Of course, local people had known it long before. They called it Churún Merú — after the Churún River on which it stands. Another name was Aparamay or Apemey, which means “maiden’s eyebrow”.
But in 2009, Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez — a fierce fighter against American imperialism — renamed the waterfall Kerepakupai Merú. After all, that pilot was an American.
Angel Falls (aka Kerepakupai Merú) is the highest waterfall on the planet. Its official height is 979 metres. The water first drops 172 metres over a ledge, then free-falls a full 807 metres.
The waterfall lies deep in the jungles of Bolívar State, inside Canaima National Park. It’s fed by the Churún River, which flows across the Guiana Highlands and plunges off Auyán-tepui Mountain.
Because of the enormous height, the water never hits the ground — it turns into mist in mid‑air. You can feel that mist from miles away. Down below, the mist settles and becomes the Kerep River.
On Venezuelan maps, the waterfall was written in Spanish as Salto Ángel — “Angel’s Leap”. But as I said, it’s not about angels. It’s about the pilot.
Jimmy Angel (full name: James Crawford Angel) wasn’t actually the first to discover it. He just told the world about it. The very first recorded discovery was made back in 1910 by Ernesto Sánchez La Cruz. Yet his finding caused no stir. The world’s highest waterfall remained unknown.
Until this Jimmy‑Juan fellow — tough as nails — showed up. He flew over the jungle in his plane, hunting for diamonds.
Later it turned out that the locals who tipped him off had mistaken ordinary quartz for diamonds. And the Guiana Highlands are full of quartz — it’s everywhere.
Still, the fortune hunter kept flying. He never found diamonds — but he did find that breathtaking waterfall. The one that would later make the name Angel famous for decades.
Other pilots had flown here before, but the vast territory, the remoteness and the constant thick clouds kept even such a giant hidden from their eyes.
After discovering the falls, Angel’s plane broke down on the way back. He and his companions had to walk back through the jungle — it took eleven days.
Once he reached civilisation, his first act was to report his find to the American Geographical Society. That’s why the waterfall was named after him.
But it was only sixteen years later, in 1949, that the falls were thoroughly explored and measured — by a joint expedition of the American Geographical Society and the Venezuelan government.
Jimmy Angel had tried to explore the falls earlier, in 1937, but that expedition went badly. His plane landed on a marshy patch and sank with all the equipment. The men managed to escape with their lives.
Angel spent his last years in Venezuela and died in 1956. By his own wish, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered over Angel Falls.
The very plane from which he first saw the wonder lay in the jungle for thirty‑three years. Later it was found, moved to the city of Maracay, restored… and today you can see it in Ciudad Bolívar.
