Crash at Canaima

Couldn't help but note this very sad story in the papers this weekend, of a six year old British boy who was killed in a light aircraft crash in Venezuela near the Canaima airstrip. This is where flights to see Angel Falls leave from, and he and his family were in a Cessena 208 Caravan which apparently lost power just after take off.

Its a pretty unforgiving place to have engine failure, with wilderness pretty much all around the short airstrip, as you can see from Google maps if you click here.

My short flight by Angel Falls and into Canaima and then out again was luckily uneventful, though it did feel a bit more "interesting" than flying into Heathrow. The descent into London's main airport usually starts about 30 km from the runway and you join a regular line of aircraft spaced 2 minutes apart.

The descent into Canaima was a lot more exciting: we were quite low already as the flyby was about half way up the fall's near 1 km face, and the pilot didn't climb any further up, just banked a lot to get us out of the canyons.

We were flying a BAe Jetstream, so our guide joked if we went down it would all be my fault! Luckily of course we didn't, but I couldn't help but notice there were a couple of pranged aircraft around the airstrip.

Above you can see a photo of an old DC3 rusting away (spot the propeller on the ground by the right engine) which was on the right coming into land.

On the left was this - not sure what it was, but it looks like another aircraft that didn't make it.

There is some irony here, as Angel Falls discoverer, Jimmie Angel himself, crashed when he tried to land his aircraft at the top of the tepui. It took him, his wife, and others including his gardener 11 days to trek to the nearest settlement.

Waterfall

Oh no! Not another!

This is the waterfall on the far left hand side of the original picture, the one we went behind all the way across.

Praying Mantis

Ok, I knew when typing "one last post" that it wasn't likely to be completely the last on Venezuela but not that would be unable to keep away from this subject for a single day.

Anyhow, for Edward here is the Praying Mantis - close up!

Note: no special effects were involved in any part of this post.

The Lost World

Ok, one last post on Venezuela.

The picture above is from the Laguna de Canaima, just to the north west of Angel Falls. A series of spectacular waterfalls stretch all along one side of the lagoon which you hear before you see. There are also walkways behind them, where you can look out through a curtain of peaty water.

Apparently they shot some of the Jurassic Park series of films here, but it reminded me more of The Lost World, which is not that surprising. The classic book by Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired by stories of the table mountains or tepius of this, the Gran Sabana region of Venezuela, and in particular Roriama. The plants that live at the top are isolated from the land around and as a result of millions of years of independent evolution have become distinct species, half of which don't grow anywhere else.

We saw no dinosaurs but if you look closely at the bottom of this picture you can see a Praying Mantis:

At the time I was reading not "The Lost World" but something very similar, which is also part of what is known as the lost world genre, namely "King Solomon's Mines".

Lots of epic adventure, lost civilizations in the wilderness, boys own stuff, and since then have just finished "She" by the same author, Henry Rider Haggard. Alas in my adventures I didn't meet Aisha or even Ursula Andress but maybe that's just as well.

Instead its back to a soggy Easter weekend here in London. But at least I have a stack of photos and memories of Venezuela.

Truly an amazing country to visit.

Angel Falls

Slightly lost for words to go with this picture.

I mean, what can you say about a legendary waterfall, deep within Venezuela's jungles, the highest in the world, nearly a kilometre of drop, head often as here lost in the clouds.

It was, like, totally amazing!

Sunset

This evening I'm kicking myself. The local canoe club changed the date of the weekday Thames paddle to this evening because of the Easter weekend. But the weather forecast was for not just rain but "heavy rain", which wouldn't have been much fun.

However the meteorologists yet again got it wrong as it was a lovely evening and it would have been fantastic to be out on the river.

Now the evenings are getting longer and the walk home is now in daylight - unlike in the tropics where the sets like clockwork, almost the same time every day, as in the photo above.

As we drifted in the middle of the Orinoco river watching it sink behind the palm trees, I turned to the back of the boat where the Warao guide sat to see he was also taking pictures - on his mobile (cell) phone!

We exchanged smiles - people really are the same the world over.

Famous sailor turns commercial pilot!

Howdy folks, Buff Staysail here, Buff by name and Buff by nature.

Well JP wasn't that complementary about my exclusive "Is Ben Ainslie Aqua Stig?" post earlier this month, but if you know BS you'll know he isn't down for long.

And I've been off to Venezuela - JP's not the only one travelling to the tropics. And I wasn't travelling on boring old American Airlines or Lufthansa! No - Buff was travelling by Laser!!

Yes that's right, Laser is the airline choice for ol' BS!

And who should be in the cockpit, you may ask? Well as you know I'm a fantastic linguist (unlike JP) and so was able to understand the announcement of the tannoy.

And this flight was being skippered (if I can use that word) by none other than a certain Señor Tiller-Hombre!

Ah-ha! That explains the frequent disappearances when he is allegedly going to Laser championships around the world - really he's moonlighting as an airline pilot in South America!

Warao: The People of The Delta

One of the best bits of the trip to the Orinoco Delta was meeting a few of the Warao who are indigenous to the region. The word comes from "Wa" which means boat or canoe and "Rao" meaning people. They live in wood structures like the one above that are raised on stilts so that when the rainy season comes and the water levels rise their homes are not flooded.

This is the village we visited and where I bought some nice bracelets for my nephews and neices. I was wondering what they thought of us strangers from far away, but then noticed the DirecTV dish powered by a generator and decided they were probably a lot more aware of the big wild world than we give them credit!

Their lives revolve around the cycles of the waters in which they live, the wet and dry seasons and the tides coming and going. To them paddling a canoe is as natural as walking.

At one point we were mid channel waiting for the sun set when we were visited by a canoe from the other side of the river. As you can see from the picture below the Warao learn to paddle when very young!

Navigating in the Orinoco Delta

I've always found navigation an interesting topic, and my friend Tristan's Natural Navigation course was a fantastic way of getting an overview of the subject. So it was, er, natural (groan, sorry about that) to think about it when travelling in those tropical latitudes.

To me felt that a different approach was needed than we use at higher latitudes because the geometry involved means the south/north methods don’t work so well. For example take the sun: up here at 50 ish North the best navigational information comes around mid day when the sun is due south (and vice versa in Australia). Morning and afternoon are a bit vaguer as have to guess how much south/north of east/west the sun sets, which depends upon date in the year, latitude, horizon angles etc.

However in Caracas there was minimal navigational information around noon as the sun at this time of year was pretty much overhead. Even with a stick that is exactly vertical it would be very hard to work out when the shadow was at a minimum. However in the morning / afternoon it was easier to gain navigational information as the sun is pretty close to due east/west. In addition of course its rather hot in the middle of the day!

Similarly at night. While up here we can see the stars going “round” the pole star, in the tropics it feels more like a conveyor belt (though I’d guess the locals would call it a flowing river) going from east to west. I think I did spot the pole star for a flash but at 9 ish degrees north it isn’t that easy unless in the middle of a channel on a clear night. The constellations also look different: we see Orion as being “upright” but overhead unless you orientate your head just right it appears at an angle.

Anyhow that’s what was going through my mind and had this whole theory about east/west being more important to people there than north/south which feel are the most important to us up here. However this could just be bunkum and my ignorance, in particular as you will see it wasn’t backed up by evidence.

I tried to find out how the Warao people who live in the delta navigate and as I speak no Spanish and they no English (they have their own language and actually not all of them speak Spanish) I had to use our Venezuelan guide as a translator. However English was her fourth language after Spanish, Italian and German and she was pretty tired at this point so could have completely missed the point.

Anyway I asked her to ask them how they navigate: did they use the sun and stars and if so how? The answer I got back (again take into account the layers of translation involved) was that they don’t. What they do is keep very good track of where they are in the tide cycle. The Delta has a 2m ish range between high/low waters, and so from that and the direction of current (which is easy to spot as there are these plants that drift around on it) they can work out which is towards the sea and which upriver. This is their main navigational tool, and when on an island they use blazes and “their nose” (not sure if that’s literal or means sense of direction) to find their way to the nearest water and then use water flow direction.

That would make some sense, but would result in a topological map not a cartographic, which actually would be more useful. Even with knowing the sun was east/west I found the many curves and bends of the river disconcerting but in terms of getting from A -> B irrelevant: what matters is the channel and whether you are going up it or down it.

Its a bit like the London tube map: what matters are the lines and interconnections (nodes).

Though the tube doesn't have obstacles in it like the sunk ship above, and the Orinoco River doesn't close for engineering works at weekends!

The Curious Incident of the Frog in the Night-time

Overnight we stayed in the Orinoco Bujana Lodge which was surprising civilised for such a remote spot. I had one of the palafittes or wooden huts all to myself and there was basic plumbing including a shower, which was a very good way to cool off when trying to get to sleep. It even had river side view so I felt very much at home.

Electricity was provided by a generator that only ran for a few hours just after sunset during the evening meal. After that we relied on candles and lamps, as in the picture below. Not only was a lot quieter without the generator, it was also gave a lovely natural light to the scene.

Of course there is the fire danger given the huts are wood and the roof is made from temiche palm and recently two such cabins had been burnt in a fire.

The lamps were there on the wooden walk ways to guide you to your cabin's door. We had been told to be very careful when going in or out to open and close the door quickly to make sure any undesirables didn't get in as well. As if to emphasise the point on the wall of the communal area there were a number of photos including one of those big hairy spiders that wasn't on my wish list for encounters in the Orinoco Delta.

The trouble was that after quickly getting in and closing the door it was pretty pitch black. I should really have taken a torch, but hadn't, and the backup plan of using the iPhone on maximum screen brightness was only useful if had it to hand and it was somewhere hidden under the pile of books, clothes, sun cream, washing things, malaria pills, water bottles etc on the spare bed.

So I felt my way into the room to the little table where I remembered the candle and matches were to be found. Having felt around and located the match box, fired the first and there was a brief bubble of light, during which I spotted that they had decorated the little table with a miniature toy frog, about 2 cm long.

How nice I thought, as the match went out (too soon) so lit a second. In its light I saw that the little toy frog had moved and by the time I'd got the candle alight completely disappeared!

Hmm.... thinks I: if a frog that is clearly not inanimate managed to get in what else is hiding in the dark corners of the room?

It was a bit of a shame that hadn't managed to take a picture of the little frog to add to my wildlife collection - if only to reassure myself that I hadn't imagined it.

So next time I came in (after dinner, preparing for bed) before lighting the first match I took a couple of pics of the table. Initially I was very disappointed as in the preview screen at the back of the camera no little frog was to be found.

However when preparing to write this post I noticed that there is a something lurking just over the edge of the table, a something that retreats further into the dark in the second pic (see the highlighted area).


It might indeed be the missing frog - but it could also have been one of the creepy crawlies that emerged sometime during the night to feast on my legs. Apparently Englishman's leg was on the menu and it was even tastier than termites!

Wildlife in the Orinoco Delta

One of the many amazing things about the Orinoco Delta was the wildlife on display. Of course a lot of it was rather good at hiding from that primary predator called man, but some were more vocal in announcing their presence.

In particular a group of howler monkeys, such as the one above, started a group screeching sometime very early in the morning when it was very dark that got through my ear plugs (though was able to get back to the land of nod).

Having woken us all up they then have a mid morning snooze in the trees, like the chap below. I was very tempted to wake him up to see how he liked it!

There were also lots of birds on display. Alas I am terrible at recognising birds and my guide spent most of her time speaking German for the rest of the tour group so missed their names (any info most welcome).

However even I think that this is some sort of parrot:

One of the interesting thing about them (more below) is that they weave their nests - very clever!

Sorry to say have no idea what this is but looks magnificent!

Ditto for this wierd creature (indeed might be the above on a perch):

We went for a trek through the jungle which was very hot and sticky. There were lots of these termites colonies and we were invite to have a taste. So I wet my finger to make it sticky, put it where there were lots of them crawling around till had a reasonable haul, then put my finger in my mouth.

Hmm... yum, very nice. Their taste? Well, like termites, obviously!

Later went for a swim in the wide muddy waters of the Orinoco River, about where we saw these fresh water dolphins. My friend Anna says you should never bother to take pictures of dolphins as all you ever get are shots of fins like this, but that is better than another piece of water:

Funnily enough when the tour leader asked who from our group wanted to go for a swim there was only one enthusiastic volunteer who clearly was one of those crazy Brits. It might have been something to do with what we had caught fishing just an hour before - piranhas!

When it was dark we went looking for those creatures that come out at night and spotted this snake - honest it is there I promise!

Then there was the curious incident of the frog in the night time.......

Under a tropical night sky

I remember gliding down a channel in the Orinoco Delta.

It is pitch dark, the sort of dark you get where there are no cities, no towns, no street lighting. The native guide has switched off the powerful light he was using to spot the reflected eyes of wildlife hiding in the rain forest. The engine is switched off too, so we drift silently.

But it is not quiet, as there is the background sounds of the jungle from the crickets and croaks of the frogs.

Above the sky is clear and the stars are bright. I can make out Orion high above and search for other constellations, but it is a strange mix of the northern and southern, it is a tropical night sky.

The crescent moon is setting, a sliver slither that isn't bright enough to blot out the stars and the path of the Milky Way can be seen clearly.

I spot a satellite flying high above, a light that varys slowly as it tumbles. There's the glowing line of a meteorite and the flash flash of fire flies.

It is a magical moment that I will never forget.

Venezuelan Travel Plans

The picture above I found on Elaine Buntings blog on the Yachting World site and shows the relative danger levels in various waters of Venezuela, where of course I am now.

It suggests the most dangerous areas are around the port of Cumana, which matches what Liza Copeland (author of Just Cruising and Still Cruising) said when I asked her about it at the London Boat Show, namely its the small inner islands that are the most risky.

Alas I am rather landlocked at the moment. One plan was to find a way to get to that old pirate haunt of the Isla Tortuga. Charting a yacht to sail through the Caribbean night to an island of legend had a certain thrill to it. However it all proved too difficult as was planning to go to Isla Margarita but the yacht charter business is based in Los Roques.

The second plan was to find some resort here where could sail Lasers or Hobies, but all my googling and emailing failed to locate one, though I can't believe there isn't a single one on the island.

But why come to the Isla Margarita anyhow, you might ask? Well this turned out to be the launching place for trips into the interior, trips to the Orinoco Delta and to Angel Falls. And those two looked unmissable.

So here I am in an internet cafe (or Cyber Cafe as I've learnt to ask for), in a so called Caribbean paradise where it actually is poring with rain and monster waves are crashing on the beaches.

According to the figure the places which am planning to visit are yellow or green, though where I am now it is a rather less reasuring purple.

But I keep telling myself that the statistics are that most travellers have no problems, and actually you, dear reader, are probably in as much a danger from traffic accidents.

Though of course I hope that neither of us has any reason to be concerned!

Caracas: Work, work, work

After Sunday's exploration of Caracas it was time to get down to work. The client's office was six stops of the metro to the East and that was how I got there and back.

The metro was packed - I mean really packed, more a crush than anything else. While the guide books and my client were united in advising to hide even a watch or a ring that didn't seem to be something that the Caraquenos worried much about, as most people were glued to phones texting away, listening to iPods, or even playing on the DS2.

The view above is from my hotel room and gives a feel for the city. The central areas seem relatively prosperous and my client's offices were brand new with all mod cons. So there I was, receiving and sending email from my iPhone in the middle of Caracas - not the usual image of this city.

Attached to the hotel was a huge shopping mall, with a lot of the same shops as I've seen in malls in the UK or the US, a food court and videos of Kylie live in concert somewhere. Though I don't think there's a mall in the UK with a gun shop!

Again and again I've been staggered by the cost of things here. The problem is rampant inflation and a fixed exchange rate. The difference between official rate and black market is about 3, and I'd say the black market rates are right, as everything feels like it costs three times what it should do.

But the work is done, three days of 8am to 6pm meetings, and so am now packing for the next part of the trip.

The real adventure is yet to come.....

Caracas: Classical Concert

The other reason for visiting the Museo de Arte Colonial (or Quinta de Anauco) was that they hold chamber music concerts there on a Sunday afternoon. Venezuela has a strong classical music scene and the youth orchestra played in the Proms last year in London to great acclaim.

So shortly after my tour was sitting in a lovely little concert hall listening to finalists from the Conservatorio de Musica Simon Bolivar play Saint Saines, Haydn and Wagner.

It was an all brass concert, indeed an all horn concert, with some of the pieces transcriptions and with piano accompany. I really enjoyed it, and the brass playing was mostly excellent. It did have a slight college music concert feel about it, with fellow students cheering the players on, and at one point the horn player missed timed his entrance, and the piano accompanist stopped and they back tracked a few bars.

I was surprised to discover I could understand what the people in the row in front were saying - as they were English! They were four teachers from the British and I got talking to them after.

They were quick to invite me to give a talk to their students, but pleaded lack of time. I was introduced to the Director of the Conservatorio and asked him who pays for the instruments, a subject that my father had been curious about.

Apparently while some come from the government, the majority are the results of donations from the Inter American Development Bank.

Having had a rather busy couple of hours, missing Sunday lunch all together, decided at this point had done enough for one day and headed back to the hotel.

Caracas: Museo de Arte Colonial

I very nearly didn't make it to the Museo de Arte Colonial, the elegant country mansion known locally as the Quinta de Anauco. The map given me by my hotel put it in a different place from the Lonely Planet, and my first attempt to get there would have meant walking up one of those roads where that voice at the back of one's head goes "hmm... not sure about this".

However there was a really good reason for visiting (which will come to shortly) so resolved to try again, this time with the Lonely Planet as a guide. And this time was successful - and was really pleased as it is just lovely (above).

You're not allowed just wander around as there are some pretty expensive items on display. Instead you must wait for a guide to take you round in a tour. Alas my guide (below) knew no English and I know only a few words of Spanish so surely missed much.

But even without the commentry could enjoy the feel of the place, with its elegant polished tables and sumptuous four poster beds, such as the one below.

The need for them became clear as the "bedrooms" were as much corridors as rooms, and there could have been people coming and going and the drapes would have lessened the distraction and also given some privacy.

There was even a baby four poster for the child of the house:

It was clearly an upmarket mansion, with all mod cons including large kitchen, bath, and this rather elegant device they would use to wash their hands after a meal:

I learnt this fact from one of the other in my tour group who had basic English and struggled to find the right words.

In the second half of the tour we had a different guide who spoke English as well as Spanish, and my friend the translater kept complimenting her on her accent, saying it was just perfect. "What we would call the Queen's English" I suggested, and he seemed keen to agree with that.

I think there might have been some subtexts here as later spotted them have a whispered conversation and then exchanging phone numbers!

Caracas: Teleferico up El Avila

After seeing the colonial sights around Plaza Bolivar I took the metro back a few stops and then walked up to the base of the hills to catch the Teleferico to the top of El Avila.

It was clearly the thing for families to do for Sunday lunch and there was a long but patient queue that snaked forward slowly.

In my bubble were an extended family of five with a young boy that was more open about his curiosity as to this stranger from a far distant land than his elders. His dad helped break the ice by prompting his son to put forward his clenched hand so that I bump knuckles and say Hola!

El Avila is 2,175m high, and while I've been here mostly hidden by clouds, occaisionally visible to give a great feeling of nature looming high over the city. The day I went the cabins seemed to vanish into the void as we travelled ever higher, ears popping as we climbed.

It did of course remind me of skiing but it was far to warm for that. But at the top there was a series of entertainments including a full ice rink, with much laughing fun as the inexperienced clung onto the hand rails and watched the few who were zooming round and round.

The clouds alas meant was unable to see the view to the north which is meant to be a "stunning panorama of the coastline and the Caribbean sea" according to the Lonely Planet. All I could see was the occaisionially glimpse of other mountains sticking out of the layer of white:

If I had had more time would have walked down on one of the many inviting trails through the forests back down to Caracas. Instead I took the cable car back down, this time with no queue and the cabin all to myself.

Caracus: Panteon Nacional

From Simon Bolivar's birth place it is but a few blocks to his resting place in this, the Panteon Nacional.

His bronze sarcophagus has the place of honour at the chancel with four guards on sentry, and around the aisles are tombs of 140 of other notable Venezuelans (below)

Behind the mountains rise high until lost in the clouds.

Caracas: Casa Natal de Bolivar

This is Simon Bolivar's birthplace that visited on Sunday, which seems long ago now. From the front (above) it doesn't look that big, with two windows either side of a wooden door, though its clearly an impressive doorway.

But it stretches back and back, with long corridors like this:

And this not one courtyard but a whole series of them, like this:

I didn't have to read the guide book to realise that his family was reasonably well off. A lovely house to visit - and free too!

Caracas: Starting Exploring

Caracas doesn't have a good reputation as a safe city. The UK Foreign Office web site was full of dire warnings, as was my travel guide, as was indeed my client today.

So I was fortunate to be able to have my first experiences of this city on a Sunday morning, when the streets were quiet and the only busy buildings were the Churches.

And the best place to start exploring Caracas is the Bolivar Plaza (above), accessible from the Capitolio metro station. Around the square and the streets around can be found many an old colonial building as well as the Cathedral.


Bolivar is ever present in Caracas's old town, with his family house and the square named in his honour close together, while on a slight hill a short walk away is the Panteon Nacional where El Liberator lies to this day with his guard of honour.

Its strange to remember that he died abandoned, penniless and rejected at the age of just 47.