 Salto Angel Venezuela:
Nothing Beats the Real Thing
By Robert Waddell, January 2, 2010
Recently, Disney and Pixar’s film “Up!” was released on DVD. For anyone who has seen the children’s film on the big or small screens know that this adventure is for kids of all ages. This is the Disney film with a Bucket List.
“Up!” is the charming story of a widower who desires to fulfill the lifelong adventure of his wife. Along the way, traveling to a remote South American waterfall, he picks up friends and finally learns to enjoy life. The film is charming and touches on the anxiety of growing old or older as in “Monsters Inc,” and “The Incredibles.”
The story of “Up!” takes much from real life historical events and recycles the true story into a touching animated tale. In the 1930s, real life explorer Johnny Angel flew with his wife and another passenger into the jungles of Venezuela. He landed his plane at the edge of Salto Angel, named after him.
However, the indigenous name of Angel Falls or Salto Angel is "Parakupa-vena," which means "the fall from the highest point" or "Kerepakupai merú," which means "waterfall of the deepest place," according to Wikipedia.
Angel Falls is the highest waterfalls in the world, 15 feet higher than Niagara. It took the three explorers 11 days to climb down from the cliffs where they had landed. Remote and beautiful in the jungle, Salto Angel is a jungle paradise and high above is a mesa, which can be observed by helicopter. One flies from Caracas to get to the Venezuelan falls.
As for New York City, according to Maibe Fuentes’s April 18, 2004 “Hoy” article, “Venezuelans bite into the Big Apple,” she wrote, “Nowadays, on the subway ride between Manhattan and Astoria or Flushing, words like chamo, gafo, vale and conchale—popular Venezuelan jargon—are heard more frequently.
“Although the community is small compared to other Hispanic groups, Venezuela has the fifth largest population in New York City, after Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Argentina, according to the 2000 Census.” (Source: http://www.indypressny.org/nycma/voices/114/news/news).
So, it is inevitable that immigrating Latinos bring and preserve their Latino culture as they create a Diaspora into the United States. This is certainly true enough for Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans and Mexicans. So, Latino culture even works its way into the popular culture of Disney films.
 In the film “Up!,” history changes and is twisted for fictionalized dramatic effect. The explorer of the film turns out to be a maniacal and obsessed hunter. There are the main characters wishing to fulfill the promise made to his wife but he finds Angel Falls by accident, not with his long dead Mrs. but a chubby boy scout.
To be sure, “Up!” takes the reality of the real Salto Angel and shapes into the imaginative Disney story for children. What needs to be emphasized is there really is a mountaintop and Salto Angel really does exist in the wilds of Venezuela.
It’s one of those remote places that “Survivor” or “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” could explore. The remote jungle, untouched by many human hands but still a Venezuelan tourist attraction is one of those places to visit while snow blazes onto the Eastern seaboard. Salto Angel has a majestic quality, otherworldly, as if untouched by man and only seen by the indigenous of South America.
A friend of this reviewer hipped him to the beauty of Salto Angel recently and after watching the film and the DVD extras, I put two and two together realizing that the story of “Up!” was based on true events and a real place.
More importantly, this Indiana Jones-like beauty of nature is worth a vacation. And I know by publicizing the existence of such a noble place, this reviewer risks contaminating Salto Angel, overrunning the majestic beauty with tourists. In spite of this fear of Starbucks or MacDonald’s polluting Venezuela, Salto Angel is a new discovery, a romantic mystery that must be seen to be believed.
No matter how charming or clever are the Disney Pixar creators of “Up!,” nothing beats the up close and personal reality of Nature’s grandeur. Like a post card from or a National Geographic magazine, going there, seeing and being is the real adventure, beyond films and DVDs. Although so many films are fun, there’s so much out there and nothing beats the real thing.
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
