From the Devil’s House
to the Fall of Angels

Hidden among the heart-shaped Auyán-tepui in southeastern Venezuela is one of the original Wonders of the World – Angel Falls. With a spectacular drop of 3,212-ft (979m), this waterfall is more than two and a half times taller than the Empire State Building in New York City, and the tallest waterfall on earth.

Angel Falls emerges majestically from Auyán-tepui, a massive plateau that rises from the lush tropical canopy and is known by the indigenous Pemón people as the “Devil’s House” or “Devil’s Mountain.” The falls are best viewed by plane, but a few local tour operators offer hiking and river excursions to approach the falls closer, even basking in the pool at the bottom of the falls and seeing the intermittent rainbows above!

Although the native Pemón surely knew of Angel Falls thousands of years ago, the waterfall was named after Jimmie Angel, an American pilot. Jimmie was obsessed with Auyán-tepui, believing it to hold a lost river of gold that he claimed he had been shown in 1921 by geologist and explorer J.R. McCracken. Then on returning from a solo flight on November 14, 1933, Jimmie announced to all that he had seen “a mile-high waterfall.” Some four years later, Angel Falls became better known as a result of Jimmie’s October 9, 1937, landing on Auyán-tepui in search of his infamous lost river of gold. He had gathered a small party that included his wife and Venezuelan Gustavo Heny and attempted a landing on the top of Auyán-tepui. Unfortunately, his small Flamingo plane, the Río Caroní, stuck in a bog upon landing, and the party was forced to leave the mountain on foot, arriving 11 days later at the mission of Kamarata.

The adventurous story of Angel Falls’ discovery continued in May 1949, when plucky American photojournalist Ruth Robertson organized and led the first successful overland expedition to measure the falls (four previous missions had tried and failed – some not returning at all). At this point, perhaps no local Pemón – who considered the tepuis the home of spirits – and certainly no white person had ever been up the Churún Canyon to the foot of the falls. Robertson failed to persuade National Geographic to fund the expedition (although they later published her article “The Forgotten Expedition” in November 1949), but she was fortunate to recruit Alexander Laime, a Latvian who knew the region well and was trusted by the Pemón.

Robertson’s determined group faced various setbacks, including dry rivers, heavy equipment that had to be carried through the dense rainforest for the last leg of the journey, dwindling food supplies, sabotage, nervous Pemón porters, and a near-mutiny. However, the expedition continued until they reached the base of the falls, where they measured the waterfall to prove it to be the highest in the world and took the first photograph of it from the ground for all the world to see.

To design your own Ultimate 3-10 Day Angel Falls Adventure, Angel-Eco Tours offers a number of options. These include a flight to Uruyén in Canaima National Park with first views of Angel Falls (in clear weather), exploration and hikes to surrounding canyons, jungles and waterfalls, and accommodations (beds or hammocks) in lovely thatched-roof huts provided by the local Pemón people. An exciting river journey to Angel Falls in curiaras (dugout canoes) is capped by a hike to the base of the falls, where you can bask in the explosive force of the tallest waterfall in the world.