El Salto Ángel is the world’s highest waterfall
El Salto Ángel (or only Salto Ángel) overlooks the Canaima National Park , in the southeast of Venezuela , from the top of his 979 metres (or 19 times the Niagara Falls!), with water spilling from a plateau called the Niagara Falls! Auyan Tepuy (the "mountain of the Devil" in the arekuna language). She's the tallest waterfall on Earth.
It’s from the top of this tepuy (top plateau lined by huge cliffs) than the rio Kerep flows, coming to crush almost a kilometre below (sometimes, the water evaporates even before touching earth).
Flickr – ferkel
Contrary to what one might think, “Salto Ángel” does not mean “the angel’s leap”: “stunt” meaning “stunt” in Spanish and “Angel” coming from the name of the aviator Jimmy Angel which overcame the first fall in 1933. Before they were renamed, the falls were called Kerepakupai Vená which means "the waterfall of the deepest place". For a mining company, Jimmy Angel was looking for a supposed “golden river” at the time.
But it was only in October 1937 that history became interesting. After 15 days of careful spotting to find a correct landing track, Jimmy Angel and his team, aboard a small Ryan/AMAC G-2-W Flamingo aircraft baptized El Rio Caroni , crash at the top of the Auyan Tepuy. Only the aircraft is damaged in the accident. Declared for dead a few days later, they will still come down from this huge rocky block. This adventure will make Jimmy Angel a legend in the following years. Today, the plane El Rio Caroni is a national monument and is located at the Tomás de Heres airport of Ciudad Bolívar.
Flickr - A mamarracho con una Nikon D3100
Go : After having first stolen to Puerto Ordaz or Ciudad Bolívar to reach the park, visitors are driven to the foot of the falls by guides in pirogues. You will find many agencies offering treks with guides to get on site, including on the internet. The ideal is to go there during the rainy season, because in the dry season, there is sometimes not enough water and the canoe must be carried by moment.
Access to Salto Angel requires a little trekking, and it is therefore a perfect site for adventurers. If you have any chance to go, Do it, it's really worth it. .
And here are other pictures of the fall: the landscape is breathtaking, and it is a real land of adventures!
Trek in the jungle – Flickr – César González
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