Hotel Gran Balcon Merida

... group, Ruth, was dragged along the ground on take off, so she is pretty bruised and cut up from that.. not too nice! After the paragliding we all had a new years eve traditional Venezuelan meal which was lovely, and then we partied the night away in the park opposite the hostel. It was the best new years I think I have ever had! Here in Venezuela, people can just by fire crackers and fireworks from street vendors, so throughout the day and night you can hear huge ...

... would creep in and cool the 24 degree air, it was bliss. Fortunately the last 15km is by road and all downhill, sweeping swiftly down the mountain twisting and turning around hairpin bends that the Italian coast would have been proud of. The views were spectacular. We came down so fast that you could feel the temperature increase as we dropped over 2,000 metres through the scattered clouds into bright sunshine. We arrived in the settlement of San Juan, which has ...

... is characterized for being an almost continued lightning, that takes place in clouds of great vertical development forming electrical arcs between the 2 and the 10 kilometers of height (or more) as the tradewinds penetrate in the surface of the Lake in hours of afternoon (when the evaporation is greater) and they are forced to promote by the mountainous system of Perijá and the mountain range of Venezuelan the $andes. So that the ...

... was a sports teacher. Equipped with helmets and wetsuits, we hiked down into the canyon for about 20mins until we reached the start of the river..which at that point was welcomingly cool. We then started to walk through the river itself...over the rocks and rapids...sliding and toboganning down the larger rocks...until we got to the first waterfall of 7m. With the rappelling gear secured, I started my descent down the fall...The worst part was the ...

... way it works is strangely predictable. In the evenings, at around 7pm lightning often starts in an arc between the west and north west. This lightning tends to be reddish and it was the night we were there too. There were no bolts of lightning but there would be a pulse lighting the sky orange. The regularity of this lightning is such that it became known as the Catatumbo lighthouse and the Spanish apparently navigated by it. Its regularity is ...

... kupili listky, ziadna moznost rezervacie neexistuje a kedze sme boli na dovolenke, rano o 4 tej sa nam vstavat nechcelo :) Taktiez sme sa trochu bali vyskovej nemoci a tepleho oblecenia sme tiez vela so sebou nemali.. Aspon sa mame este preco do Meridy vratit, je uplne ina ako zvysok Venezuely, kriminalita je aj tam tiez vysoka, ale nie az tak ako v inych mestach ale je predsa len viac turisticky zamerana, daju sa tam dokonca kupit pohladnice :-0

... relaxing - we are the only ones booked on the rafting so no problem cancelling it. We book to do an evening Paraglyding off some nearby mountains for the following evening. After changing hostels and sleeping in a room with carpet on the walls and a choice of either cold or freezing cold water in the shower we head out late afternoon for the paraglyding. Merida is meant to be one of the best places in the world for it, due to almost guarenteed ...

... Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, personally. Midway through the long van ride (we upgraded from a jeep), we stop for lunch. And as Cesar takes our orders, I wonder where else on earth would a respected frog expert and environmental conservationist be taking my lunch order. ¨Hey frog boy, I wanted a Coke, not a Pepsi, hop back there and get it right this time!¨ The situation´s absurd, but then again, we´re on our way to a stilted ...

... told us was that they bought a van in Brazil and drove around in it for a couple of months. At the mention of her mobile travels my eyes began to light up and even though her story of it included how it broke down and buggered up their plans to travel further I could already picture myself in denim dungarees with a generously sized monkey wrench in my hand, some artfully placed grease stains about my bronzed Adonis like body, like those 80's Athena posters of random mechanics (and like ...

... whilst my micro fibre fleece, sleeping bag and silk sheet were all carefully packed away in the baggage compartment and eye up the Venezualans who were savvy enough to wear ski jackets and bring blankets. Luckily Andy had brought along his fleece jumper, large travel towel and his windstopper jacket which I found most useful, though I am not that mean and did leave him the windstopper :o) Within 10 minutes of leaving the station the driver started playing the movie ...