Hotel El Teleferico Merida

... 2 liter bottle of water is $.70! Can you believe that it is cheaper to fill your car's tank than it is to have a drink of water! So crazy. I don't understand it! You can imagine that this means EVERYONE drives around here. There are cars everywhere for such a tiny place. I think in a few years the pollution in Venezuela is going to be horrific ...

... lying savannah plains of Los Llanos are all available. We thought about doing Los Llanos but as we did the Pantanal in Brazil, which is similar, so we decided against it, but most people we spoke to that have done it thougt it was incredible - they even saw Anacondas, which might be a reason in itself to go, or not. One of the great things about Merida is that it has an ice-cream shop, Heladeria Coromoto, that holds the world record for number of flavours, nearly 1 ...

... meteorological phenomenon, so I included below a link to a website that talks about it. The most interesting and important fact about Catatumbo however is that this phenomenon alone is responsible for about 3% of the annual ozone production on earth and therefore can be considered as one of the main individual regenerators of the ozone layer on the planet. Fascinating, ain't it. It was a bizarre (but not necessary unpleasant ...

... The landscape shifted from green and rich to desert like with cacti to the rocky peaks. I ended up overtaking a group of Colombians....as my mule was stuborn as hell...and had to be in front of all others. In the end we all journeyed together...quite an experience, as one of the Colombians´ was crazy - he kept on singing, making donkey sounds and shouting "Yeahah........taka taka taka tak"......and then trying to race in front of my mule. This ...

... houses, sweeping hillsides and a handful of pigs, cows and mules every half kilometre or so. After an hour and a half we finally arrived at the tiny village of Los Nevados. We stayed in a large but rustic posada,as guest houses are called, which included breakfast and dinner in the price and had, the best thing after a long day walking, hot, hot water. At dinner we met a young family who live in a small sailboat. They love to travel so the idea appealed, but they ...

... ked sme ho stretli cestou na stanicu. Cesta pralesom bola podla mojho nazoru menej dobrodruzna ako cesta taxikom tam, hudba hrala naplno, ludia prijemni, pohoda lesy :) V Maracay sme si kupili listky do Meridy v najkomfortnejsom type autobuse (Bus Cama) s polohovatelnymi sedackam ktore sa daju zlozzit do takmer vodorovnej polohy. Cesta do Meridy trvala asi 13 hodin, prebiehala by pokojne a nudne keby cestou nepristupil skolsky vylet ...

... and step into the cold water. Along the route we navigate 3 waterfalls, 1 of 10 meters, 1 of 20m and the final one of 35m. Not particularly high, but difficult due to being wet and getting wetter as we absail down under the water, cascading off the top. Along the way there are natural water slides, high rocks to jump off, into pools below - these pools look really shallow and with rocks either side, Rachel is a little warry of jumping off, so ...

... Sara: ¨You´re not moving there, don´t be ridiculous.¨ Me: ¨It´s a catchy title though, you gotta admit.¨ So, after another long jeep ride back to Merida, Sara and I do what days ago would´ve seemed unfathomable. We go to a Venezuelan bank machine, take out 1,000,000 bolivares -- at a rate of 2100 bolivares to $1 US, that´s almost $500, with black market cash, it wouldn´t even be $300 -- and book the more expensive ...

Phew! It's been a while since we updated this so there are quite a few entries to go through I would suggest reading a couple of entries at a time so as not to get too bored/ told off for not working/go screenblind. Arrived back at the posada safe and sound and a perhaps a little later than originally planned as we made a few extra stops on the way back for some of the people on the tour who wanted to get off at different places. As we had arrived to the posada post 7pm there was nobody ...

... 4 hours in total including travel time instead of the whole day as we had anticipated. It was all very nice but incredibly small. I´m thoroughly enjoying the fact that I have nothing bizarre or any unlucky incidents to report. We´re off to restock on booze and settle into the hammocks for the evening whilst eating our now not so fresh food from last night. I´m not even sure if it is possible to eat dinner whilst in a hammock but I´m sure going to try...