Go Chasing Waterfalls!

We managed to get on the nightbus to Valencia and after a pretty smooth swap there we arrived in Ciudad Bolivar 24 hours after starting our trip from Mérida. Ciudad Bolivar is named after "El Libertador" Simón Bolivar, a Caracas born man and the founding father of Venezuela who gave Gran Colombia (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela) it´s independence in the beginning of the 19th century. Apart from this city, you see his name everywhere in the Bolivarian Republic of Venzuela maybe most noticeably the currency of Bolivars and the main square of every town called Plaza Bolivar. We spent two days in Ciudad Bolivar the first day spent just walking around town looking at the markets and on the second day we took a trip to the mighty Angel Falls. The name of the world's highest waterfall doesn't have anything to do with messengers of God but refers to the American man who "found" it, Jimmie Angel who in 1933 flew over it for the first time and whilst looking for it again in 1937 crashlanded at the top. The fact that an American claims the name to Venezuelas top tourist attraction is not very popular with Señor Chavez who is doing his best to get it renamed to Kerepakupai merú, which means "waterfall of the deepest place", in the local Pemon language. We took off from Ciudad Bolivar in a tiny six-seater Cessna, four Swedes and our 200 kilogram pilot Marco. The (at points stomach-churning) flight over the beautiful dense jungle landscape and table mountains lasted for about an hour until we got to the 979 meter high waterfall which despite it being dry-season was truly sublime, words just don't do it justice (and as I haven't got a camera I guess you'll just have to go see it for yourselves.) After flying by it a few times we landed at the village airstrip in Canima where we could swim in the white sanded Canaima lagoon and get closer to some smaller waterfalls which were once again mindblowing and I just can't imagine what the wetseason is like. As this season doesn't really offer so much to do for a longer time we flew back to Ciudad Bolivar the same day and had a busticket booked to take us to the harbourtown Puerto La Cruz. However when we arrived at the busterminal we found out that our bus had been cancelled, not wanting to lose too much time, we opted to make the four hour drive by taxi instead. Puerto La Cruz doesn't really have a lot to offer except for it's proximity to the nearby beaches and the very popular Isla Margarita. We decided the best choice was to stick to mainland and travelled early in the morning to a secluded and quiet beachtown called Playa Colorada. I could only stay two nights until I had to bid my adieus to my travelpartners Joanna, Johan and Tobias who have been great company for the past fortnight. It took me almost 7 hours but as I write I am back in Caracas hoping that my early flight to Brazil tomorrow morning won't cause as much of a problem as the first flights of this decade seemed to...