works.

I was able to reduce the broker fee to 110 Bolivares saying I had no more money. The Broker made a phone call and gave me a reservation code. I could only laugh when he even asked me if I wanted window or aisle!

As soon as I got back to the airline desk, the guy who said there were no tickets smiled and let me know the ammount of the ticket without even asking for the reservation code or my name.

At the end I only paid $25 extra, but it could have been worst If I had changed more money with The Broker and he had known I had more money. I could have ended up paying $200 extra or more.

The Broker even congratulated himself with the Argentians about his efficiency!

Los Roques: a week in paradise (Part II)

It's been said second parts are not good, this is not the case with Los Roques.

Here is another amazing Carebean Blue picture from Cayo de Agua.



I have to thank Libya, who is a kind of agent. She knows everybody in the island and she can help you with anything you would like to do but she doesn't try to sell you anything. She is the one to contact if you want somebody to make your life easier.
Libya is the girl on the left, next to her is one of the Italians, and the next is the daughter of the owner. At the back the two Spaniards and me.


Last day I decided to depart with style. We went all the people from the Posada to an excursion: the two italian ladies, the couple from Barcelona, the girl from the agency and me.

We visited Cayo los Castillos, Boca de Sebastopol (amazing snorkle), we saw a couple of shipwrecks and we went through the Eastern Coral Barrier. The trip was awesome.



For dinner, the chef managed to improvised something delightfull again, especially when the Boats with food hadn't arrived for 20 days. Supermarkets had been closing one by one as they were finishing their products.


This is Crasky, another paradise within the paradise.

Question, how did I take the following picture. Notice there is no camera shadow...
Again this is Cayo de Agua, the beach was almost empty. This island is about an hour from Gran Roque, but is defenitely worth it.
We even had a marvelous rainbow.
I have to say it's been a hard work there at some point.

This is from Francisky pretty close to the Gran Roque. It was better to stay in the middle of the water to avoid the mosquitos.


For the last night, we arranged a midnigth snorkle with a guide. It is something different and really beatiful and with some adventure. We carried torchs and we could see many species that are hidden during the day: lobsters, balloon fish, etc.

This picture from Cayo Bobo. We could see the bobo bird with blue mouth.

Another stunning swimming pool in the sea.


Before the flight next day I had time for a couple of hours in the beach and a fresh lobster! And a few minutes in the hammoc.


Well, I have tried to show you the beaty of Los Roques. I hope you enjoyed.

This is not a place for party but to enjoy nature and swimming, snorkle, diving, windsurf, kitessurf and relax.

If you had the oportunity, don't miss Los Roques!

Los Roques: a week in paradise (Part I)

As I mentioned in the previous post, I didn't book anything for Venezuela. There is an issue with the exchange rate: the official rate is 1$ = 2.1 Bolivar, but in the black market you can get 4.5 or 5 Bolivar(www.dolarparalelo.blogspot.com).

This means you pay double if you use your credit card. If you come to Venezuela, you have to carry with you all the money you plan to spend.

As soon as I arrived at the international airport in Caracas a guy offers me to change dolars at 4. I managed to get 4.4 and I changed 400$ in a hidden part of the airport. To make sure the bills were real, I checked them in a coffee shop.

I told the guy muy travel plans and he offers some advise to find a cheap flight to Los Roques. We had to run to the national terminal. I checked prices in a couple of places before going to the one he suggested. Indeed I saved 20% following his instructions, so I decided to change more money with him. I almost lost the flight because of that as we had to get back to the other terminal for the "transaction".

After all that extress I got the desired flight to Los Roques. Los Roques is a Natural Park, is a set of small islands protected by coral reefs. This is the view from the plane.

The airport tawer was just a truck with a box on top.


Here there are no hotels, only 'posadas' (guest houses), where everybody have breakfast and dinner together and they are usually very familiar. Most of them are managed by Italians, and there is a lot of tourist from there.

I stayed the first two nights in the Botuto, but it was very expensive and the food wasn't good. The only curious thing was that the showers were roofless.
Here you stay in the Big Roque where there is no real beach. There are fast boats that take you to the other islands, some of them only 5 minutes distance and others almost 1 hour.

This is the view from a peak in the Gran Roque.



Next day I planned to dive. They requested the licence which I had lost a long time ago. I could contact my instructor and she sent me a scan which was good enough.

Later on I found out that a girl died a week ago diving. It was like in that movie, I think Open Water. She was the girlfriend of an instructor who wasn't diving that day. She wasn't in the list and she went up first and couldn't find the boat. The boat left without her. Sadly she drawned.

Probably that's why most of the diving centres were closed because of "reforms" as they said and why I was requested the diving licence. After a couple of days the only two open centres agreed the prices and raised them to more than $100 for two dives: outrageous.

The agent I met the first day helped me to find another Posada, where the food was amazing, it had air conditioning and it was almost half price. If any of you go to Los Roques try to stay in Los Corales.

I visited a few roques: Francisky, Madrisky, Crasky, Carenero, Cayo de Agua. If I had to chose I would recomend Cayo de Agua. These pictures are from there.



Full moon in Los Roques.


View from the Gran Roque.

This is from Madrisky.A few pictures from The Gran Roque.




This is Spenky. All the islands were awesome


Sorry for the delay but in Los Roques there was no software to reduce the pictures. I will update soon with the second part of Los Roques.

Peru with Peruvians

I arrived to Trujillo on December, the 30th (2008).

It was nice to find Zaidy at the airport(It also saved me a few soles with the taxi, as soon as they notice you are not Peruvian they charge you double. I even had to hide myself when see asked for quotes, because if they see me with her they overcharge us as well)

After a quick visit to the beautiful Plaza de Armas, a party was quickly improvised. We prepared pisco sour, a delicious cocktail made of pisco, lime, ice, egg whites, syrup and Angostura bitter. They were a bit pissed off because I brought Pisco from Chile and they consider pisco as Peruvian. The mantain a serious rivality with their neighbours.

Here are Paola and Zaidy happy after making Pisco Sour (you can see it in the blender behind).
Surprinsingly, there was no hang over the next day but unsurprinsingly, the vistit to Chan Chan was replaced by a long stay in bed. Nevertheless it was a sensible decission in order to prepare to New Year's Eve.

We had a lovely and crazy party with Zaidy's family. Food was gorgeous!! and we had lots of tradicional things: 12 grapes to make 12 wishes, little bags with rice and lentis for abundance, pisco sour (again), we even broke the glasses against the wall representing the break with last year bad things(for the scarves in the wall it seemed there were a few...)

After dinner we went to the Beach in Huanchaco(15 minutes from Trujillo). Sadly one of the girls was assaulted in a taxi. The driver stopped and to men jumped into the car and took her purse with her mobile and camera. Luckily she only got mugged and a few minor scarves. I was advised it was a dangerous place and I beleave it now.

The streets in Huanchaco were too crowded and dangerous and we decided to enjoy a few beers in the beach until dawn. I played safe and I didn't carry the camera, so no pictures from there.

Some of us(not me), ejoyed anticucho for breackfast: barbaqued chicken heart.

For the weekend we planned a vistit to Mancora, in the North part of Peru and pretty close to Ecuador. As you can imagine the Sun is as strong as it gets.

For the record: 9 hours night bus from Trujillo to Mancora with no sleeping pills.

We were disappointed with Mancora town: it was dirty, lots of cars and trucks, and the beach wasn't pretty. However it has a lot of night life and finally I couldn't avoid any longer the latin rythms: salsa, merengue, even regueton!!
Luckily, I can't amuse you(and embarras me) with any graphic evidence, as all the pictures were taken with someone else's cameras.

However, we found a couple of beautiful places near Mancora: Punta Sal and Las Pocitas were it was quiter and the water cristal clear.

The Sky was like a thin layer of cotton over the sea.

I also found Obama's next dog in Mancora: it looks like a big rat with the hair of Einstein.

Another picture of Las pocitas with Jose, Alan, Claudia and Nati taking the picture.

We returned to Trujillo and visited Chan Chan. These ruins a near the sea (notice the pelicans in the wall) and they reminded me somehow to Egypt.

Next destination was Huaraz, in the middle of the mountains. The altitude here is around 3000m. and some of the peaks reach more than 5000 m.

There are two mountain chains: the black chain and the white chain. The black chain is the western one, closer to the Pacific ocean. It protects the white chain from the winds and this way is always snowed.

Unfortunately it was "winter" there and clouds were covering the white peaks.

This is a beautiful green lake in the white chain.

I am leaving Peru with millions of good memories, friends and email adresses. It is a country of great contrasts: the Sun and the Snow, the sea and the mountains, the hospitality of your friends and the danger in the streets...

It also has the best food in South America. They put a lot of effort in their dishes and they have a huge variety. I strongly recomend ceviche: raw fish or sea food marinated with lemon and onions. Also must try: choclo(corn) with chese, cachamba, chicharon, cui, chicken soup, ajis. And drinks like chicha morada(made of purple corn), cremolada(bits of ice with fruit juice) and many more.

This was a long post, but trust me, I tried to keep it as short as I could. I had to leave many things off. This country has soo many things to enjoy!! I was very lucky to be able to live in Peru with Peruvians. It really makes a diference.

I leave now to Venezuela were I plan to go to Los Roques and Canaima, I am at the airport and I don't have anything planed yet.