Angel Falls, Take II

Bob and I had promised each other that, having "discovered" Angel Falls on the trip down, we would navigate our return route to pass by again and see if we could get another photograph. I carefully changed out the memory and the rechargeable batteries in my camera, replacing them with fresh batteries and an empty 128mb memory card; I wanted to be sure that nothing would interrupt this opportunity to get photographs of Angel Falls!

We left Boa Vista early on this morning (24 March 2007) to improve our chances of seeing the Falls before the typical late-morning and afternoon clouds rolled in. The scattered low cumulus and zero wind gave us hope!

Bob navigated us to the 6th Parallel north of the Equator and to the east of the Wikipedia-posted 62.5 degree west longitude location of the Falls. (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki actually gives the location as: 5°58′03″N, 62°32′08″W , a location with which we could find no fault.) From this eastern point, we turned straight west following the 6th parallel for a short distance, whereupon Bob took the controls, turning left (south) toward the canyon that contained the Falls (see GPS track in photo at right above, starting on the right; North is up). I was freed to look for the Falls and to operate my camera.

There it was!! Bob banked sharply to the right so I could get a straight shot out of the right side of the airplane. I had turned on my camera, but then discovered that it did not respond! At first I thought the batteries I had put in had discharged from non-use; I dumped them out all over the cabin floor to replace them with the ones I had taken out at the hotel that morning. That's when I discovered that one of the batteries had been installed upside down. No time to fumble around finding them all -- I got Bob's camera and took a couple pictures. One was poorly aimed and missed the Falls but captured the river from the Falls; the other is shown at right -- the Falls is a mere shower of mist in this dry season. It is just to the right of center next to the edge of a cloud.

Bob flipped the airplane on its other wing, gave me the controls, took his camera and captured another picture of the Falls through the little opening in his side of the cockpit -- no plexiglass to spoil the resolution. The Falls is that misty haze showing to the left of the dark green cliff near the center of the photo at right.

None of the pictures is as spectacular as the ones you will find on the Venezuelan tourist website (see photo on right taken from lower altitude, approximately at the level of the Tepui and the one below, taken from the ground). But these are OUR pictures and proof that we were there!

It may be easier to interpret our pictures by noticing the two parts of the Falls in the photo at right, taken from the Venezuelan tourist website. The smaller part to the right is the only one that was active when we flew by in February and March. The bigger part to the left and also visible in the photo through the trees (below) are only active during the wet season -- probably late winter (August-September).









I relish the experience and the opportunity to see this, the tallest waterfall in the world at 3212 feet -- the first 2648 feet uninterrupted!