Estancia San Francisco Merida

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... After booking our tour for the next morning, we wandered into town during the evening and found that shopping for groceries was going to be a new experience... You have to ask the squint lady behind the counter for whatever you need in your best non-spanish and hope she understands, then she hands you a piece of cardboard with a price scribbled on it which you take to another counter to pay. It´s more ...

... has his own time agenda which involves collecting his daughters from daycare! We arrive back in Mérida around 5pm and check into the Posada la Montaña again. It has been raining here too and has cooled to 22 degrees. Its good to have a hot shower in private surroundings again. We go out to La Mamma restaurant and have pasta pesto and a calzone pizza. Pesto and I are not friends at 3am! The toilet and I get quite intimate!

Venezuela has big cities where most of the population lives while the mostly wild countryside evidences a spattering of people, but where people leave off nature takes over. We managed to avoid most big cities but had to endure the trek through a few. We maintain that cities are attractive only from a distance. Looking down upon their creative sprawl from some winding road is by far our favorite way to enjoy a city. Even then, it ...

... of course checking out the food. It was just by our guesthouse that we discovered the best burger. Costing just over a quid, this was a triple decker spectacular which included the genius addition of fries in the burger. Heavenly. Because the strange money situation in Venezuela (you can't take any money from the ATM as you would only get half what you would changing dollars in the street) we couldn't really ...

... the bridge comes a small town called San Antonio (sounds nice but it is in fact a dump). In San Antonio I have to find a small office which is the Venezuelan border office (which going by reports from fellow travellers is a ******* to find). Also, the road from San Cristobal to Merida is famous for military searches (for drugs I presume and the scary strip searches). Well, all things considered it all went pretty smoothly. I caught a cab to the bridge, sorted out my Colombian exit ...

... because of wind conditions, the AFL grandfinal not being on cable tv, seeing a bad traffic accident involving a school bus, motorcycle, truck and spilled petrol, getting harrassed crazily while changing buses during 36 hours of bus rides, eating deep fried cheese filled pastries for breakfast and dinner, polar fleece ...

... that they perched their houses on top of. Sounds pretty cool, and it was, but the whole excursion just seemed like an excuse to sell us handicrafts. Way too touristy. So, this time we`ll stick to seeing the lightning, thanks. The jeep ride from Merida to Lake Maracaibo is a long, all day process, but something we know we won´t have to do again and something we know will be completely worth it once it gets dark. To pass the time ...

... across the exceptionally hot and humid central plain, all the time anticipating the cooler mountainous temperatures ahead. The transformation appeared to be evident within minutes of beginning the climb towards Trujillo - the humidity disappeared, and we entered into a terrain of lush vegetation. Superb views, colourful flowers, coffee bushes laden with berries, and vivid hillside villages all added to the intrigue of the ascent. It was ...

... The tour guide was called Roger and he described our itinerary with pretty good English only slipping up when described Los Llanos as a Pandora's box I hope it was a mistake because according to the Greek legend it contained all the woes and hatred of the world and the only thing that remained inside after it was opened was hope. Pretty bleak story, I only hope it was just a bad misquotation and not a literal reference. Still I'm pretty sure the tour will be lovely.