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Angel Falls Coffee was named for the majestic and imposing great falls of Venezuela,
home of co-owner and master roaster Rafael Oletta.
Located on the 250-square-mile Auyan-Tepui plateau, Angel Falls is the highest waterfall
in the world. Although the local Indians had known of its existence for thousands of years,
and Sir Walter Raleigh had probably heard of it, the earliest recorded sighting by a white man
was in 1910, by Venezuelan explorer Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz.
However, the name comes from the American bush-pilot Jimmy Angel, who first flew over
the area in 1921. He flew in from Panama, where he had been hired by an old prospector
(for $5,000) to fly to and land on the summit of Auyan-tepui, where they allegedly found
a stream, and panned considerable quantities of gold. The prospector, having sold his haul
for $27,000, subsequently died, and it was not until 1935 that Angel returned, and found the
falls that now bear his name.
Two years later, in 1937, he attempted a landing, but despite a successful touchdown
the aircraft (the Rio Caroni) nose-dived when it hit soft ground at the end of its landing
run and Angel, his wife Marie and his companions (Gustavo Heny and his gardener!) had to walk out.
Luckily, Heny had previously climbed the tepui, and so was able to guide the party down the
south flank, a trip that took them 11 days.
The plane remained there until 1970, when it was taken out by helicopter and can be seen today out
the airport terminal at Ciudad Bolivar.
- Total height: 979 meters, with a free fall of 807 meters, or over one mile.
- Angel Falls is more than 20 times higher than Niagara Falls.
- The water that leaves the summit takes fourteen seconds to reach the bottom, although in the dry
season much of that water is blown away in a fine mist.
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