Signature Venezuela: Highlights of the Lost World

The boatmen manoeuvre the canoe past rocks, boulders, rapids, submerged logs and sandbanks. The terrain and scenery changes gradually as you head up the Churún river which is fed directly by waterfalls. The tepuys (tablelands) are no longer monoliths on the open grasslands and near horizon. The jungle foliage closes in; the rock walls rise higher, and the canoe seems to go faster still, round tighter river bends. And finally, Angel Falls.

Discovered by American pilot Jimmy Angel in 1921, the falls tumble almost 1km from the Gran Sabana region's largest tepui, Auyan-tepui. It's a challenging uphill trek through the forest to a rocky ledge, Laime's Lookout, with a magnificent view of the falls 500m away. It takes another hour to retrace your steps back to the river and jungle camp.

There's an overnight stay in a hammock camp, a long low open-thatched barn about 50m from the shore. There are toilets, running water, showers, mosquito nets and electricity.

There are more than 70 species of water birds, including herons, giant storks, and the vivid scarlet ibis, which congregate in a kaleidoscope of colour in the huge fields of the cattle ranches which populate the region; fruit-eating macaws and  parakeets flit between ringlets of trees, giant capybara (guinea pigs) laze across dusty farm tracks, caiman keep a watchful eye from among the water lilies, anacondas and iguana swell the ranks of indigenous reptiles and capuchin and howler monkeys swing in the branches.

You spend a couple of days based at a hato, or working cattle ranch welcoming visitors.