Angel Falls is the worlds highest waterfall. Words can not express how breath taking it is, so a video will have to do! But don´t settle for you tube, see it for yourself on the Venezuela Gap Year programme we run called The Adventure Travel Classroom.
This is an award winning adventure teaches and improves your Spanish as you visit Venezuela, one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
We spend one week hiking into Canaima from La Paragua stopping in isolated Pemon settlements along the way and sleeping in the wilderness. The second week you’ll live in the Pemon village of Canaima, exploring the area and studying Spanish.
Canaima National Park
Canaima National Park is a 30,000 km² park in south-eastern Venezuela that borders Brazil and Guyana. It is located in Bolívar State, and roughly occupies the same area as the Gran Sabana region.
The park was established on the 12 June 1962. It is the second largest park in the country, after Parima-Tapirapecó, and sixth biggest national park in the world. It is the size of Belgium or Maryland.
About 65% of the park is occupied by plateaus of rock called tepuis. These constitute a unique biological environment, also of a great geological interest. Its sheer cliffs and waterfalls (including the Angel Falls, which is the highest waterfall in the world, to 1,002 m) are spectacular landscapes.
Angel Falls
There’s an optional day trip to see the world highest water fall Angel Falls. Flight back to La Paragua.
Angel Falls (Spanish: Salto Ángel; Pemon language: Kerepakupai Vená, meaning “waterfall of the deepest place”, or Parakupá Vená, meaning “the fall from the highest point”) is world’s highest waterfall, with a height of 979 m (3,212 ft) and a plunge of 807 m (2,648 ft).
The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyantepui mountain in the Canaima National Park a UNESCO World Heritage site
The height figure 979 m (3,212 ft) mostly consists of the main plunge but also includes about 400 m (0.25 mi) of sloped cascades and rapids below the drop and a 30 m (98 ft) high plunge downstream of the talus rapids.
The falls have an interesting history and many adventurers tales associated with them, one of the most remarkable was how the falls got their name. Not due to the biblical dimentions of the falls them selves but by a hapless little known American Aviator and Gold prospector Jimmie Angel.
On the 9 October 1937, Angel tried to land his Metal Aircraft Corporation Flamingo monoplane El Río Caroní; atop of the falls, but the plane was damaged when the wheels sank into the marshy ground, and he and his three companions, including his wife Marie, were forced to descend the tepui (table top mountain) on foot. It took them 11 days to make their way back to civilization, but news of their adventure spread, and the waterfall was named Angel Falls in his honor.
