Unforgettable Venezuela

After our previous experiences of "organised" travel, and feeling more ready and confident to take on new emotions, we finally decided to organise our first "do-it-yourself" holidays. Our baptism in this regard was Venezuela. Until a few months earlier, I would never have expected to visit this country, but during our usual visit to the BIT in Milan, we came across the brochures of Los Roques and..... that's where it all began!! Of course, it was love at first sight for this archipelago in the Caribbean Sea, but while preparing our itinerary we realised that Venezuela had much more to offer. Unfortunately we were limited by the 15 days available, so we decided to devote them only.... to Los Roques and to a visit to Canaima/Salto Angel (nothing much, then!!!).

10 hours of flight to reach Caracas, just at 14:20, and at 16:40 we had the domestic flight to Los Roques at the Domestic terminal.... come on, come on, let's hurry........ epic queue at immigration! Finally we'd made it; beyond customs our luggage had already been on the floor for a while. Out of the Terminal....TOTAL CHAOS! The first impact with a South American megalopolis was rather traumatic: taxis... black-market exchange... excursions.... everyone was offering something but... we were looking for Hector. There he was, he was our trusted escort right up to boarding for Los Roques; without him I don't know if we'd have managed to cover those.... 200 metres that separated us from the domestic terminal. The flight on the 20-seat plane was calm; we left a rainy Caracas that didn't give us much hope, but as we moved away from the coast the sky grew ever more blue.

A blinding sun didn't let us see well out of the window, but suddenly the outer reef of the Los Roques archipelago appeared before our eyes, separating the strong colours of the ocean from the turquoise of the inner lagoon; here and there little islands of various sizes emerged, surrounded by white sand bathed by a wonderful sea. The view we were granted before landing was spectacular, and at last we were at Gran Roque. Our stay, on the only inhabited island of Gran Roque, was at the Posada Lagunita, which, besides welcoming us like a family thanks to the ever-present Enrico, allowed us to enjoy an unforgettable and unusual holiday. Life at Los Roques passes slowly; the excursions to the nearby islands are all tackled as a group with the guests of the Posada, breakfast, afternoon snack on return, and dinner all together at the one big table and.... a packed lunch on the beaches.

Ah, the beaches and....the islands..... Crasqui, Espenqui, Carenero, Francisqui and the wonderful Cayo de Agua are just some of the islands we visited in 10 days; any comment is superfluous and......paradise is....daydreaming, but only by living the Los Roques experience do you realise what it's about. This holiday was also our first experience as divers; the dives are probably not as beautiful as in other places, but it was worth it anyway; diving allowed us to reach areas off limits to other tourists, and the crossing to reach Boca de Cote introduced us to a part of Los Roques that is almost entirely unspoilt.

Snorkelling on the various islands is pleasant, but even more pleasant is the climate at these latitudes; considering that our summer is equivalent to the rainy season in the Caribbean, one couldn't expect anything good, but, surprise, out of 10 days at sea there were only 2 evening downpours, and for the rest sun, sun and more sun. This is a very particular area; the trade winds blow constantly, and the locals assured us that the sun is present 365 days a year. The most obvious proof is that the vegetation is all very low, there are no palms or natural shelters from the sun, and the only salvation from sunburn is sunscreen and beach umbrellas. A good holiday at Los Roques also depends on the group of people you spend the days with; from this point of view we were particularly lucky, we socialised with everyone and a lovely friendship was born with Paolo, Stefano, Luana and Monica......

back in Italy the distance keeps us a bit apart (and the age difference....!!!) but they will remain among our fondest memories of Los Roques!! After these fantastic days in paradise, our journey continued towards Canaima. Flight Gran Roque-Caracas-Ciudad Bolivar and an overnight stay in this city in the middle of Venezuela. The following morning, with the support given to us by the local agency Turi Express, we set off for Canaima in a 6-seat Cessna. For me the 2 hours of flight were fantastic and I admired a varied and wonderful nature below; whoever was beside me......slept the whole time. The landing on the little Canaima airstrip was exciting and gave us a foretaste, ecstatic as we were about the forest all around, of what we would see and where we would live in the following days.

Rendezvous and lunch at the camp facing the Canaima lagoon, a little rest in the hammocks provided and then off.... we set off on the trek towards Salto Angel. The route would last 3 days and 2 nights; it was our first experience of this kind, backpack on our shoulders, river crossings upstream, walks in the forest and....all a bit of an adventure. I've heard many conflicting opinions, but for me it was a WONDERFUL experience!!! We saw various waterfalls such as Salto el Sapo and el Sapito, we walked under these waterfalls where the force of the water took our breath away; the climb up to our camp was hard, but....the panoramas we enjoyed along the way...... Another couple of hours by boat and, when the darkness of evening had already covered us, we reached our destination; dinner at the long table and then to bed......in the hammocks.... another long day awaited us.

The night passed calmly; the sounds of the forest were something magical; at 6 the sun was rising and, being a light sleeper, I was already up and....thankfully. The dawn I was admiring was magical and the early-morning breeze was so fresh that I would have liked to stop time. Nothing doing, we set off again, heading for Salto Angel. The season for visiting this waterfall, the highest in the world at 980 metres, was the right one, since August is right in the middle of the rainy season, but.....maybe it was luck....in any case we caught only two big night-time storms and then sun for the rest of the time.

Another 3 hours by boat and then 2 and a half hours trudging up through the forest to reach our destination; the nature around us was so dense that it allowed no deviation from the marked path; the humidity was quite suffocating, but, with the desire to reach our goal, everything was bearable. Finally, after so much effort, through the thick leaves we manage to make out something.... it was Salto Angel. The scarce rains of those days had left the waterfall not very "full", but the clear sky allowed us to see the whole "flight of the angel". After a swim in the pool below, the long journey home awaited us. Last night in our hammocks and then...... reluctantly, the holiday was about to end.

Flight Canaima-Ciudad Bolivar and then on to Puerto la Cruz by taxi (400 km); in this coastal city we spent only one night, but the evening spent along the Malecon showed us that the chaotic Venezuelan cities didn't have much to offer. The next day, again by taxi to reach Caracas (another 4