10-Day Venezuela Lost World Tour with Angel Falls and Orinoco Delta

Arrive at Maiquetía, on the Caribbean coast, and transfer over the coastal range into Caracas, a city stretched along a single long valley beneath the green wall of El Ávila. Check in, settle in, and gather at golden hour for the first long view down the valley and an evening briefing on the days ahead. The roads in Venezuela are slow and difficult; from here on, we fly.

In the morning, ride the Warairarepano cable car from the city up to the ridge of El Ávila, the mountain that separates Caracas from the sea, for a view back over the whole valley. In the afternoon, cross to El Hatillo, a colonial village of cobbled streets and painted houses on the city's edge, before a final repack for the interior, trading city kit for the light camera-and-quick-dry kit of the days to come.

Take a morning flight south to Canaima, on the edge of the Gran Sabana in Bolívar state, landing beside the pink-sand lagoon ringed by its own row of waterfalls - Hacha, Golondrina, and Ucaima - beneath the flat horizon of the tepuis. In the afternoon, a curiara crosses to Salto El Sapo, where the path runs behind the curtain of the falls themselves, with the water thundering past at arm's length.

The full day belongs to Angel Falls. A motorised curiara works up the Carrao and then the Churún rivers, into the canyon between the sheer walls of Auyán-tepui, the largest of the table mountains. From the river landing, a forest trail climbs to Mirador Laime, the viewpoint that faces the falls across the gorge, where the water comes off the rim almost a kilometre above and dissolves into spray on the way down. There is time for a swim in the pool at the base for those who want it, then the return journey downriver.

A light aircraft lifts off from the Canaima strip and banks over the rim of Auyán-tepui for the view of Angel Falls that the river can never give - the whole drop at once, from the top, with the tepui falling away beneath. The rest of the day is deliberately kept as a weather buffer: a second attempt at the overflight if cloud closed the first, more time on the lagoon and its falls, or simply the long quiet of the savanna beneath the tepuis.

A morning flight back to Caracas marks the hinge of the expedition, from the highlands of the south to the delta of the east. The afternoon in the city is free: time to back up cards from Canaima and rest, visit the galleries and cafés of Los Galpones, or simply enjoy the terrace before the early start for the Orinoco.

Fly east to Puerto Ordaz, then transfer by road and boat into the Orinoco Delta, where one of the largest rivers on Earth breaks into hundreds of mouths before reaching the Atlantic, forming a labyrinth of channels threaded with moriche palm. The lodge sits over the water on stilts in the manner of the Warao, and the first evening is for sunset along the caño and the sounds of the forest closing in after dark.

Spend a full day on the water by dugout. Morichal Largo and its side channels run between corridors of moriche palm, with the route chosen by the guide for wildlife - red howler monkeys, scarlet ibis crossing in flocks, freshwater dolphins, and the chance of a giant otter. A visit to a Warao community, whose stilt houses over the channels gave the country its name, sits at the centre of the day. After dark, take a slow run with a torch to find the caimans' eyes along the bank.

Set out at dawn by kayak through the still channels, before the heat and before the engines, when the delta is at its quietest and the birds are at their loudest. After breakfast, the boat and road carry you back to Puerto Ordaz for the flight to Caracas, and a final evening in the city with one last long valley view, a quiet dinner, and the count of nine nights behind you.

The expedition closes with breakfast and the transfer down to Maiquetía for onward flights. Those who want a Caribbean coda can continue to Los Roques, a flat turquoise archipelago of coral cays and white sandbars an hour off the coast, the calm opposite of the falls and the delta. Ask about the Los Roques extension.