Raphael Kessler

When I first got to Venezuela, I only spent a couple of days there, as I went to get the ferry over to Trinidad and Tobago. Then I came back and went to Margarita island. The island is mostly resort and there are some nice beaches, as well as a National Park, with mangroves (and shells stuck to the roots), pelicans and other birdlife.

My friend Robert (photo 1) came out to meet me in Margarita. We then travelled down to Canaima by plane. The start of our expedition to see the Angel Falls, the worlds highest waterfall. Canaima itself is impressive, with waterfalls crashing into a tranquil lagoon, with cola coloured water. The Cola coloured water could be found along most of the boat journey to get to the Angel Falls. The place where we stayed in Canaima had a friendly resident toucan, which was nice.

The Gran Sabana, where Canaima and the Angel Falls are found, is dotted with Tepuys (Tepp-Oo-Ee). These are flat topped mountains, usually with sheer sides. Apparently Conan Doyle based his ideas for The Lost World on this area and the Tepuys.

The impressive majesty of the Angel Falls is difficult to capture photographically. The height of the falls is more than one kilometre and to see the water jet out from the side of the Tepuy and drop that far is quite surreal.

Our next stop was to visit the Orinoco Delta, home to some lovely wildlife, including fresh-water porpoises and a myriad of colourful birds. These were difficult to capture on film. The Orinoco Delta is also home to the Warao people. A stocky indigenous group who spend their lives on the river, either in boats or on stilt houses. Rarely actually stepping onto terra firma. This explains their stockiness. 

The Warao electricians are young, ignorant and foolhardy. There had only been electricity in the area for a year or two, so they still had much to learn about the associated risks.

There were some lovely sunsets whilst we were in the Orinoco Delta.

The beach at Coroni, is nice and the waves are good for body-surfing. Although I did get tumbled rather badly by one big barrel wave.

The Teleferico in Merida is the world's longest and highest, running over twelve kilometres and up to almost five thousand metres above sea level. Many people suffer from altitude sickness as the ascent is very rapid. I am not sure if I was affected as I was very hung over at the time. Merida is a good fun college town. I was  there for more than six weeks, in part because of the good night-life.

I made some good friends in Merida (from left to right back - Veronica, Mark, Me, Sofia - front row - Alex and Ricardo). This picture was taken when we went to some hot springs with mudbaths.

San Rafael de Mucuchies is set in some really nice countryside and is famous for the stone built church there. 

The town of Jaji is not particularly great and is a bit touristy. The scenery en route there is lovely though.