Hosteria & Spa La Sevillana Merida

<br><br><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br><br>7th July 2009<br>Hotel Suize, Merida, Venezuela (90 bfs)<br>cool and windy<br><br><br><br>We travelled overnight from Maracay on<br>one of the express buses. The way it works here is that you go to<br>the bus station, a tout picks you up and takes you to a booth where<br>that company are selling tickets for particular journeys. They all<br>appear to charge the same price and they are all of the double ...

... 11.30am bus. Next one is at 1pm. Its the same driver as before which means 6 hour trip. On the way Alexander realises his wallet is no longer in his zipped trouser pocket. Somewhere between paying for the San Antonio-San Cristóbal bus and this bus it has disappeared. ID card, ATM card, ISIC card, 320Bfs we changed on the bridge (~50 Euro) and the safety box key in our Posada. It could have been worse. We had 2hrs to calm down and think about ...

... cute artesan towns abound with stalls stuffed with their special crafts; pottery, leather, copper, wood, textiles, hammocks, oils, vinegars, preserves, honey, you name it and it will be in some hard working talented persons meagre display. A nice diversion from the road and the ever so enveloping jungle. Merida is one of the few cities that are worth the effort but on the decent and ascent one feasts on the real beauty. The ...

... really comfortable and there are so many places to chill out in and around the house and garden. We stayed 2 nights and I would recommend it anyone. Sadly though it was soon time to leave as we were rapidly running out of US dollars, so we headed north ready to cross the border into Columbia/ This time our overnight bus wasn't the coldest, just the noisiest! The bus left at 9pm and they put on a 6 in 1 dvd of ...

... Doh!). I'd rustled up as many dollars as I could (apparently you can double your money on the black market with the $....some people said triple but again its not true) but forgot to change some. It was too early to change anywhere so using a taxi driver as a guide I got him to find me a dodgy money dealer back in Colombia (yes, we had to drive through customs again) and changed the minimum needed ($1 got me 4,500 Bolivars). And so after getting my money sorted out and catching a bus ...

... game which they mananged to win despite only having 6 men as Homero got a red card for shouting abuse at the umpire. Post match Venezualian Gatorade supplied by one of the team also known as beer and Homero brought a new meaning to drink driving as he enjoyed a beer on the way home from the match. That evening we went to a BBQ hosted by the opposition and again Garvo and Homero enjoyed a beer or two and Carly enjoyed a few Rons ...

... staying longer in places and just chilling out, which after a while gets a little old. I am happy I finally made it to South America, even though I only made it to a few places I am already looking forward to making it back here in a few years to do Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Well that´s a couple years down the road am just looking forward to getting back to Florida and planning my next trip for this summer --- African Safari.

... we ended up in TGIF's, (the ominous American chain, Thank God It's Friday!) which was conveniently located from our hotel, a five minute walk away. We didn't do it for ourselves, we did it for Anu, promise! We could not go back to her with a straight face, having not visited TGIF's in Venezuela. So we went and ate and drank and made merry! All the while thinking that our flight was at a reasonable hour of 1230 the next day. Oh how wrong we were! So we ...

... 5 30 am...there were hundreds of joggers jogging through this park...5 30 in the morning!!! craziness....yeah and they were looking at us as if we were nuts.....canadienses locas...pero si esta bien y we found our campsite finally....and we´ve set up next to a group of columbians who seem really awesome.....oh boy....and we have almost finished registering for the conference...although hay tanta gente ...

... spoke english *nd told gre*t stories. We he*rd *ll *bout the mudslides of 2000 *nd s*w much of the destruction they left. We s*w one p*rticul*rily s*d site where the government refused to ev*cu*te * collection of homes for the ment*lly ill *nd "psychologic*l p*tients" *nd the homes were completely destroyed *nd covered in rocks *nd mud; needless to s*y, nobody survived. According to our tour guide there w*s to be *n election the next d*y, the d*y the mudslides hit, *nd the ...