KAIETEUR, THE FALLS
We took off, the ten seater twin engine plane glided effortlessly into the sky. We headed out over the Atlantic ocean. I looked down onto the calm ocean lapping lazily onto the sea defenses, protecting our below the sea level land. I gazed in astonishment at the big wide ocean below stretching for it seems eternity. What lay behind this mass of water I wonder, as if speaking to someone I answered my own inquiry.........................the big wide world.
The ocean suddenly has disappeared below, I realize now that we are turning back into land. As the plane begins to straighten I can see below, houses looking like match stick boxes peered out at me. I strained to find my home, the place I spent many child like dreams, dreaming....................well just dreaming. I seek disparately for that familiar sight but alas, among the hundreds of little match boxes and what seems to be moving ants it could not be found. Disappointedly I looked away, away into cloudy sky that looked like cotton wool, suspended in mid air with a bright yellow light providing the lighting effects..............the sun. It rays of light stretches out like an octopus tentacles entwining us with its glory. I smile to myself, I am ready, I am ready for what waits before me.
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As we soar though the almost breathless sky comforted by the churn of the airplane engines, I marvel at the spectacle below me. It was green, green everywhere. Rich deep luscious, health colour of green. It appear as little shrubs standing on tall slender sticks. But they were trees standing proud, modeling their beautiful statue to the world around. Among this picturesque view a long, giant twisting brown artery, the river. Gushing for miles before it empties it contents into its maker. From this artery sprouts little veins, oozing their way in all directions to feed the land of much needed nourishment.
As I gazed down I notice among this god given naturalist view, brown ugly patches, uneven and rough at the edges. Like stains on a newly bleached white shirt, It spoilt this heavenly view. Sadly I realized, that this was man's creation. In the search for greed and riches we hacked away our birth right, our inheritance for the future and for our children. With this in mind I ponder and wonder will we also destroy what I believe is one of the seven wonders of the world?
The rhythmic beat of the plane has changed and I feel the contents of my stomach rise up as if to erupt like a volcano spouting its lava. However I compensated this moment and can now feel the plane turning steeply. I look out of my window but can only see those cotton wools again. I turned to look through the opposite window but only saw the back of the head of a fellow passenger. My heart beat has quicken, could this be the moment I have been waiting for all my life? The plane has now straighten and leveled out. I hastily glanced through my window .............. and grasped.
There it was appearing slowly from view. Among an evergreen vegetation which holds the secrets of most of the world's medicine, a long twisting, turning river, the Potaro river. Brown in colour it rushed forward fiercously taking anything standing within its path towards what it seems a never ending journey. As it gathers momentum eagerly, staining its surrounding with its contents, it falls, it falls 741 feet to the hot humid depths below. As if human, it roars knowingly that the end is near. It finally hits the depths below screaming its last breathe and decapitating into minute droplets to rise to form a white mist, masking this so perfect natural spectacular. It remains, so weakened by its recent event flows slowly away, away to gather force and strength to become a river again.
There, there before me was KAIETEUR FALLS. This untouched beauty unmolested by man, created by nature and loved by those who venture to see it. This view widely unknown to the world must be mentioned and seen because I do believe that this is one of the seven wonders of the world.