Cabanas Micata Merida

... bizarre furry foliage, glacial lakes and mysterious clouds drifting across the scene

- heaving myself uphill (altitude is exhausting!) to reach a stunning thermal hotspring - 38 degrees! A hotspot for the locals on a Sunday afternoon and a wonderful place to take in the mountain views

- reaching the beautiful city of Merida, for some proper down time after a hectic travelling ...

... the warm air on the lake. It´s only in this region of the world, and only for 4 months a year so we were pretty lucky the tour hit Merida at a good time. A local tour guide (such a hard case and Venezuelan equivalent of David Attenborough!) picked us up on Sunday morning and took us out onto the lake and we stayed on a stilt house out in the middle of the lake which took 3 hours to get to on a speed boat. We were treated to a perfect view of the ...

Today we had a slow start as I hadnt much energy. Even Alexander was slightly affected by a few forkfulls of my pasta :( Alexander fixed the camera, we brought our clothes to the laundry and caught a bus to Tabay to visit the hot springs. We figured it would ease the muscle ache from horse riding. After a 1km hike uphill, we found a place that might be a thermal baths but the gate was closed. We continued ...

Hi from Merida!!! Merida is a mid-size venezuelian city in the Andes, by far the nicest place we saw since the begining of the trip! Very charming, in the middle of the mountains, with a much better security than in other places here in Venezuela... I like it! ;-) Back in times for a few days: after Isla de Margarita, we went to la peninsula de Araya, which is located between Cumana and la Isla de Margarita. The peninsula is way less touristic, and thus much prettier, than the other ...

So after five eventful and exciting weeks in Colombia, we decided it was a good idea to spend some time inVenezuela since we fly out of Caracas anyway. After a normal bus to the border, we crossed in an old, 1980´s style Cevrolet car, really a junker, similar to the white trash cars you see on COPS all the time. A strange experience. This car took us and three Venezuelans to Maracaibo, a large and oppressive city on the coast. We got dropped off at the bus terminal ...

... walk around in the foggy and chilly streets of Merida (this is a real mountain resort) and settled for a cheap and cheerful burger dinner and then to my room for some blog updates and travel planning. I have now booked my hostel bed for the Rio Carnival at the ridiculous and extortionate price of $70 a night? (am I mad?). Sneaky buggers, you have to stay a minimum of 7 nights. But, its always been a dream of mine to go to the carnival and it runs from 31st Jan to 5th of Feb so ...

... our fair share of down hill and Carly was a little nervous when our guide thought we were good enough to go down the old road but told us we needed to be very careful as it had some dangerous sections which was an understatement and on the last section Carly resorted to using her feet to slow herself down. Down at the bottom our guide treated us to an ice cold beer which was the perfect end to a fantastic day.

... cartoon-like lightning bolts, our expectations get lower, leading us to say things along the lines of: ¨That one lit up the clouds really well,¨ or ¨That`s been the third flash in the last 10 minutes, awesome!!¨ While continuing to gaze hopefully at the sky, we`re startled by a splash behind us. ¨What was that?¨ Sara asks. ¨Someone went to the bathroom,¨ I reply. ¨No, it wouldn`t just go in the water.¨ ¨We`re in the middle ...

... to 5768 metres. There are 4 stations on the way up where you have to get off and get the next one up. Sky is clear and conditions look good but as we get near the top the wind is blowing v hard. View is fantastic of the valley and surrounding mountains and is well worth doing despite being quite pricey (think it was about $16 each). Outside the top there is snow and ice and one of the station ...

... next. I put on the helmet and harness, and the instructor clipped me to his harness. We were stood on a grassy outcrop, at the edge of what I might dramatically call, "a friggin big mountain". It sloped down gently for about 5m, before becoming steeper, and then disappearing into nothing. I was given instructions on what to do with my hands ("hold here") and what to do when the time came ("run off the edge"). The instructor tugged at the wing to catch the wind ...