South American Journal

Angel Falls is located in the Guayana highlands of Venezuela. It plunges off the edge of a "tepui", or table-top mountain, and free falls 2,421 feet to the river below, making it the tallest waterfall on earth. In fact, Angel Falls is 15 times higher than Niagara Falls. It does, however, suffer from a lack of good gift shops.

The falls are named after Jimmy Angel, a barnstorming bush pilot from Missouri who first saw the falls in 1933 while searching for ore. He returned in 1937 and landed on top of the tepui. His Falamingo monoplane settled down into the marshy ground atop Auyan-tepui and remained there for 33 years before being lifted out by a helicopter. Jimmy Angel and his three comapnions managed to descend the tepui and make their way back to civilization. It took them 11 days.