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Sent on Dec. 16, 2004 from Los Angeles.

Will give you the highlights.

The Canaima Park and terrain around the Angel Falls is one
of the most unique in the world.  The Falls itself is
reached by a 3-hour motorized canoe ride upriver on the
Carrao and Churun tributaries of the Orinoco, surrounded by
impenetrable jungle and table-top-like mesas all along,
very much like the Table-Top Mount. of Cape Town, but much
larger in scale.  This was a unique experience.  I have not
seen a landscape like this before. Europeans are much more
advanced with the tours and prices.  They can prepare
destinations like the Angle Falls, in our hemisphere, as if
in their backyard, whereas many of our tour agents, even
the ones who supposedly specialize on Latin America, treat
such places as special, so pricey, and they do not have a
good handle on the trip.  One European I met had 2 weeks at
Island Margarita (Venezuela) for 460 Euros, including
flights, hotels, meals.  Try this in USA, if you can find
the agency familiar with the territory, and then check the
price. Once I arrived in Caracas, I had to do the entire
tour in Venezuela myself.

1. Basics.  $= about 1900 Bolivars officially, up to 2,400
Bolivars by money changers everywhere.  Use the latter
immediately after arrival.  They will offer 2,100; bargain
for 2,300.  For big trips, they will convert the price in
Bolivars to Dollars by 2,400. Bring along diarrhea pills,
insect repellent--the bites of the tiny buri buri flies are
itchy, as I am still itching--a wind breaker, and something
for the cool misty conditions in the jungle.

2. Arrival in Caracas.  The airport is 28km from the city. 
It is said to be a dangerous city.  Robberies are common
according to travel books.  If you arrive late, better stay
at the airport.  2nd and 3rd floors have restaurants, etc.,
also an Internet cafe, but all things close down by about
11pm.  In the morn, check with local airlines for flights
to Ciudad Bolivar, the gateway to Canaima National Park and
Angel Falls.  I wanted to see the countryside, so I opted
for the 9-hour ride to there.  The bus was freezing, the
ride OK, IF you can get a ticket with no Spanish.  I had
trouble.

Only official airport taxis, black Ford Explorers, with
taxi emblem on their sides, are recommended for visitors. 
They ask 60,000 Bolivars ($30) to the bus station.  Since I
did not have a connection to my destination, CIUDAD
BOLIVAR, some 640km south, and since I was told all flights
to there were already booked, and I arrived at 10:45 at
night, I took an unofficial taxi to the bus
station--further than city center--for 40,000 Bolivars. 
Actually I also wanted to see the countryside to the south.
 Caracas itself looks very much like the area around Los
Angeles, with steep hills all around the city, especially
where Rt.101 meets Interstate 405 and you continue south on
the latter.

3.  Caracas Bus Station.  All buses to the Eastern sections
of the country depart from TERMINAL ORIENTES.  It is a huge
complex and, as the airport, open all night.  Note that the
1st coffee shop opens at 3am, the rest much later.  There
were 5 people there when I arrived at 2:30am.  The bus
counter for the 7:30am bus to Ciudad Bolivar was supposed
to open at 6am.  It did not.  By 6:30 the line moved to
another counter, about 50 people in line.  No-one spoke
English.  (Actually, the fact that I did most of Latin
America without a word in Spanish may have been my real
adventure in those countries, since VERY few people speak
English in that part of the world.)  I got my ticket with
the help of a security person there; gave him $5 for the
effort, and moving me to the front of the line--excuse:
visitor with no Spanish.  The bus ticket for the 9-hour
ride came to 25,000 Bolivars, about $12--$70 for the return
flight.

4.  Caracas to Ciudad Bolivar.  The landscape for the 1st 2
hours or so was interesting, very much like the road Tom
and I took in the Sabah province of Borneo, heading for Mt.
Kinabalu.  After that it was flat lands, very much like
Florida landscape.  The bus that was supposed to depart at
8am departed at 9:45am.  So I arrived in Ciudad Bolivar
after dark. Hotel Universo is near the bus station, price
28,000 Bolivars, about $13.  It is clean and nice, better
than the Colonial hotel on the much more lively Orinoco
Boulevard which charges 23,000B, or about $11.  (By the
way, the also recommended Caracas Hotel also on Orinoco is
closed; do NOT eat at the open-air restaurant (with music)
in the park diagonally across the Colonial; it is a
rip-off; they invite you by a cheaper menu, charge you on a
more expensive one when time to pay; and the food is not
all that good.)

5.  Arrangements for Canaima & Angel Falls.  Are all made
early in the morning at the airport.  All tour agencies
have offices there and they all charge the same price.  The
most common are:

a) One-day tour, including flight--about 1 hour south--to
Canaima, about 12 hours at a camp there, also a canoe ride
to the falls at the Canaima Lagoon, then a flight over the
Angel Falls, and return to Ciudad Bolivar.  This for $190.

b) 3-day tour (I took this), that includes,

DAY 1: flight to Canaima, check-in at the camp, lunch,
about 3-hour canoe ride in the beautiful lagoon (about 5
min walk from the camp run by KAMARATA Amerindians), to the
various falls, a 2-hour walk/back to another fall, then
passing behind the water of the Sapito Falls, about a
100-meter distance during which you will get drenched.  (So
bring along swimming trunks.)  Dinner is served at about
6pm.  There is not much to do at the quaint camp, but
socializing with tour companions, about 16 in my case, all
from Europe. This is when the tiny buri buri flies had
their feast on us, worse than mosquitoes.

DAY 2: is the big day.  After breakfast at 7:30, we walked
about 30 minutes to an embarkation point above the falls on
CARRAO River, a large tributary of the ORINOCO (3rd largest
river in S. America) that passes by Ciudad Bolivar.
After 1.5 hours on that up-river, we entered the Churun
River.  The jungle on both sides is impenetrable, but there
are some points where we rested.  All along, especially
when we were on Churun, we saw the massive rock formations
around us, eventually the main Auyan Tepui with the Angel
Falls, about 1.5 hours after we entered Churun.  The falls
is a site to behold, even from the about 2km distance,
considering that the drop is almost a kilometer.  After
disembarking at a camp site with many hanging hammocks, we
took a 3-hour walk (incl. return to a small pond near the
Falls.)  Gorgeous, also swam there and later on the Churun
river.  The waters in the area are beautiful crimson from a
combination of dead vegetation and minerals.  At deeper
sections it looks dark, near the  shores reddish. After
dinner incl. chicken and a bit of socializing, also with
another group that joined us, we repaired to our hammocks.

Day 3. Is mainly retracing the tour back to the Canaima
Lagoon.  The tour ended at the camp after
showers--cold--and lunch.  I was taken to my 5-seater plane
back to Ciudad Bolivar, checked in there into the Colonial,
walked around till about 8pm, and enjoyed the views along
the Orinoco River across the street.  The next day, I took
a taxi to the airport for my flight back to Caracas, which
included detours to the Margarita Island and another to
Santa Cruz.  The National airport is about a 5-min walk
from the International Airport in Caracas.  I walked the
distance and waited 15 hours for my flight back to Los
Angeles, via Houston. By the way, all taxi rides to all
destinations in the city of Ciudad Bolivar cost 3,000
Bolivars, about $1:50. Dont pay more.  Also, you can take
4-seater over the Angel Falls after the 3-day tour.  I was
quoted $50 for that.  Don't worry missing your plane back
to Ciudad Bolivar.  They will put you on another plane when
done.  But arrange this when you arrive in Canaima.

This was a fine wilderness trip.

Sirman