Photos

These are three of the six waterfalls that plunge into the Canaima Lagoon. The cloudy skies of an approaching storm covered the sun in an instant. Soon it felt like late afternoon. The sunny skies were covered by a huge cloud that arrived from the Amazonian forest of Brazil loaded with water that would feed the tea colored streams of this 6 million acre national park. The foam that is brooded by the water falls is from saponine, a chemical substance like soap, that is found in the leafs of tropical plants as a defence from herbivoirs. The tea color of the water is from tanins which serve as another chemical defense of tropical plants. As the leafs decay the rains wash the substance into the streans adding color to CANAIMA's Rivers.