Venezuela Guianas Brazil trip (continued)

As more information comes in, the tweaking continues.

Firstly, connecting flights. Since we're flying into one airport and returning from another ("open-jaw"), realistically, the options are limited to carriers which serve both cities.

Which means: Air France into Caracas, and out of either Cayenne or Rio. This is likely to be the most expensive, and flying out of Cayenne will mean a change of airports in Paris on the way back (Orly to Roissy Charles de Gaulle).

Cheaper would be Iberia with good connections via Madrid , into Caracas and out of Rio.

Cheapest is Air Portugal, into Caracas and returning from Belem via Lisbon. This would mean an additional 'plane change and several hours' connecting time in Fortaleza.

It's likely that we'll probably cut out Rio at the end - it's a lot of extra flying to have a couple of days in the Cidade Maravilhosa, and lots of our other trips go there. Which will mean ending either in Cayenne or Belem (see above).

In Venezuela, the original plan was to spend no more than a few hours, or an overnight, in Caracas. It's a big city without much to offer, but missing it altogether is probably doing it too much of a disservice. So we'll stay in town, and take a late afternoon flight next day to Ciudad Bolivar, and stay the second night there at the Angostura Hotel.

Going by bus to Ciudad Bolivar means a ten-hour overnight bus, and arriving before dawn. This is supposed to be fun, so we've ditched that idea.

The Alba Hotel in Caracas doesn't get much of write up on web review sites, but most recent comments are from Texans who seem to be beefing more about socialism than hotels. We'll monitor reviews. An alternative is the Melia.

Flights from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima offer the option either to fly past the Angel Falls on the way in, or not - the difference is that flying past costs a lot more. We're investigating whether our charter flight out towards to Brazil border can incorporate a fly-by.

The canoe trip upstream to the base of the falls is through rainforest, and if you're interested in birds, you'll know that rivers are linear clearings and an ideal opportunity for sightings. As we get closer to the falls, the range of habitats increases; 1000ft sheer cliffs flank the waterways.

The's only one bus a day from the Brazilian border to Boa Vista, so we'll spend a night in Santa Elena de Uairen (Hotel Yakoo), which is on the Venezuelan side about 20km from the frontier. Santa Elena is the starting point for trekkers aiming to scale Roraima tepuy - a six-day round trip which we won't be doing - this time...

Mount Roraima straddles the three borders (Brazil,Guyana,Venezuela), but access is only from Venezuela for trekkers without climbing experience, ropes and heavy-duty back up.

Our journey routes through Brazil and then loops back up to Guyana because a combination of terrain and politics means there's no overland route directly into Guyana

The bus to Boa Vista takes about 3 hours on a paved road. I was last there in 1975, when I remember a newly-built modern frontier town in the middle of open savannah. It will have changed.

So, Venezuelan section is now:

Caracas 1N
Ciudad Bolivar 1N
Canaima/Angel Falls 2N
Santa Elena 1N

Bird lists and Climate charts to follow.