Whereas the neighboring Colombia is continuously rising out of the past dark drug war and FARC times, Venezuela is declining rapidly as a result of Chavez “Sozialism of the 21st Century“. Unemployment, a sky rising inflation, criminality and empty shelves in the supermarket are the result. People might be more equal but especially equally poor and corruption is the standard. The low oil price seems to bring the system finally to its end and everyone I talked with expected a huge loss of the Chavistas for the election on 6th December. As the current President Maduro officially announced on TV: “If the revolution fails, there will be a massacre“, locals told me better to leave the country before the election, which was my plan anyway. So Venezuela, “Quo vadis?“
A warning: leave your credit card at home and bring Dollars or Euros. Paying with credit card or getting money from an ATM will give you the official exchange rate which will make your freshly squeezed orange juice easily cost 50US$. Change your money on the black market and you can enjoy it for 30 cent. Accordingly Venezuela is either one of the most expensive or cheapest countries in the world. Examples on the cheap side (taxi whole day: 15€, Magnum ice cream: 0,7€, clean room with A/C and own bath: 6€, local beer 0,25€, filling up the car with petrol: 0,01€. YES no type error 1 cent)
Write your story here. (Optional)
I took a bus from Boa Vista in Brasil to Santa Elena de Uairen in Venezuela. From there I took a night bus to Ciudad Bolivar. As the arrival times of the night buses are too unpredictable, I had to stay a day in the city to catch a flight to Canaima the next morning. As most cities in Venezuela nowadays, CB is not a very save place and so I just had a look at the nicely restored old part. People were really friendly and although only 2,5 hours I had a good time. The rest of the day I relaxed in a very nice Posada (guest house) with pool and beautiful garden and had some interesting discussions about the country with the German owner and the Dutch manager.
This is a real highlight. Not only the world highest falls but also the flight to Canaima from Ciudad Bolivar, the beautiful lagoon and the 3 to 4 hours boat ride in spectacular scenery are amazing and a must do while in Venezuela. BTW the name of the falls has nothing to do with angels. The falls are named after Jimmie Angel, a gold digger who was the first person to fly over the falls. He crashed but survived while trying to land on top of the tepui (table mountain). His plane was later retrieved and is now displayed at the airport in Ciudad Bolivar.
The scenery along the river is absolutely stunning. Around every corner there is a new fascinating view.
There are several camps just across the Angel Falls. All are very basic with hammocks for the night, but who cares in such an environment, especially if the dinner with wood fired chicken is so perfectly delicious.
It´s fascinating to see the falls in the different lighting conditions during a day. It never gets boring. It´s possible to hike up to the base of the falls what we did. The falls are in total 979m high, the highest single drop is 805m.
I´m generally not very anxious in planes no matter what size. But when we had to fly with the tiny Cessna right through mighty rain clouds I became a bit nervous. Water started to drip into the cabin through the old window seals. We were already flying very low to stay under the clouds but now could see just white around us, no chance of orientation. A strange feeling. Looking at the tense face of our pilot did not help me to relax. I felt enormously relieved when 15 min later the situation improved a bit and we could see roads again on the ground and finally found our way to the airport. Phhhhhhhew!
© 2026 Beyond All Maps - Portraits of our Planet by Thorsten Mehret
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)