Angel Falls

Whoosh. Can you hear me? I am a ribbon of water tumbling through the air. I begin my journey from the top of a giant, flat-topped mountain deep in a green jungle. As I fall, I create a cool mist that dances in the wind and paints rainbows in the sunshine. For a very, very long time, I was a secret. Only the animals and the kind Pemón people who live in the jungle knew I was here. They gave me a beautiful name, Kerepakupai Vená, which means “waterfall of the deepest place.” I live in a country called Venezuela. To the rest of the world, I am known by another name. I am Angel Falls.

While the Pemón people always knew of my beauty, people in other parts of the world had never seen me. That all changed because of a brave pilot named Jimmie Angel. He loved to fly his little airplane over the jungle, looking for adventure. On November 16th, 1933, he was flying high above the clouds when he saw me for the first time. He couldn't believe his eyes. “What a magnificent waterfall.” he must have thought. He was so amazed that he had to come back. A few years later, on October 9th, 1937, he returned with his wife and two friends. He wanted to get a closer look and tried to land his plane on my mountain home, Auyán-tepui. But the ground was soft and muddy. Splat. The plane’s wheels got stuck. They couldn’t fly out. Jimmie and his friends were not hurt, but they were stranded. They had to hike for 11 long days to get back to a village. His adventure was so incredible that people all over the world heard about it, and soon, everyone knew about me. In his honor, they called me Angel Falls.

I am very proud because I am the tallest waterfall in the whole world. My water falls for so long that much of it turns into a fine mist before it even reaches the river below. It’s like I am giving the jungle a gentle shower all day long. I am protected inside a special place called Canaima National Park, which was created in 1962 to keep the jungle and all its animals safe. Today, people travel from everywhere just to see me. They look up, up, up, and I can see the wonder in their eyes. I remind them that our world is full of amazing secrets and that the spirit of adventure, just like Jimmie Angel’s, can lead to incredible discoveries. I hope that when you see something beautiful in nature, you feel that same excitement.