I do still plan on updating this site with good deals relating to travel and credit though. Recently when I’ve taken advantage of some cool deals, I’ve just been posting them on the Travel and Credit Facebook and Twitter. So make sure you follow:
www.facebook.com/travelandcredit

www.twitter.com/travelandcredit

What in the world has been going in with my life?

- Right before I left for South America in May, after the Lord spoke to me, I signed up for a position to be a full time Christian Missionary in South America through Extreme Nazarene. Like full time full time… Not for 2 weeks! The application and approval process is lengthy, and I was off the grid so much in South America that we tried to keep it as a secret in the public eyes. The band’s new album was about to drop, so we didn’t want them to think we were unstable either.

- I haven’t posted about Brazil yet, but that was where I went after Venezuela and IT.WAS.AWESOME! I went to Manaus, Brazil and did a 4 day Amazon Jungle trip which was fantastic. Then we flew to Rio De Janeiro for 6 nights in one of the most beautiful and dynamic cities in the world. Then we finished the trip at the 5 Star Sheraton hotel in Iguazu Falls, Argentina, which is another one of the most beautiful spots on earth!

- For Today (my band)’s new album dropped June 9th, 2012 and it’s first week sales were over 15,000 copies making it #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Hard Rock chart, and also #1 on the Christian charts! Highest selling album in America in any genre is a big deal, so we were excited about that!

- Early June I was accepted into the program to be a full time missionary.

- A week after the release of the new album, and right before the band started the Vans Warped Tour 2012, we publicly announced that I had been accepted to be a full time missionary and that I would be stepping down from the band. They had someone lined up to replace me already as they knew long before the public knew, obviously.

- On September 20th of THIS YEAR I am boarding a plan to Arequipa, Peru using United miles where I will study intensive Spanish for 4 months, and then train in methods to teach the Bible to people and disciple them to be like Christ. All the training lasts for a total of about 6 months including 20 days of studying in Colombia. After the training we will go to a city in South America for 2 years where a team of 4 Americans & 4 Ecuadorians will plant a church from scratch and plant 80 bible study groups in one city. I’m not supposed to post the city on Facebook until September, so I’ve excluded it from this post.

Here’s a video that I filmed to announce to the For Today fans that I was stepping down that explains the story with a little more detail as to how God called me to this new life path:

Most people initially think you’re INSANE when you quit a successful job, ministry, career, etc.. but when the Lord tells you to do something, you need to do it! So yes, I am selling all of my stuff, canceling my apartment lease and paying a penalty, paying to cancel my cell phone & internet card contracts from Verizon, leaving all of my comforts of home, family, & friends, and fundraising a crazy amount of money, but God is GOOD, and His plan for me is GOOD!

A couple of key scripture verses that the Lord has been speaking to me and confirming my purpose have been:

Isaiah 55:10
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” – Matthew 21:22

“I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.” – Psalm 40:8

“The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. – Psalm 12:6

“The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” -
1 Thessalonians 5:24

So if you think I’m insane now, you’re probably right!

Because we are all volunteer missionaries, not paid by anyone, I have to raise $33,000 to cover all costs of living, ministry costs, transportation, immunizations, visas, house, food, and all bills on the field for the 2.5 years. At the end of my 2.5 years I am given the opportunity to serve for another 2 years. If you feel called to donate and help the cause you can do so here:

www.extremenazarene.org/Morrison

Frequent flyer mile, credit card, traveling, and awesome deal wise – I’ve got a lot of amazing deals to tell you about, including new credit cards, cards that I’ve gotten, trips I’m taking, and deals I’ve conquered, so stay tuned!

Click HERE to receive email updates, HERE for exclusive Facebook content, & HERE for up to the minute stalking following on Twitter.

PRIOR S. AMERICA TRIP POSTS:
1. Heading to South America for 1 Month – Details
2. Venezuela’s Black Market Money Exchange
3. Busses, Canyoning, & Paragliding in Venezuela – OH MY!
4. I LOVE WHITEWATER RAFTING! Review of My 18th Time in Venezuela Last Week
5. Visiting the Tallest Waterfall in the World – Angel Falls 3 Day Trip Review Part 1 of 2: Ciudad Bolivar & Canaima National Park

Day 2 in Canaima National Park we would finally begin our journey up river to get to the much-anticipated Angel Falls. I was pretty excited, but I knew we had a lot of ground to cover still before we could see the falls, so I wasn’t quite freaking out yet. Here’s the itinerary to get to Angel Falls:
- 45 minute hike to the motorized canoe
- 4 hour motorized canoe ride up Canaima River
- camp overnight in hammocks
- 1 hour up-hill hike in the thick jungle
*Arrive at Angel Falls!

Not bad, right?!

I started to really like the motorized canoes. It was a very efficient way to travel, especially with the price of gas in Venezuela. Did you know that Venezuela has the cheapest gas in the WORLD?! It costs literally about $2 to fill up your car. It’s pennies for a gallon of gas. The government owns and controls their gas. Venezuela has a lot of corrupt parts about it, but they pride themselves in providing cheap gas for their citizens.
So for this reason, the motorized canoes are a great way to get around Canaima National park!

We packed small bags for the overnight trip. I brought 2 of my watertight, waterproof bags that I use when I kayak on this trip for this very reason. Great way to ensure that none of my stuff will get wet! These are the same bags that people use whitewater rafting, and you can get them at outdoor sporting good stores like Gander Mtn, Scheels, etc…
They had everybody put their packs into trash sacks, and we loaded them all into the center of the large canoe. We had the 2 of us, 3 guides, and 5 other travelers, so 10 people in the canoe. 2 of the other travelers, a couple from Hungary, had literally just stepped off their plane at the Canaima airport (see part 1 of 2 about the airport) just 5 minutes before hiking to the canoe with us! Insane…

We were told that we would canoe about 1 hour upriver, but then we would all have to get out and hike for 45 minutes upstream while the guides took the canoe through a long chain of rapids. They needed the boat as light as possible so they could just blaze through the rapids quickly, without having to worry about tourists falling in. The hike was through a hot and open area, almost like a desert. We finished the hike, and the canoe rolled up about 20 minutes later, and was very wet. We really had no way of knowing if any of our bags had fallen into the river until we would unpack all of the trash sacks later that night, haha! Wild times.

The river was generally flat, so we weren’t expecting to hit rapids after walking around this rapid chain. We went about another 20 minutes and hit a small area of rapids. The boat is flying up river, so we knew we had potential to get soaked. We hit the first wave WAYYYY too fast, and the guides didn’t even warn us as a wave of water went over top the entire front of the boat where all of us tourists were sitting!! We all were totally soaked from head to toe. Thanks for the warning guys…. We joked about that all weekend about how un-informative the guides were. We knew we were at one of the cheaper lodges, but a little better communication from our God about things would have been good.
Made it another hour and had lunch at a small shelter hut on the side of the river. We were all a little curious what the food would be like from the canoe. Surprisingly enough, we all had individual containers of spaghetti! They were in little to-go style containers similar to what you would get at an italian restaurant, and they were still warm! We had that along with water and tang, or so we called it. You know Tang, right? That orangeish tangy orange juice style drink that is a powder mix. It was the drink of choice in Canaima apparently.

The weather for the canoe ride was hot, then raining, then cold, then hot, then raining, then cold, repeat. It was changing constantly.

As we continued up river, the scenery started to open up and get even more dramatic as masssiiiivvvveee Tepui mountains started appearing amidst mystical fog, and jungle lines. We saw several waterfalls of several hundred feet pouring from the tepuis from rainfall and small streams. We were constantly letting out gasps of excitement and being awe-struck by the scenery. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his book “The Lost World” which the Jurassic Park movies were made after, about this very region of the world and the scenery of the Tepui mountains. We were truly entering a very unique area that only a handful of people will ever see in their lifetime. No roads, no electricity, and no long line of tourists were anywhere to be found! This was absolutely The Lost World, and still in it’s unspoiled state.

"Oohhhhh, Ahhhhh!"

When it wasn't raining, the scenery was unbelievable!

The last 40 minutes of the canoe ride, the river started turning a lot more windy, and the rocks got bigger, and small rapids were more frequent. As we sped around a turn, sure enough, off in the distance you could see what looked like a waterfall pouring off a mountain. Could it be? It was… ANGEL FREAKING FALLS!!!

You could only see the top half from where we were at in the river. 10 minutes later, we docked the canoe at a rocky bank. It was a perfect viewpoint of Angel Falls, and also happened to be where we would spend the night. Check out this view of the tallest waterfall in the world:

Just chilling at the tallest waterfall in the world...

We got lucky that the clouds weren't blocking our view!

I had my point & shoot camera, my iPhone, and my waterproof camera with me. Needless to say I was playing with modes, and snapping pictures with all 3 of them! I was totally in awe of the sheer size of Angel Falls. A couple of days ago I wrote to you guys about how whitewater rafting is my favorite sport in the world. Waterfalls have been one of my most favorite places ever since I was a little boy, growing up in a family that would camp each summer. We would always find waterfalls to hike to, and I always had to stand in them, and swim!

Angel Falls was different though… This was the granddaddy of all waterfalls! We had just taken an overnight bus, a 90 minute flight, hiked almost 2 hours, and sat in a hard canoe for 4+ hours navigating the Canaima river to get to this point.  And we were still an hour’s hike through the jungle to the official foot of the falls! What a place.

The scenery in every direction was absolutely stunning. The waterfall itself literally flows right off the top of one of the special Tepui mountains. This one is called Auyentepui. Further to the right there was another tepui, and behind you was the river and another massive tepui in the distance. In between all of it was a wild wild jungle full of poisonous snakes and spiders that rarely see humans! This is not Yellowstone National Park, people!

We had a couple of hours before dinner, so we took some dips in the river, took pictures of the falls, and setup our hammocks for the night in the shelter. The shelter was super basic with a long picnic table, about 15 hammocks hung, and 3 small “bathrooms” that were made of wood, and had a toilet. The toilets didn’t flush though and there was no toilet paper. I brought my own bio-degradable toilet paper though for this trip and for the Amazon Jungle later in the trip.

During this break before dinner, I walked off by myself on the river banks and setup a little bed of rocks and literally just laid there and stared at Angel Falls, praying, and thanking the Lord for over an hour. I was just in awe! It was more amazing than I ever could have imagined. Just being there at all after the long journey, and realizing that one of my life goals was now complete, was extremely surreal. Heck, that the clouds were even aligned to see the whole thing was amazing in itself!
It reminded me of when my family camped at the Grand Canyon for a couple weeks. I remember sitting on the edge of the canyon with my feet hanging over the edge and staring at it for hours at a time, more than once, constantly in awe of the size and beauty, and having a hard time fathoming that there could even exist such a place.
Makes me super excited to be in Heaven someday, as the scriptures describe the most glorious place above our comprehension!

Our guides cooked some chicken, or variation of it (who knows!) over a big fire for dinner and it was pretty good. We drank more water and more tang along with the dinner. That tang was dang good (see what I did there?!)!
We went to bed early because we had to wake up at 5am to start our sunrise hike to the official view of the Falls. I had no problem falling asleep and slept for a solid 5 hours until I was abruptly awaken to my stomach going insane. Unfortunately I learned all too well what it was like to be a girl and to have to sit on those nasty camp toilets. I don’t know if it was something I ate, touched, or drank, nor when I consumed it, but I paid for it all night and even till now (a week later), just not as frequently. So goes traveling sometimes!

Our guide shook our hammocks at 5am and woke us all up. Even though I was crapping my guts out all night, I apparently think I slept more than everybody else. Most of the group said they only slept 30-60 minutes. I think they were a little delusional though b/c all of them except for 1 person were definitely sleeping each time I woke up to go to the bathroom. TMI?

We put on our headlamps, and headed into the thick jungle. The night before, I saw a spider on a rock the size of my fist, and our guide warned us that there are very poisonous snakes and spiders in the jungle. We were on high alert, that’s for sure! Night hiking is a very creepy and humbling thing.

It was supposed to be an hour hike to the viewpoint, which was mostly accurate. It was a GRUELING hike in which we sweated it out. Good Morning Angel Falls!! You can’t see the tallest waterfall in the world in the middle of the Venezuelan jungle without putting in some work! I like it. After awhile of hiking the sun came up and headlamps weren’t needed anymore. We hiked up, and up, and up, and UPPP!!! There wasn’t much information about this trip available online before hand, so we really had no idea what to expect. Most people were wearing lots of layers and were laughing at me for wearing shorts and a tshirt/light jacket. I laughed later as they all shed soaking layers until they were half-naked. The hike was very steep, and really took a lot of energy! We hadn’t eaten anything that morning (poor planning), and most people didn’t sleep well, so we were really struggling.

About an hour and 15 minutes into the hike of the ever so thick jungle, we got a small peak of the falls but they seemed to be mostly covered in morning clouds except for the mist at the bottom. If we hadn’t been spoiled with the most perfect view the night before at the campsite, I would have been severely bummed! The roar of the falls and the mist was majestic though, so I was getting really anxious to see it up close. 5 minutes later we arrived at the official viewpoint where there’s a massive  boulder to sit on as you take in the tallest waterfall known to man. Still cloudy though. Occasionally we would get a glimpse of part of the falls. We sat there for about an hour, mostly pretty quiet. Most of us had smiles on our faces, some people were meditating, some people were listening to music and staring deep into thought, some taking pictures. It was a very special time for me and everyone else involved in the trip (8 of us hiked up). We were the only people at the falls. No other groups, and not a sound was heard that wasn’t natural.

After sitting there for about 45 minutes, you could see that there was about to be a clear gap in between clouds and it looked like we were about to get a total view of the falls from top to bottom. Just getting all of it clear is a task as it falls over 3,000 feet. Water falling that far creates almost it’s own weather stream too, as it’s almost like it’s raining on that part of the mountain 24/7. Sure enough, the clouds blew by and we got the most PERFECT view of Angel Falls, right up close, and very personal!  It was one of the best moments of my life. Check it out for yourself:

Bucket list - CHECK!!

that water is falling over 2,900 feet!

One of the best moments of my life!

After a lot of smiles, pictures, oohs, and ahhs, we hiked back down to base camp. We still had to pack up our stuff, and boat 4 hours downstream back to Canaima to make our flights back to the city that afternoon. We came down the same way we came up, and the river looked about the same in terms of rapids. The scenery was a little different as we got to see all the Tepui mountains from a different angle. That was neat. The weather was pretty similar to the prior day with fluctuations of rain and clear skies, and we definitely got wet!

After arriving back in Canaima, we had lunch at the lodge and then headed to the small airport for our flight out.

THE SMALLEST PLANE…

In one weekend I broke my smallest plane record twice! If you remember, the plane ride to Canaima National Park was in a 6 seater plane. This flight was in a 4 seater plane! Kate rode shotgun with the pilot and I rode in the back with my new friend Mike. PICTURE:

Prettyyyyyy small!

We had quite the sketchy first few minutes. We threw our bags in the back, and the pilot shut our door, and he pointed at the door lever and asked me to turn the handle so the door latches shut. I turned the handle and it BROKE OFF in my hand! I should have demanded some MILES!! Oh if they only existed in the Venezuelan jungle… It actually was pretty awkward as he seemed genuinely bummed that the handle broke! Not my fault man! It looked like it was held on with super glue prior, so I don’t think I was the first, nor will I be the last person to break the door handle. Crazy!

Whooooops!

When we took off, we sped down the runway in the tiny plane, which was smaller than every vehicle I’ve ever owned. When the pilot pulled to take us up in the air, we lifted off the ground for about 2 seconds, but then fell back down and bounced sideways off the runway!! We skidded slightly sideways for a split second, and then lifted up again! The pilot gave us all like a nod that all was okay, but it certainly was NOT okay 5 seconds ago! It definitely felt like I was living in an Indiana Jones movie, that’s for sure!

In summary, I have always been amazed at the beauty of waterfalls, and Angel Falls delivered to every extent! I couldn’t believe the size in person, nor just how incredible the whole journey would be. I highly recommend anyone who appreciates outdoor beauty and has an adventurous spirit to visit Angel Falls.

Click HERE to receive email updates, HERE for exclusive Facebook content, & HERE for up to the minute stalking following on Twitter.

PRIOR S. AMERICA TRIP POSTS:
1. Heading to South America for 1 Month – Details
2. Venezuela’s Black Market Money Exchange
3. Busses, Canyoning, & Paragliding in Venezuela – OH MY!
4. I LOVE WHITEWATER RAFTING! Review of My 18th Time in Venezuela Last Week

What can I say about Angel Falls? In Venezuela they refer to it as “Salto Angel”. Salto is one of a few Spanish words that translates to waterfall. One of the main reasons this whole trip was planned was to see Angel Falls. It’s been on my Travel Bucket List ever since I found out about it a few years ago. You may know Angel Falls as “Paradise Falls” from the cute animated movie “Up”. This is the same waterfall.

It’s found very deep in Canaima National Park on the eastern side of Venezuela, falling over 900 meters (about 3,000 feet) off the top of a tepui. A tepui is a flat top mountain, and the National Park is full of them. They are some of the most mysterious, and incredible mountains I’ve ever seen. Extremely unique, and very awe inspiring.

They always say that it’s not always the destination, but the getting there that makes something special. Angel Falls takes the “getting there” and the “destination” part to a whole other level!

We began our trip by getting off our all night bus in Ciudad Bolivar. The plan was to take a cab into town, check into a cheap posada (hostel), and catch a cab to the airport, where we read you can book cheap 3 day tours to the falls. You need to fly to the National Park in a small 4-6 seater plane.

As soon as we stepped off the bus, before we even got our bags, a nice man named Carlos came over to us asking if we spoke English. We said yes, and he said he had a tour agency office right behind us (which he did), and he had a 3 day trip leaving tomorrow and we should come talk to him. We talked to him and were sold in a matter of 2 minutes. The cost was $337 USD and it included staying at his posada in town for “as many nights as needed” before and after the trip until we left for the next city as well as all transportation to/from the airport. We had read that 3 day trips could be bought at the airport for $250-$300 each, so we figured the $337 was well worth it for the convenience of not having to worry about sketchy taxi drivers, and getting a posada.

We paid and his driver immediately took us to the Posada.
We had some minor thoughts that maybe we got ripped off, b/c after all, we were at a bus station in Venezuela and just handed over almost $700! Maybe this cab driver was taking us somewhere to rob us, or there wouldn’t be a tour tomorrow? We arrived at the posada in about 15 minutes of driving and were relieved to find that everything was fine, and it was a legitimate tour agency.

The city, Ciudad Bolivar wasn’t really much to write about. The posada was near an outdoor street market full of vendors selling in the center of the city. It seemed like a pretty poor area, and then there was the most random indoor shopping mall ever. It had an arcade, a few beauty salons, an american bar & grill, and an asian food restaurant! What in the world? So out of place.
The center of the town where we were staying shuts down completely at about 6pm, but the chinese place was open till 7, so needless to say we ate supper there the first night after realizing it was the only thing open within a mile. I wouldn’t recommend walking after dark in Ciudad Bolivar. Very dodgy, and the posada owners didn’t recommend it either. We stayed in after dinner.

THE SMALL FLIGHT TO CANAIMA…

What’s the smallest plane you’ve ever flown in? Before this flight, the smallest plane I had ever flown in was a 16 seater plane to Tikal National Park in Guatemala. That plane was cut into 3rds on this trip!

Let the party begin!

We waited at the airport for a couple hours for our flight. It was a tiny little airport, with mostly just small charter planes to small Venezuelan cities. The main market for the airport was to send people to/from Angel Falls. Literally, the gate was just a door to walk outside. After we went through security a plane pulled up and an airport employee walked in and waived 4 of us outside. i must tell you too that we didn’t have tickets or boarding passes either… The guy who drove us to the airport just took our passports for 10 minutes and came back and said it was all taken care of. Ok! Haha.

The plane held 6 people, including the pilot. 3 rows of 2.
Pilot and guy up front, Kate and I in the middle row, and 2 local ladies in the back. I wondered if it was their first flight ever, b/c for the hour and a half flight, they both hold onto the seats in front of them like their life depended on it. The flight was loud, but mostly pretty smooth, and the scenery was beautiful at times.

After 90 minutes in the air the Canaima Lagoon popped into view along with Tepui Mountains in the middle of the jungle, and then we saw a tiny air strip and a couple jungle lodges amidst a small village. We landed at the “airport” smoothly, grabbed our bags, and were greeted by “Tony”, our guide for the next 3 days while visiting the Canaima Lagoon waterfalls, and the glorious Angel Falls.

Here’s a picture of the lagoon and airstrip from overhead:

We walked to our lodge with Tony, and he pointed out a couple small shops in the village along the way that we could buy supplies or drinks at if we needed them. There were fresh mangos littered on the dirt road from the fruit trees hanging overhead. We ate a couple later that night!

QUICK COMPANY REVIEW…
The company we booked with at the Ciudad Bolivar bus station was Conexion Tours, and the lodge in Canaima was Tiuna Tours (sp?). We didn’t have any problems with Conexion Tours as they booked everything they said they would, but I can’t say too much about the quality of Tiuna Tours and their lodge. I’m not that picky of a traveler. I’ll sleep in hammocks, I’ll stay at hostels, and I like the outdoors, but it’s just my job to inform you guys. We were informed of all the types of sleeping arrangements through this company ahead of time and agreed.
The food at the Tiuna Tours lodge was not very good compared to our other trips in Venezuela & South America. Our guide was also pretty quiet for the entire trip. We didn’t really receive any information about the mountains, vegetation, animals, etc. and he was very short with his answers. He spoke English, but it wasn’t the best. The lodge was also still under mega construction and is pretty much the last one on the road in Canaima, so you walk the farthest to get to it. The other lodges looked a lot nicer. I imagine they cost a little more too, but it might be worth looking into if you’re staying longer, or just enjoy nicer places to stay and more thorough guides. We still saw Angel Falls which was all I wanted, so I am happy!

CONTINUING THE TRIP…
We checked into our room which was pretty  basic and without AC, met some other travelers who would travel with us,  had lunch, and then headed out for the day. We took a motorized canoe around the Canaima Lagoon where we boated by the 4 waterfalls, and docked on the other side. We hiked for about 45 minutes to a different lake and the Sapo Waterfall. The trail went behind the curtain of water, and we got to stand in the falls. We got wet, and it was awesome! Pictures:

Lagoon from the canoe

Hiking behind El Sapo waterfall!

I love going wild!

Then we hiked from there up and over the waterfall to the top of all the falls. From there we hiked over to the Canaima Lagoon, but had the view from the top. Then we took the trail down behind two of the waterfall streams. These falls were much heavier flows than the Sapo Falls. It was incredible! Rock wall on the left, and massive water flowing over the top of us on the right. Almost like walking in a cave with a massive waterfall flowing on the right. It was very loud, very pretty, and very powerful!  Pictures:

Wild landscape on top of the waterfalls

Bigger Falls!

more water!

VICTORY!

So we had a great Day 1 in Canaima National Park as you can see! The next day we wake up early to take a canoe several hours up river to finally get to Angel Falls! It was quite the adventure, and in the next post I will tell you all about it and show you some of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken in my whole life! STAY TUNED!

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Colorado – 2x (same river)
West Virginia – 2x (different rivers)
Costa Rica – 2 days (same river)
Peru – 3 days (same river)
Dominican Republic – 2x (same river)
Japan – 1x
Colombia – 3x (2 different rivers)
Guatemala – 1x

And this current trip that I’m writing about:
Venezuela – 2 days (different rivers)

That’s 18 days of whitewater rafting on 12 different rivers, in 8 countries! Yes, I love this sport, and yes God has blessed me with lots of opportunities to travel. I owe it all to Him! 2 things before proceeding with the tour review:
- If you don’t know Jesus, you need to meet Him ASAP! Email me
- If you’ve never gone whitewater rafting, you need to go ASAP! Email me

As discussed in the last 3 posts, I’m still traveling around South America. On this trip we will be in Venezuela, Brazil, & Argentina. We left Venezuela a few days ago, and I’m writing this from the Amazon Jungle in Brazil.

PRIOR S. AMERICA TRIP POSTS:
1. Heading to South America for 1 Month – Details
2. Venezuela’s Black Market Money Exchange
3. Busses, Canyoning, & Paragliding in Venezuela – OH MY!

We stayed at the Guamanchi Posada in Merida, Venezuela, and they are also an adventure tour company. We booked the 2 day rafting trip with them for 1,500 Bolivares ($187 USD). It included everything – 5 hour transport (roundtrip) out to the area of Barinas, Venezuela area where the rafting canyons are, lodging 1 night at the adventure camp, all meals & basic drinks, a ziplining tour, and 2 days of rafting with gear & guides included.

The ride out to the rafting was the only rough part about the trip. Rough because you sit  in the back of a 4 wheel drive off-road jeep that’s been gutted in the back with 2 benches put in for seats (1 on each wall). You are sitting facing your adventure partners. 30-60 minutes in the jeep, easy… 5 hours? Or what took almost 7…… Not so easy! That’s okay, I’m young, my butt will recover!

We had an awesome travel group of people that we had met while traveling in Venezuela. It was me, Kate (my friend from Iowa), Santiago from Colombia, & 2 guys from The Netherlands (I don’t want to butcher the spelling of their names here!). Awesome group of people representing 3 continents, and lots of cool cultures.

We played a game on my iPad on the way out to the adventure camp where you name logos of companies. Without the Dutch & The Colombian, we would have NEVERRRR answered some of the foreign logos correctly. Props to them for that!

The adventure camp was pretty incredible, and I’ve stayed at a few! They had a large property in the mountains with a home-made outdoor rock climbing wall that they were adding bouldering routes to while we were there, several creative dorm buildings with private rooms for guests, a sheltered eating hall, and another separate building with a bar, pool tables, foosball, and all the buildings had hammocks hanging everywhere to relax. The property was covered in various fruit trees, so needless to say we were spoiled with DELICIOUS fruit juices from the most fresh fruit!
The food was absolutely incredible too!

Day 1 at the camp after arriving we were scheduled to do a short half day of rafting on the smaller Class III river, and we were promised that Day 2 we would raft over twice as long, on a different, bigger Class IV+ river.

For those unfamiliar with whitewater rafting gradient scales it goes from Class 1 to Class 6. Class 1 is a current with a few rocks creating a small amount of ripples in the water and bumps on your ride. As the classes get higher the water gets bigger, steeper, faster, more rocks, more technical, and more dangerous. Class 5 is the highest you can raft with a commercial company. Class 6 is generally un-raftable, or just too dangerous. Things like waterfalls or extremely dangerous obstacles are Class 6. You can sometimes kayak Class 6 portions, and you can view videos of people doing it on YouTube. Pretty incredible!
Just because Class 5 whitewater isn’t Class 6 whitewater, does NOT mean that it’s not dangerous, huge, or exciting though! In fact it’s all of the above. Do exercise caution when rafting, and do not underestimate the power of a river in rapids. Many people die each year in this sport.

I rafted the Gauley River (Class 5+) in West Virginia when they release high flow from the dam in the Fall of 2010 (they do it each Fall). That Fall High season killed 3 rafters & kayakers. In just 1 short month! My friend Brenton and I survived the trip and my face only went white a couple of times
You run over half a dozen Class 5 rapids on the first half of the river and over 40 Class 4+ rapids! Needless to say, it’s madness.

This was my raft on the Gauley River!

On a 3 day excursion in Peru on a Class 5+ river with my friend Brad, we saw a few different Class 6 rapids that we would have to pull the boats out and hike around on the side of the river. Sometimes they would just send the boats down without people and we would watch the carnage. Once we saw the guides take a boat down, and one got ejected. It took about 15 seconds for his head to surface about 50 yards downstream!
Also on that trip, our guide told us that his Dad was a guide and actually had died on one of the Class 5 rapids on the river.

All that to say that rafting is extremely exhilarating and fun, but you do need to exercise caution, learn all the safety positions, and do what your guide tells you to do.

On to the Venezuelan rivers…

They said we would raft the Class 3 river the first day, and raft the Class 3 river we did! I wasn’t expecting much really, b/c I have a lot of experience on Class 5 whitewater, but man, was I wrong! We left pretty late in the day after the long drive and it was definitely getting a little dark by the time we finished.

This short Class 3 run of only maybe 90 minutes, was packed with lots of really fun wave train rapids and small drops. The river was pretty small so there were a few tight squeezes. The craziest part to me was how many times we fell in! I think I fell in 3 times!! I remember it took me like 6 whitewater rafting trips to fall in once, and here I go falling out in this Class 3 river every 20 minutes it seemed haha! We had lots of swimmers, which helped us practice our rescuing for the bigger river the next day.
The safety boaters were rafting in inflatable kayaks, which was a first for me to see, but the river isn’t too big, and with class 3 rapids, safety kayakers aren’t totally necessary.

That night we enjoyed some delicious dinner and kept ourselves entertained with games of pool & cards before bed.

Day 2 at the Adventure Camp we had breakfast and then went on a short ziplining tour that was included in the package price. There was only 4 or 5 cables, but we didn’t have to pay extra so I can’t complain! A couple of the cables you swung over the bigger Class 4 river that we were rafting that afternoon, which was exciting. A nice way to start off a day of adventure.

We left for the rafting trip and everybody was excited. It was a couple of the guys first weekend rafting, so they felt that they had graduated after yesterdays trip to bigger whitewater on this day. Bigger whitewater we received!

This river was much more of a whitewater river, in a canyon with massive rocks, some the size of houses, waterfalls pouring into the river, streams feeding the river, and beautiful scenery and hanging bridges here and there. About an hour into the trip we reached a hanging walking bridge where we pulled out. There were 2 waterfalls on the side, and the bridge was straight out of Indiana Jones with boards of the floor missing, made from real rope, and looking rickety as possible! A true jungle bridge. See for yourself:

What should we do?!

Obviously we couldn’t just stand on it, we had to jump! Here’s a video of one of my jumps:

Later we did a group jump off of this bridge. I think bridge jumping is a great time! We didn’t touch bottom, so I felt pretty safe about it.

We finished the rafting trip with a couple bigger Class IV rapids, and we found a big surfing hole to surf. We ended up surfing it for probably an entire minute or two before I fell out and got rescued! Weeee!

Canyon gets narrower!

A few more Class IV rapids, and then this river actually runs into the same river that we ran the day before. So we re-ran that section of whitewater again, which was a lot of fun. The ironic part is we had more swimmers (again) on the smaller Class III section than the Class IV section.

I had a blast!

After the rafting for the day, we packed up our stuff at the camp, and they took us all to the bus station in Barinas, Venezuela, where we all had tickets to different locations in Venezuela to continue our travels.

Kate and I were taking a 15 hour overnight bus to Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela where our next trip will begin. That trip is a 3 day excursion into Canaima National Park to see Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world!

(Disclaimer: I was not compensated anything for reviewing this trip or company, and all opinions are strictly my own)

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First Part of My Trip…

So far the trip has been great! I’ve traveled to Latin America over a dozen separate times now between vacations and tours with the band. Venezuela hasn’t really been much different, but I like it. I love Latin American culture, Spanish, and most of the things that come along with it.

I arrived in the Caracas airport at 5am on Monday after a red eye flight out of Houston. Needless to say I was a shot zombie when I arrived! The flight was fine, and I fell asleep literally before take-off. Yes, I flew economy… I like to preserve my miles and travel more, what can I say?!
My flight was a one way from Omaha, NE to Caracas, Venezuela for 20,000 United miles and $5 in taxes. Great deal, as that flight is over $1,500 regularly!

I had to wait in the airport for 10 hours before Kate would arrive later on her flight from Southern Brazil. I had a light breakfast and some freshly squeezed orange juice, and just waited it out in the airport food court. I wasn’t too excited to guard my large backpacking backpack, and my smaller backpack with electronics all morning, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do! After awhile of meditating in the Bible, listening to music, etc. I just got SUPER tired. I was sitting in a booth against the wall, so I just put both backpacks against the wall behind me, and fell asleep with my hands in my pocket. I probably woke up 10 times to check my pockets and make sure I hadn’t been robbed, on top of being pretty uncomfortable. I did manage to get about 5 hours of random sleep though. I’ll take it!

I met Kate around 2pm, we exchanged some money on the Black Market in the airport (see previous post), and we grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal.

We were heading to Merida, Venezuela, a city about 14 hours South by bus. You’ll hear this everywhere else that generally overnight busses in South America are nice, BUT they keep the air conditioning pretty much blasting on max all night, so it gets super cold – no matter the temperature outside! I recommend a couple blankets and/or wearing pants/sleeves and a jacket/coat. If you have a beanie, that would probably be nice. I was wearing shorts, a tshirt, and a thin zip-up hoodie. Definitely froze, but I sleep pretty hard so it wasn’t much of an issue for me.

We had a couple stops and road stoppages for awhile (when in Venezuela!), so our bus ended up taking about 17 hours. We arrived in Merida, Venezuela around 1:30pm and caught a taxi to the Plaza Las Heroinas where we had read most of the posadas (hostels) and travel agencies were for adventure tours. Sure enough, right when we got to the little park, there was one behind us called Guamanchi Tours & Posada. Pretty popular according to the WikiTravel page for Merida.
Merida is known for having the highest cable car in the world that will take you to the top of the Andes Mountains. The only problem is that it’s been closed for a few years now so they can re-build it to hold double the amt of people that it used to hold. Apparently that has all but crushed the amount of tourists coming through the area now as it’s pretty remote and far away from everything.

The area was beautiful with green Andes mountains in both directions including 2 National Parks. The Andes are a very mystical mountain chain, and there always seems to be some sort of eerie fog or cloud lingering on the mountains. Very cool.

We checked into a private room with a bathroom/shower, bunk bed, and double bed. I took a bunk and gave Kate the big bed for herself. We were quoted about $16 USD a night each but told we would get a discount for booking tours with them.
We ended up booking Canyoning for the next day, Paragliding the day after, and a 2 day whitewater rafting trip all weekend for which he dropped the room price to $10 USD a night each. Very cheap, good location, and great value.
If you’re a light sleeper, then the construction on the cable cars could be annoying in the morning if you’re trying to sleep in.

Day 2 in Merida – CANYONING…

I’ve been canyoning a few times in my travels now in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Colombia, & Switzerland, as well as several DIY (do it yourself) canyoning trips with my friends in Puerto Rico without ropes or guides. Canyoning involves taking ropes/gear and scaling down a narrow river canyon by whatever means necessary. These are the kind of canyons that waterfalls fall off of. It generally involves some natural waterslides, rappelling down waterfalls, hiking, some swimming (sometimes), and some cliff jumps. What more could you want for adventure, seriously?! SO FUN!

This was a great trip and for about $71 USD, a great value. There were 3 waterfalls that we would rappel down in some way or another at heights of 18 feet, 50 feet, and 100 feet. In that order too. The trip started with a drive straight to the top of a mountain in the back of a jeep, where we got dropped off with gear at a trail. The trail was a 25 minute hike in the hot forest to the top of the river/creek. We trekked down the stream, hopping over large boulders, and doing small 3-8 foot little jumps and slides.

The biggest slide was probably a solid 20 feet long, very steep, and very fast. It was awesome! Our guide was a local with medium sized dreadlocks. His name was hard to say, so he said we could just call him Rasta. He was great at explaining in Spanish slowly, and helping us when the traverses were hard or when there were currents.

The 1st waterfall that we rappelled, about 1/3 of the way down you were enveloped in the water falling off the rocks, and it just made you want to rappel that much faster so you could breathe and get out of the water. Flew down to the bottom and patted my head to signal to Rasta that I was fine. Then Kate went – easy!
2nd waterfall we were told that we would rappel with the rope over our shoulders, siting against the rock, instead of a normal rappel where you walk down the cliff face while leaning backwards. When we arrived at the 2nd falls, we discovered a large tree had falling into the waterfall the night before, and it was deemed unsafe to rappel down the water part of the falls. We would have definitely gotten stuck in the tree, which could be pretty dangerous.
We just did a normal rappel down the rock face on the right side of the falls. Afterward our guide moved most of the trunk out of the waterfall in hopes that if it rains heavy in the evenings, that the rest will flush out.

The 3rd waterfall wasn’t the highest waterfall I’d ever rappelled, but it was still really high (100 feet). At the bottom of the falls you had to swim around the roaring pool of water and wait for the guide.

Later we had a VERY narrow cliff jump to continue our scaling down the canyon. So narrow that Kate had a little moment of panic! Basically we were jumping about 10 feet off of rock into a tiny pool about 3 ft wide. I kid you not, no wider than 3 feet! We both made the jump no problem.

Good times, here’s some pictures:

2nd Waterfall we rappelled down

GOING WILD!

                                                      PARAGLIDING IN THE ANDES MOUNTAINS…

The next day we had signed up for a tandem paragliding trip in the Sierra Nevadas section of the Andes Mountains. Took a jeep ride for about an hour out of the city and up to the top of a beautiful dry mountain range.
The scenery was unbelievable from the top, and there were mountain goats and cows roaming freely. This was my 3rd paragliding trip. I’ve gone before in Peru & Colombia, and wasn’t too thrilled with my last flight in Colombia, so I had low expectations today. Paragliding is a pretty chill activity. You’re sitting in the seat of a parachute while getting great views of the mountains and valley below.
This flight was GREAT though! The scenery was better than the Colombia flight I took, and we flew all the way down to the bottom, a descent of 3,000 feet. At the end, my pilot named Will asked me if I wanted to do “three, six, zero”, which I translated as a “360″, haha. Obviously I said yes, and away we went doing more like a 5,400 as we spun rapidly around over and over and over again. SO FUN!

We also opted to pay the extra $12 to have them bring along a HD camera with an extendable tripod to get cool angled photos & videos of our flight. Here’s a few:

The jeep at the foot of the Andes

Having a good time!

Birds eye view of my flight!

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If you ever go to Venezuela, you’ll find the same advice all over the internet and from other travelers – don’t ever use your credit cards or debit cards to pay for anything or to get money, and don’t exchange money at official exchange counters, like in the airport. Obviously this is pretty hard for me as a miles/points nut to not use my mileage earning cards, but you just don’t want to use them.  Why so?
Chavez has a fixed exchange rate in Venezuela at 4.3 Bolivares to each $1 USD. However, when walking around the airport, cities, tour agencies, hotels, etc. people will whisper or holler at you “Dolares?”, trying to get you to exchange money with them. That’s b/c the currency is broken and most people have foreign bank accounts that they need to put Dollars & Euros in. The standard exchange rate on the “Black Market” in Venezuela is 8-8.5 Bolivares per $1 USD, which is basically double the official rate that you’ll get out of an ATM or official exchange counter.

We didn’t have any trouble with it, and haven’t had any problems with counterfeit bills either. Keep in mind also that I do speak Spanish really well, however I don’t think that affected much.

MY EXPERIENCE…

As soon as I got through immigration in Caracas, a security guard asked me in Spanish if I needed to change dollars… Amazing, right?! IN THE AIRPORT! I read about it, and was prepared so I brought some new/crisp $100 bills, but now I had to act on it. He would only give me 7.5 B to USD after some haggling, so I took it. All went smoothly and it allowed me money to eat while waiting for Kate to show up. I arrived at the airport at 5am, so there was no-one there, but they did kind of count the money at their sides as to not draw attention to themselves. It was me and 4 security guards just swapping money in the airport. Exciting!

I needed to exchange a lot more for the trip though, probably about $600-$700 total to cover all of the tours, posadas, and food for our 2 weeks here. I wanted to start small, and I also wanted to get 8 B per USD, which is why I didn’t exchange much with that guy.

Later while walking around the terminal another guy, a very large guy mind you, approached me asking the same thing. He looked nice, and I figured I would need more for our trips in the mountain the next day, so I said yes. I exchanged another $200 with this guy and he gave me 8 Bolivares per USD. SCORE! This one seemed a lot more sketchy. It was about noon so the airport was packed. He whistled to another guy and we work our way through the crowds into an elevator. I got a little nervous getting into the elevator with 2 strangers, but as soon as the door closed, the guy he whistles over pulls out a HUGE wad of Venezuelan currency, and counts out my 1,600 Bolivares, and says “rapido, rapido!”, meaning I should count it and exchange my dollars fast before the door opens on the next floor. That I did – score!

Then when Kate landed, she would need to exchange money as well, so I told her that I already had exchanged twice, and that it was a little sketchy, but overall fine.
Gave it one minute and a security guard approaches us, and we say we want 8 bolivares. The wild thing is that they ask how much you’re wanting to change, and what you want for it… I can only hope and pray that there aren’t any un-informed tourists or businessmen googling the exchange rate before landing and asking for 4.3 per dollar!
So this guy takes us to the elevator, but a bunch of people walked in so we couldn’t do the exchange. Then he walks us to the food court, we sit at a table, and we exchange a total of $400 between the 2 of us. He counted the money under the table and then handed it to us. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry and it took us a few minutes to count it all.

One thing I noticed was that each person that I exchanged with would ask questions about our trip and methods of travel after exchanging. It was almost like we had this bond after trusting each other with the money. They always handed me the Bolivares first to count before I handed over the Dollars. They were also all bigger than me except for the first exchange, so I doubt they worried about me ripping them off! Haha.

Now, after we took our overnight bus to Merida, Venezuela up in the Andes Mountains, with a pocket full of Venezuelan money, we had even more experiences changing money.
At the Posada & tour agency that we stayed at, the front desk told us that we could exchange dollars at a rate of 8.4 with them, no problem. He also said we could just pay in dollars at that rate, or make bank transfers to pay for the room/tours that we booked.

We opted for the bank transfers, and kept our cash for food, shopping, and tours for the 2nd week of our stay in Venezuela.

A week later in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela we have been offered exchange rates of 8.3 – 8.4 Bolivares per Dollar.

Moral of the story is that people can generally be trusted when exchanging in public, and it’s extremely common. Obviously use a little bit of caution, and preferably be with somebody else. Travel in groups! Thinking back now, I am pretty fluent in Spanish, but I still probably shouldn’t have exchanged money by myself the first 2 times. Who knows what could have happened to me! Praise God for the favor and protection.
This is a common practice in Venezuela, and while I love earning miles, I don’t want to pay 2x what everything costs just to get a few miles on my credit card.

Have you ever been to Venezuela or had any wild money exchange experiences? Maybe a dark alley somewhere?

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In total we will be visiting 3 countries. All 3 are brand new for me, which is surprising to me b/c I feel like I’ve been to most of Latin America. Apparently not! I just love it so much. We are spending 2 weeks in Venezuela, 2 weeks in Brazil, and 3 days in Argentina. Heck, I wish we had more time!

Here’s the map of where we’ll be throughout the trip.

Covering a lot of ground!

If you go to the top of the page and click “Travel Schedule” you can see my day by day rough itinerary of where we’ll be. I’ll save you the time and show you:

Mon May 7 – Fly to Caracas 6:05pm
Tue May 8 – Arrive in Caracas 5:24 AM, night bus to Merida (12hr)
Wed May 9 – arrive in Merida – Posadas all over Plaza Las Heroínas in the central.
www.wikitravel.org/en/Mérida_(Venezuela) – posadas, hikes, activities.
Thur May 10 – rafting
Fri May 11 – rafting
Sat May 12 – rafting
Sun May 13 – canyoning
Mon May 14 – bus to Barinas (3.5 hr) then 10pm bus to Ciudad Bolivar (11 hr)
Tue May 15 – arrive Ciudad Bolivar – book falls tour at airport
Wed May 16 – Angel Falls
Thur May 17 – Angel Falls
Fri May 18 – Angel Falls
Sat May 19 – Ciudad Bolivar. bus to Manaus
Sun May 20 – bus to Manaus day 2 & arrive (can stay Holiday Inn 15k points)
http://www.manausjungletours.com/en/ $225 3 day Adventure tour
Mon May 21 – Amazon tour
Tue May 22 – Amazon tour
Wed May 23 – Amazon tour
Thur May 24 – Amazon tour
Fri May 25 – Manaus – waterfalls around Presidente Figueiredo
Sat May 26 – Manaus – flight to Rio at 12:35am that night (midnight)
Sun May 27 – arrive in Rio at 10:41am – El Misti House Copacabana
Mon May 28 – RIO – El Misti House Copacabana
Tue May 29 – RIO – El Misti House Copacabana
Wed May 30 – RIO – El Misti House Copacabana
Thur May 31 – RIO – El Misti House Copacabana
Fri June 1 – RIO – El Misti House Copacabana
Sat June 2 – flight from Rio (SDU) 8:23am to Iguazu (IGU) 12:10.
Sun June 3 – Iguazu Falls
Mon June 4 – Iguazu Falls
Tue June 5 – Fly from IGU (Brazil) at 1:15pm to GRU, & home from Sao Paulo (GRU) 9:25 PM
Wed June 6 – Arrive home (OMA) at 10:05 AM

Obviously you can see from that itinerary, there’s several times where we don’t have rooms booked, or tours booked. That’s because in Venezuela you want to exchange your money on the “black market” so you get 8 bolivares per USD instead of 4. The gov’t has a fixed rate and their currency is broken, so most people and companies will just sell you the currency at that rate. When you say “Black Market” it sounds really sketchy, but it can be as simple as an exchange of money with a hotel clerk.

That said, most of the areas we’re going to that we don’t have reservations are really built around people just showing up and checking in at “posadas”, basically a guest house or hostel. They will be really cheap, ranging from $5-$20 a night on the lower end of the spectrum.

We are wrapping up the trip at Iguazu Falls which is on the border of Brazil, Argentina, & Paraguay. We are staying at the Sheraton Iguazu which is the only hotel actually INSIDE of the National Park. I’ve read that you can just walk right onto the hiking trails from the back lawns of the Sheraton and beat the crowds. You can count that I’ll be doing that!

The room we’re staying in, just a regular room with 2 double beds normally sells at $540 USD a night, which is ridiculous if you ask me. I was able to book it for 12,000 SPG points a night for free! I wish badly that they would have had a points and cash redemption option as seeing my SPG points balance drop 36k was painful. That’s why we get the miles though – earn and burn people! They’re not earning any interest, and the programs aren’t generally getting any better! This will be a really nice way to end the trip – at a really nice, relaxing hotel that we didn’t have to pay for, in a little bit of luxury after roughing it for 4 weeks in jungles and hammocks!

I’m very very excited for the trip! Crossing off several things from my life travel list including:

- Angel Falls

- Rio De Janeiro

- Amazon River / Jungle

- Iguazu Falls

Man I could write a few paragraphs alone about what I’m excited to see in Rio De Janeiro alone! Good thing we have 6 nights there!

I grabbed some new backpacking gear at Scheels this week to add to my (ridiculous) collection. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter @TravelandCredit , then you’ve already seen this:

Hey, you never know!

Obviously that’s not all I bought, but it makes for an exciting picture!
Upgraded my headlamp. This one had the highest lumens and distance available and the strap connectors on my other one broke. Figured I’ll use it a lot this trip, especially in the Amazon. Snake bite kit was $5 and while I’m sure our guide in the Amazon will be prepared, I don’t want to find out the hard way, plus it was cheap and it’s cool to say I have one, haha. It’s pretty simple though. The knives were necessary. Wikipedia says that Anaconda & Boa attacks in the Amazon “do occur”.
Let’s go!

Please keep Kate & I in your prayers as Venezuela is a very high crime country with an extremely high murder rate – double that of Mexico’s last year, even with the drug war going on. I’ve never been mugged or hurt while traveling, but I claim part of that as protection from the Lord. Let’s stay that way! Travel safe everybody.

I’ll be updating from Venezuela & Brazil while I can and obviously doing a full review on the Sheraton Iguazu!

Until the next time I get internet… – David

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