Hotel La Terraza Merida

... much like gun shots. At night though it was amazing with people setting off their own fireworks pretty much throughout the night! The atmosphere was amazing, we had a street party with a few locals.. they supplied their car with the stereo.. and we supplied the drunken tourists attempting to salsa.. Amusement for all! I also won a bet with a fellow traveller that a few people on our tour would get together on that night.. They never paid up though. After spending ...

... only salt lagoon in the country. It is an emerald green and we eat a very late lunch by its shore and downed a few beers with our guides. From here we have been desparately trying to arrange a trip to Angel Falls, which was difficult to do outside of Venezuela. We thought we had it all organised but at the last minute it fell through due to a rubbish tour operator we liaised with, so we had to scramble around and talk to other tour companies. Eventually we have it ...

... of this phenomenon is in the orographic effect of these mountain ranges that lock up and restrain to winds of the northeast taking place clouds of great vertical development, concentrated mainly in the river basin of the Catatumbo river. This phenomenon is very easy to see from hundreds of kilometers of distance, that is to say, from the own lake (where clouds usually do not appear during the night) reason why also it is known ...

... chicken and rice, which is the typical caribbean meal. Spaghetti bolagnase tonight though - but unfortunately wont be as good as mums! In the night, Matty, Jess, some Danish guy and myself headed back to get some Ice cream, they had the wierdest flavours you could imagine! Hundreds to name, but we had a variety of things... Cerveza, Rum, Sangria, Sambucca, Cheese, Shrimp (yep, you heard right), liquor de Coco, Jurrasic park (?) and red wine. The ...

... myself for some altitude (5,000 metres) I bought a bottle of water, took some deep breaths and hopped on the car. Built by the French in 1954 the car was sturdy but old looking so I wasn't worried. To get to the amazing height of 5,000 metres it goes in 4 stages (10 minute breaks in between..I guess so people can adjust to the altitude slowly). At the start of the journey the trees and plants were big and green and as the car crept upwards the plantlife became small, alpine and ...

... swapping cable cars at each station. The top was very impressive, with the Peak of Bolivar, Venezuelan's highest, really close by and seeing the mountainside descend all the way back down to Merida. We had a delicious hot chocolate that actually tasted like liquid chocolate and wandered down from the lookout a bit. It wasn't till we wandered back up that the effect of the altitude hit me. I can't have walked more than 300 metres on a gentle slope but after a minute's ...

25th October 2007 - Day 136 (Happy Wedding Anniversary Garvo's Mum and Dad) After a breakfast fit for kings (whatever that is!) we headed to the bus station as we had planned a trip to Laguna Mucubaji which Homero's Mum had recommended we visited. According to one of the tour operators it was only an hour bus journey but after 3 hours on a bus with not a clue of where we were heading we began to wonder where on earth we were! One thing we have ...

... However, unaware of our blunder, Ingrid continues to rub the mistake in our faces. She starts describing El Congo, making it sound almost magical. In the middle of a lake, three hours by boat to the closest town, a community of 2,500 people live on stilts, some spending their entire lives there, never once seeing the rest of Venezuela, not even putting a foot on solid earth. And by the way Ingrid describes it, they ...

... to the bottom for 11.30 having stocked up at the bakery (with fantastic pastries and cakes -lethal) for lunch. We have to try hugely out of our way to get to Los Llanos (the plains were all the wildlife is) as the road has been completely washed out which is a tad annoying. Scenery on way is beautiful though through valleys with fantastic views and slightly hairy looking roads. We arrive at a ...

... quite quickly, and the view was, quite simply, amazing. We soared back and forth across the ridge to gain height, and I found it, I was very glad to discover, far more pleasant and relaxing than I´d feared. Unfortunately, soon after we were airborne, the weather deteriorated, and it started to rain. My instructor soared close to those left on the ground, and shouted that we were going to descend to the bottom of the mountain instead of landing back at the ...