Other large or infrequently seen marine life includes: The largest parrotfish I’ve ever seen. It was a Rainbow Parrotfish. Not just a single large Midnight Parrotfish, but a school of them. Schools of Chubb. Lots of mackerel intermingled with other reef fish. A large octopus. The largest Arrow Crabs I have ever seen. Lots of Flaming Scallops. A curious Eagle Ray that came back for a second look at me.

The bottom was covered with snow white sand from the shallows to below our deepest dive. It made me feel like I was on a ski slope. Growing out of the sand was a solid forest of gorgonian coral up to 10 feet high that extended from 15 feet to below our normal diving depth. The polyps were always out. It looked like giant fuzzy brushes gently swaying in the breeze on a ski slope. The entire reef had a sensuous appearance! The shallow areas were a home to the largest formations of Star and Flower I’ve seen in the Caribbean. They were full of many colors of Christmas Tree and Feather Duster Worms.

Many large schools of reef fish greeted us on every dive. Two sleeping Nurse Sharks and a sleeping sea turtle topped off our week of diving. The crew of Venezuelans were the most genuinely friendly and helpful crew we have ever had in the Caribbean.

Bill Watts had more fun than anyone else by adding fishing to the diving itinerary. He entertained everyone with the spectacle of catching two 60-70 pound tarpon that were almost landed until they broke the line by swimming around the anchor line. He landed a 15 pound crevalle jack that fed everyone on the boat. This was all from the back of the liveaboard at night. During each afternoon, he and the captain would go fishing from the dinghy or some nearby island. In just one afternoon Bill caught two 6-7 pound bonefish and 10 large snappers, and the captain caught a tarpon on a hand line using bolts and rocks for sinkers!

So much for the diving, now for the real adventure of getting to Angel Falls. This required a two hour trip up a remote river in a 30 foot long dugout canoe. On the way we stopped at the most unique waterfall I have ever seen. It was formed by an overhang that allowed you to walk behind it for its entire 200 feet of width. The power of the solid sheet of water cascading down in front of us with a roar that would match a 747’s engines at takeoff was awesome.

As we traveled by canoe up the river the next day, we were surrounded by tepuis (plateaus) that towered over 3000 feet above us. They all had waterfalls cascading from their rain drenched tops. Misty clouds often encircled them half way up or enshrouded their tops. The beautiful scenery was a breath-taking unforgettable memory. After a hot climb up the lower slopes of Auyun (Devil) Tepui over slick rocks and roots, we were rewarded with a swim in the cool waters of the world’s highest waterfall.

The next day we rode the world’s longest and highest cable car to 13,350 feet. As if this wasn’t high enough, several of us huffed and puffed up a 15,000 foot peak above the cable car! That afternoon we journeyed up another mountain ridge to paraglide. After strapping ourselves to a paraglided instructor, we ran off the edge of a perfectly solid, safe mountain ridge. Are we nuts or what!? Actually, the wind filled the paragliders and lifted us as we ran. We each soared for twenty minutes thousands of feet over the valley or up the mountain side. I looked down one time to see an eagle soaring below me!

The next day we took a nature hike through a rainforest with a naturalist guide. After a long drive around countless curves we crossed the highest driveable mountain pass in Venezuela at 14,000 feet. This trip was one high after another!

That night we stayed in a remote mountain monastery built in 1660! This is older than any building I know of in the U.S. The ambiance in the bar and dining room was the best we have ever enjoyed in all of our club travels. That’s right, the bar! This is not your ordinary monastery. The monks have been replaced with adventurous tourists. The monastery had a man-made water fall in-between its buildings complete with Mallard Ducks and snow white ducks.

The next day four of us planned to mountain bike and the rest planned to ride horses. However, we awoke to rain. When we drove up to the site for these activities we were greeted with a sky full of white stuff that was three inches deep on the ground. They call the white stuff SNOW! Hey, I signed up for a tropical dive trip, not a ski trip. Needless to say the horses enjoyed a relaxing day in the stables. We mountain bikers were not so easily stopped. We drove down the jeep trail just enough to get below the snow line. It was still raining lightly, but what’s a little water to scuba divers!?

We donned rain coats, rain pants, helmets, gloves (In case some of you Floridians are not aware of this, it’s cold when it snows!!!) and plastic bags. Plastic bags??? We put our gloved hands inside of plastic bags before gripping the handlebars. This kept rain from soaking through out gloves and freezing our hands! You have to be resourceful and creative when you mountain bike at 14,000 in a storm!

The mountain bike trail was a wet, muddy, slick, deeply rutted jeep trail (not road) that was strewn with rocks. This was not a beginners’ mountain biking trail and three of us had never mountain biked before! Occasional very deep ruts and large rocks forced us to walk our bicycles. At one point we had to ride across a rushing mountain stream with a rocky bottom. If we fell, we would be soaked with verrry cold water. But what the hell, we signed on for adventure. Somewhere between unprintable words Jim Dunn said, "I didn’t know I signed up for Outward Bound!" If you see Jim Dunn, Marie York, Jeff Lindemuth, or Gary Sharp walking funny, it’s the effect of 6 miles of verrry rough road and verrry skinnnny bicycle seats. Marie mumbled something about her husband suing the club for deprivation of conjugal privileges.

Later that day we visited a biological research station where the San Diego Zoo released Condors back into the wild. One Condor was still in a large outdoor cage. It had a nine foot wingspan! We were thrilled to see a Condor soaring above us with smaller eagles diving down on it when it entered the eagles’ territory. The station’s naturist let us hold a full grown eagle after we put on a very thick leather glove.

After a final night in another old coffee plantation we flew home with memories that we will relish for a lifetime. We hope you can join us on the next exotic trip to Australia and the Coral Sea.