Hotel Caribay Merida

... in Venezuela. We're back in the mountains but not sure
how high, certainly not as high as Colonia Tovar. The Suize is the
most 'backpackerish' place we've stayed so far, except we haven't
seen any backpackers yet! We've taken a room without a bathroom, in
an attempt to keep our costs down, but still this is costing 15 usd.
The lp book we have is 2007, and a new South America book is to be
published soon, I just hope they have ...

... will try arrange with other operators to make a group of 4 at least. At 700Bfs per person (~145 Euro blackmarket or ~290 Euro official rate) for 4 days/3nights, transport, accommodation, food and English speaking guide, it's ok. Its becoming clear we should have changed more money in Cúcuta. We go around to the ATM to get money and ...

Yesterday evening, a student was shot and killed at a protest in town. Just few hours before that I walked past the barricades and the burning trash piles in the middle of the street on my way to a Symphony concert. I didn't imagine it was quite that serious. Carolina had told me earlier that day that the university semester is supposed to end next week and as usual the students have started protesting. They always protest before ...

... Spezielle a Merida isch, dasses am Tag ziemlich warm isch und ide Nacht wuerkli uuu chalt wird. Mer chan go Bergstiige, Mountainbike fahre, Riverrafte, paraglide... wuerkli alles.... aber da d-eli und ich scho es bizeli mued gsi sind vom viele reise haemmer eifach mal chli entspannt und chli sache agluegt. Merida isch bekannt fuer de Grossi Maert wos da haend und det bini natuerli schier usgflippt. Mer haet vo ...

... one room house sitting on the edge of a hill with a beautiful view of the mountain peak and the valleys ahead. Without electricity, toilets...and with the kitchen and bedroom in the same place, it was like being back in time. That afternoon, we split up to run some errands. Olge was to journey it to the nearby river to fetch water.....Josh to clean up the surrounding weeds with his machete.......and I walked back to Los Nevados in search of ...

Before we left Merida, I really wanted to go up the Teleferico, which is the longest and highest cable car in the world. The four stations take you 12.5 km to the summit of Pico Espejo at 4765 metres in the Andes. We were at the bottom by the gate by 7.30am and managed to get the first ride up after eight (I have never seen a routine ticket line move so slowly). We were really lucky with the weather as it was fine and clear. It took about 45 minutes to go all the way ...

... have their pictures taken with the stupid gringos wearing T-shirts and shorts so we kindly obliged but seriously what was all the fuss about? Back down in Merida we managed to get some food inside us for the first time in a few days as we were both looking a bit on the skinny side with Garvo nicknaming Carly stickleback!Carly did retort and our tour names our now Stickleback and Skeletor!

... getting closer and closer until finally, he pulled his boat directly in front of ours, completely blocking our sunrise. I mean, we could practically reach out and touch the other boat. And it wasn´t like the lake was small, he could´ve parked anywhere. Our guide just shook his head, muttering ¨estupido,¨ before calmly moving our boat back, then pulling it right in front of theirs. It was hilarious. I kept waiting for the other ...

... en kabinelift op paa toppen af Pico Bolivar, det hoejeste punkt i Venezuela(5.007m). Saa sne for foerste gang i aar. Om eftermiddagen var det mere adventure med pendule. Pendule minder lidt om elistikspring. Vi stod paa en offenlig bro (ca. 40m) hvor man blev bundet fast i et tov og skulle kaste sig ud fra broen i en slags hovedspring. Forskellen fra elistikspring er, at tovet ikke er elastisk saa i stedet for at springe op igen, svinger man ind under broen, og ...

... that the prices here are even sillier than Caracas. Bottles of beer for about 18 pence and a nice bottle of rum for less than 2 pounds!!! You could get cheaper but I think rotgut would be too kind a term for them. Back at the Posada we settled into the hammocks on the roof terrace. I had a book to read and Lea was updating her diary. At first some gentle rain began to fall which quickly got harder and was joined by some thunder and lightning. The ...