A Plant Hunter's Paradise
Angel Falls & Devil's Mountain

In late June of this year, I accepted an invitation from Englishman Paul Stanley and his company Angel Eco Tours based in New York and Caracas to travel to Venezuela's vast Canaima National Park where Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall, is located.

Stanley had first contacted me last November when he learned during a visit to Venezuela that I existed and was researching the life of my uncle, American aviator-explorer James "Jimmie" Crawford Angel (1899-1956). Jimmie Angel saw for the first time what was to become known to the world as Angel Falls on a solo flight November 14, 1933.

I viewed the journey as an opportunity to experience again the spiritual wonder of Angel Falls, to continue my research about Jimmie Angel, and to see plants in their native habitat that may be included as exotic plants in the Humboldt Botanical Garden. The 44.5-acre Humboldt Botanical Garden site is located on Northwestern California's Humboldt Bay, a few miles south of Eureka at the College of the Redwoods.

It is difficult to know when any geological feature is actually discovered. Perhaps they are never discovered. Rather, the knowledge of their existence gains recognition by a larger, more diverse audience. Angel Falls was most certainly known to the indigenous Pemón people of the southeastern Gran Sabana region of Venezuela for thousands of years. Due to its location on Auyantepui (Auyan means devil and tepui means house in Pemón, hence the House of the Devil), perhaps even they avoided the mysterious Devil's Canyon within the table mountain's interior where Angel Falls cascades 3,212 feet. One thing is certain, the existence of Angel Falls was recognized by the world and thus it was "discovered" because of Angel's explorations.

Sixteen years later, American photojournalist Ruth Robertson led the first successful expedition to the base of Angel Falls. The expedition measured the Falls and declared it officially the world's highest waterfall. Four overland expeditions organized by men had tried and failed before Robertson was successful. Her article, "Jungle Journey to the World's Highest Waterfall," published in the November 1949 edition of National Geographic is a splendid account of an extraordinary journey.

Discovering the truth about Angel's life is complicated by legends about him, which are difficult to separate from fact because he actively participated in the creation of the legends. Since my first trip to the base of Angel Falls in 1994, I have been attempting to unravel the truth about his life through archival research and interviews with people in the United States and Venezuela who knew him or his associates.

That Angel taught himself to fly at age 14 is part of the legend. The stories that he was a Royal British Flying Corps Ace in World War I, created an air force for a Chinese Warlord in the Gobi Desert, or worked as an aviation scout for Lawrence Arabia have not been verified. What is true is that Jimmie Angel was a gifted pilot who loved Central and South America, especially Venezuela.

This story is about my recent trip to Angel Falls and will focus on the botanical aspects of my travels rather than the life and legends of Jimmie Angel. I will save those stories for an autobiographical book I am writing about my search for the truth about Jimmie Angel.

Our core travel group of nine consisted of Angel Eco's Paul Stanley, his Venezuelan business partner Antonio Pestana and three members of their Caracas guide and marketing staff, a Caracas based television news reporter and a camera man, Hungary - based travel writer Péter Kovácsi, and myself. We flew from Caracas to Ciudad Bolivar the capital of the State of Bolivar on the Orinoco River. There, two delightful women from Ireland joined us. They had flown directly from Dublin to Venezuela with the intention of seeing Angel Falls before continuing their journey around the world.

From Ciudad Bolivar we flew to Canaima National Park because air travel is the only link to the park except for those who have the time and skills to negotiate the river system from the Orinoco or have months to travel overland by foot. Completing our group was an extraordinarily gracious New Jersey man on a spiritual journey who joined us in Canaima National Park.

Canaima village is the base camp for visitors arriving by airplane. From there, we traveled up the Carrao River to the Churun River in long wooden canoes, called curiara, guided by Pemón and powered by outboard motors to Angel Falls in Devil's Canyon. The Churun River drains the Devil's Canyon watershed. Its waters rise and form a river on the top of Auyantepui before cascading down the massif into the canyon as Churun Meru (Meru is Pemón for waterfall). Stanley had organized the journey so that we would arrive at Angel Falls on July 1st, the anniversary of the 1960 scattering of Jimmie Angel's ashes over the waterfall.

Soon after entering Devil's Canyon we could see Angel Falls towering over the landscape. From our camp on the banks of the Churun River, we followed a steep, rocky mile long rainforest trail to the base of the waterfall. Some of our group enjoyed a bracing swim in the deep pool at the foot of the waterfall. I eagerly accepted a request to participate in a taped television interview with Angel Falls in the background. I like doing interviews about Jimmie Angel and it was also a good excuse to skip the swim. My low blood pressure and sensitivity to cold makes me an ideal candidate for hyperthermia even in tropical climates.

I had previously been to Angel Falls and swam in its waters. The sight of the fall was even more magical this time because heavy summer rains had produced gigantic wings of cascading water which dropped down the massive pink sandstone amphitheater carved by it in the canyon's wall.

I enjoyed the opportunity to be a horticultural docent on the trip and to learn more about the plants in the region from Angel Eco Venezuelan guide Rodrigo Favela. Favela is also a skilled interpreter and did the Spanish translations for me with the media in Canaima National Park.

A number of plants native to Canaima National Park are grown in Humboldt gardens. Some of the plants that I will describe out of the many that I saw may find a home in the Humboldt Botanical Garden.

Lantana in its yellow-orange- red form looks the same on its home range as it does in Humboldt gardens. The velvet leaf, purple blossom Princess Flower, Tibouchina urvilleana, is a smaller form than our ornamental garden plant and is abundant near the village of Uruyen where my uncle lived with his wife Marie and adopted Pemón son Jose Manuel at the base of Auyantepui.

The fluffy pink flowering Mimosa is common near Angel Falls. My favorite tree, the lavender-blue blossoming Jacaranda, which is generally considered too tender for our region, was spotted in full bloom twice on the banks of the Churun River.

For the houseplant and greenhouse enthusiast, many species from the bromeliad family are found in the region. I saw the brilliant red leafed, yellow flowering Aechmea mertenssi near the base of Angel Fall. The Spanish name is Caraquey. Ananas parguzensis, a sweet and seedy pineapple much smaller in size and similar in appearance to the commercially raised Ananas comosus pineapple, was seen in the jungle near the Pemón camp at Kavak.

The region, especially the north side of Auyantepui, is an orchid lover's Paradise with many terrestrial and epiphytic species. Orchid Cattleya mossiae with six-inch fragrant magenta flowers is the national flower of Venezuela.

I was delighted to see the exquisitely elegant Philodendron Nobile on the trail from the Churun River to Angel Falls. The flower, similar in form to a calla lily, has a striking white exterior and a blood red interior.

As far as I have discovered, Jimmie Angel loved the jungle and the Pemón, but was much more interested in gold than plants. However, he did play a role in the establishment of Canaima National Park by calling the attention of the American Museum of National History in New York City to the region. The attention generated was such that the museum mounted a major expedition sponsored by American and Princeton educated William H. Phelps, Sr. of Caracas. (His son William H. Phelps, Jr. is the co-author of the acclaimed A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela published by Princeton University Press). The museum's expedition to the 425 square mile table mountain Auyantepui and the surrounding Gran Sabana bridged the years 1937-1939.

Angel was the museum's expedition pilot-guide in 1938-1939. The expedition's purpose was to study and collect flora and fauna from the region and to study its geology and paleontology. The expedition brought world attention to the area and influenced the creation of Canaima National Park in 1962 with 2,470,000 acres, which was increased to 7,410,000 acres in 1975 making it one of the world's largest national parks.

I was fortunate to be invited to Venezuela by Angel Eco, which is passionately dedicated to environmentally sensitive travel. Angel Eco guides in botanical, animal, insect and bird life, and the region's geology educate the visiting traveler. Protecting the park's environmental systems is the company's mantra. The indigenous Pemón people of Canaima National Park are central to Angel Eco's efforts to educate visitors about the region and the culture of the people. The Pemón operate the visitor camps, provide comfortable accommodations, delicious meals, cultural activities, and are trail and canoe guides.

Dining also provided an opportunity to learn more about the edible plants of Venezuela and Canaima National Park. Our gracious Pemón hosts prepared and presented superb meals of grilled beef, fish and chicken, arepas, pasta, fruit, vegetables, and beverages, which were flown in. Arepas are ovals of fried or baked corn meal. I became addicted to them and will attempt to replicate the baked version using the bag of fine white corn meal that I carried home.

Venezuela, which has many political and economic problems, has the potential to produce most of its food. Unfortunately it has not developed sustainable agriculture to feed its population and must import over 70% of the food consumed annually by the nation.

The food served to visitors in Canaima would be considered heart healthy by all standards in the U.S.A. Still it is in sharp contrast to the traditional Pemón home garden, which includes sweet potatoes, sweet, and hot peppers, plantains, sweet and bitter palm, mangoes, oranges, and cashews. Fish and insects, especially ants and termites, supplement the plants in their diet. For those who are wondering, termites have a peppery flavor and are typically added to a plicate sauce, which is used on most everything.

The Pemón makes a fermented beer called cachiri primarily from the yucca plant. It is very pulpy and white. It tastes slightly fermented and similar to a mildly bitter heart of palm beverage. If you are not familiar with the taste of yucca or palm or before you go looking for cachiri, I should add that it is not the favorite beverage of most visitors. At table, the ubiquitous pilsner beer made by Caracas based Polar Corporation is served. The logo is a jolly polar bear seated on floating ice.

Native Venezuelan coffee is delicious and was in plentiful supply at table. Almost all of the coffee grown in Venezuela is consumed domestically. I did not truly appreciate how good it was until I returned home and again tasted cups of Columbian and French roast.

Prior to the discovery of oil in the early 20th Century, the rare criollo cacao beans were the primary natural resource and export from Venezuela. The highly perfumed chocolate made from the beans still makes its way to the candy shops and pastry kitchens of the world. Regrettable, today chocolate plays an almost invisible role in the Venezuelan economy.

For more information about the Humboldt Botanical Garden and its gardens, plants and funding, contact Karen Angel, (707) 822-2724 or see the Foundation's web site: www.hbgf.org

Postscript - On July 4th, Venezuela's national Tourism Ministry announced at a news conference with Karen Angel in Caracas that the government is advocating that July 1st be proclaimed Jimmie Angel Day in Venezuela.

Note: Karen Angel is the Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation Executive Director for Garden Development. She is the niece of Jimmie Angel and President of the California based Jimmie Angel Historical Project (JAHP). The JAHP's mission is to provide accurate information about Jimmie Angel. She has completed a photo biography for the JAHP, and is working independently on two books about her uncle: an historical novel, and an autobiographical account of her search for the truth about Jimmie Angel.

Bibliography & Contacts

Angel Eco: www.angel-ecotours.com. Information at info@angel-eotours.com

Angel, Karen. "The House of the Devil: Angel Falls and Jimmie Angel."

Go South America, (June 2002). gosouthamerica.com

Gilliard, E. Thomas. "Unchallenged Champion." Natural History, The Magazine of the American Museum of Natural History, (December 1940), 259-273.

Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation: www.hbgf.org. Information at hbgf@humboldt1.com or kangel@humboldt1.com.

Robertson, Ruth. "Jungle Journey to the World's Highest Waterfall." National Geographic, (November 1949), 655-690.

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For additional information visit or contact: Paul Stanley (US) Toll free - 1 (888) 475 0873/4/5 Stanley@angel-ecotours.com Gary Galati (US) 212 905 3312 ggalati@galatijackson.com about Angel-Eco Tours with offices in New York and Caracas, Angel-Eco Tours www.angel-ecotours.com is a leader in designing adventure travel packages to Venezuela. Experienced, multilingual guides lead travelers on a variety of adventures to beautiful destinations such as Angel Falls (the highest free falling waterfall in the world), magnificent rainforests and to jungles exploding with unique vegetation and over 1,200 species of birds and 250 species of exotic wildlife.

53 Remsen Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA 1 (888) 475 0873/4/5 info@angel-ecotours.com