Wyprawa badawcza 2016 Wenezuela

The Canaima Lagoon

At the foot of three waterfalls lies the lagoon of Canaima, a small place with about 3,000 inhabitants. In 1975 the Canaima National Park was extended to 30,000 km2 and is one of the largest in the world! Its main attraction is the Salto Angel which, at 979 m, rates as the world’s highest waterfall.

After the Orinoco Lodge the stone buildings with real beds seemed very strange to us and we really felt locked up. Quite a lot of us were longing for the hammocks and palm-roofed huts. A first glance into the water of the lagoon finally showed transparent blackwater. At last we could do a bit of intensive snorkelling and carry out some observations under water. But even the 28 °C warm water felt cold after half an hour and most of us were glad that we had packed a thin diving suit. You had to think carefully what to put into your luggage because of the luggage limit (13 kg) for the flight to Canaima. We’d long since stopped noticing the strong smell of the T-shirts, since we’d all been wearing our shirts in the water and on land for days at a stretch. With an air temperature of 30 °C and over 70 % relative humidity sweating was a permanent state.