“Aerial view of Ista Anatoliy, situated between two waterfalls —Continued from previous page The boats are massively built of wood with pitch caulking, which is a good thing con- sidering the number of rocks we bounced off or over on the river. They change the propeller and put on the “rock prop” when they leave the main river. In the rapids, the stern man is continuously tilting the motor up and down and side to side to balance propulsion, direction and draft, while the bowman calls the course and wields a large paddle of the Warao pattern to steer the boat. Any cross wind and the bow wave is in your face, and water often slops over the side in the rapids. Getting wet is guaranteed — even if it doesn’t rain, which it did for an hour or so. The curiara trip took us 24 miles up Rio Carrao and then 20 miles up Rio Churun to Refugio Rustico on Isla Raton, base camp for the hike to Angel Falls. About ten miles up the Rio Carrao we all had to get out and walk across the Mayupa Savannah while the curiara ran the rapids. Five miles further upriver we stopped for a box lunch at a waterfall where we enjoyed the rock pool and the natural shower. From there we entered the spectacular land of the tepuis with steep mountains, for- ested lowlands and waterfalls around every corner. While there are only a couple of rapids on Rio Carrao, the run up Rio Churun in particular involves miles of rapids and shallow spots and the water levels change rapidly with the weather. A couple of times a few of us had to walk around some of the rapids and once on the way up Devil's Gorge we all had to fend the boat off while passing between humungous rocks in mid-channel — on our first attempt we drifted backwards downriver. Overall, the upriver trip took seven hours including stops, and we arrived at Isla Raton around 5:00pm. Refugio Rustico is an appropriate name — hammocks enclosed in mosquito nets slung over a dirt floor under a thatched roof with benches for dining and relaxing. No running water or elec- tricity, but the food was abundant and excellent, especially the wood-fired barbecued chicken! Bonus: This is the only camp that has a view of the falls — great morning light! On the Sunday morning we crossed the river and hiked for an hour toward Auyun Tepui (Evil Mountain), the home of Angel Falls. The trail is well marked with easy going for the first half but the second half is quite steep up to the Mirador Laime viewpoint elevation at 2,300 feet. The view of the falls is spectacular. We lucked into a perfectly clear and sunny day. After lounging on the rocks at the viewpoint we descended a very steep trail to the pool at the bottom of the falls. Here we enjoyed a long swim, washing off the trail grime and sweat. There you have it — four days and 24 hours of travel to reach the falls! We returned to Isla Raton, had lunch and embarked on the downriver trip. The water level had dropped so there were a couple more portages. At one point the boat was doing over 20 miles per hour down the rapids. However, the trip was slower than the guides had planned, so we made the Mayupa portage in twilight and the last ten miles on the river in the dark — a tad unnerving, but we were past all the rapids. We docked at the upper end of Isla Anatoliy and then hiked down to Camp Bernal in the dark, thankful for our Petzl headlamps and Danielle’s knowledge of the trails. The trip downriver was faster by two hours, but 12 hours over two days sitting on a wooden plank screams for a cushion on which to sit. The river trips are the most exciting segment of the trip! Monday morning we walked back to Salto Hacha, crossed under the waterfall overhang and climbed across a head- land to swim in the pool under the adjacent falls, Salto Wadaima. Then back to camp for lunch where we were roy- ally entertained by the Canaima children’s choir in native costume singing in Spanish and Pemon. Afterwards we rushed to the airport to catch the plane to Ciudad Bolivar. On the bus on Tuesday, we enjoyed a daylight view of the three-year-old Orinoquia Bridge across the three-kilometre wide Orinoco River and stopped to shop at the Warao camp at Rio Morichal Largo. They would sell a small monkey for 500 Bf and also had a couple of agouti in cages for sale, as well as the usual baskets and beadwork. Along the way, we Stopping for lunch along the riverbanic passed another person with an armadillo for sale. We said goodbye to Betty and Branko in Carupano and arrived back in Guiria around 9:00pm — yet another 12-hour bus trip. The next morning we found the shipping agency (Acosta y Asociados) where we paid our 80 Bf departure tax and got our names on the ferry’s manifest. We found a wonder- ful bakery for breakfast, and then checked in at the ferry around 2:00pm and we were back in Chaguaramas at 7:30PM. Our complex arrangements all worked flawlessly with no glitches. All agreed we had a truly wonderful week — on time and on budget. Bill and Leona Roberts left Halifax, Canada aboard their Island Packet 35 Voyageur C in September 2007 and have been cruising the Eastern Caribbean for the past two years.