Rain, a cancelled flight, and then the last viewpoint: Jana Alessa's Kaieteur day

Jana Alessa (jabsjourneys on TikTok) is a German traveller working her way through every country in the world. In her video she calls Kaieteur one of the craziest day trips of her life, and it's a good, honest look at how much luck is involved.

The flight that almost didn't happen

As she explains, you can't drive to Kaieteur: you fly about an hour in a small plane. In her experience the flights mostly run at weekends, only in good weather and only when the plane is full. On her day, the morning flight was cancelled because of rain. The group spent the morning worried they'd miss the falls completely, then got the call to go about an hour later than planned.

The flight itself was the first highlight: an hour over the Amazon rainforest, then a small runway right next to the falls.

Two viewpoints of cloud

From the airstrip it's a short walk of about 10 to 15 minutes, with birds along the way, to the first of three viewpoints. At the first two, it was raining so hard they couldn't see the waterfall at all. She admits they started to think they'd spent their money for nothing.

Then they reached the last viewpoint, and the view opened up: the full height of the falls and the sheer amount of water going over the edge. She describes it as magical and says every cent of the trip was worth it.

Good to know from her video

• Expect delays and don't give up. A cancelled morning flight doesn't always mean a cancelled day. Stay reachable and flexible.
• Rain at one viewpoint doesn't mean rain at all of them. Guides usually visit three, and conditions can change while you walk.
• It's quiet. She points out how few people visit compared with the world's famous falls. There are no ticket booths and no crowds.

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