Hospedaje La Florida Merida

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... a busy pub on a friday night than a shop where everyone just pushes in to be served first. Awesome. So we just did as the others did and got out of there! Anyway, we found a great little place for dinner and had local varieties of chicken (carne blanco) and steak (carne tinto) and some local wine (vino tinto). Had an early night as our Los Llanos adventure begins at 8am the next morning (Ian´s birthday)...

We decide to do a quick stop at Exito supermarket to get food, biscuits, water for the trip as we couldnt find one in Mérida before heading for the border. It was pretty much a repeat of the last time. Exit stamp, bridge walk, entry stamp on other side. They must know we went back to get money with all the stamps but how else would we survive when the ATMs are allergic to our cards! We get to the bus station in San Christóbal and have just missed ...

... not so much the city that is pretty as much as it is the inteaction of scenery and architecture, or lack of, in come cases. Then, occasionally along comes a city worth exploring. From the crossing of the Rio Orinoco we meandered through lush valleys, rustic villages like Magdellena and Guigui, busy cities like San Diego and Valencia, all with something to boast about. We can tell when we have stumbled onto the tourist trail ...

... any tours, which was a pity as they looked well organized and we really wanted to go paragliding. So we decided we would have to come back on holiday with our pockets full of US dollars and live like kings. The best way to live like a king in Merida is to check into Casa Sol, the nicest place we've stayed so far in South America. It's a beautiful guesthouse that has been put together with so much care, the beds ...

... a lot of trouble in Venezuela if I don't get this), walked across the bridge and lo and behold there is actually a Venezuelan border control office just after the bridge (just as it should be). So much for my fellow travellers and looking for an office in town. Just goes to show a lot of reports from other travellers have to be taken with a bucket of salt. As I was about to get a colectivo (minibus) to the main bus terminal in San Antonio I realised I didn't have any Venezuelan ...

... on buses, world´s highest teleferico not working. Traveller´s Tip: OHS isn´t really SA´s strong point: Scenario- Picture yourself being **** scared, already harnessed over a 35m waterfall drop with pounding water at the bottom and needing to swim through rough, strong water once you get to the bottom. Guide- ¨Can you swim?¨

... I decide to pry some information out of our tour guide Ingrid. ¨Does it look like a good day to see lightning?¨ ¨Yes, I think so.¨ ¨Will those clouds be a problem?¨ ¨Yes, maybe.¨ The whole day`s like this. I try to get information from Ingrid, but with every question, I get rebuffed, redirected or rewarded with a useless answer. I have to find out if we´re seeing lightning. It`s the only reason we even went on this excursion ...

... heavily by the time we reached La Puerta, and the clouds had completely obscured any view of the surrounding hills. We booked into a small posada and explored the village on foot, huddled together under one giant umbrella. Surely the skies would clear by morning, and we could set out on one of the most picturesque drives in the Venezuelan highlands. We unfortunately awoke to a continuing drizzle, and thick clouds had settled on ...

Staying an extra week in Santa Elena enabled us to find some cheap flights from Puerto Ordaz to Caracas, cutting our journey to Merida down to 2 x 12 hour bus rides instead of 3. The night bus to Merida from Caracas stopped at about 4am for tea break, and I got chatting to a tennis instructor from Caracas called Adrian, while Andrea dozed on the bus. We arrived in Merida, a small town dwarfed by the Andes that surround it, as the sun was climbing, and went for ...