Hotel Parque Turistico Apartaderos Merida

... got me and Luke to give him some numbers so he could play the lotto! He´s going to share the winnings.. so fingers crossed! That night we slept outside in hammocks.. Ooo and we ate pirahana for dinner! And the next day we went wildlife watching again and fished for pirahana.. I caught one but didn´t want to touch it.. The teeth are scary! Well this is enough for now! I saw Angel falls yesterday which is the longest waterfall in the world.. but that can wait until next time!

... cash until it appears in their account, as we are not here for that long in Merida we couldn't do it so are left paying the official costs for everything. Worse still we have had an absolute nightmare trying to use cash machines in Venezuela. Half don't work and a lot of the others don't seem to like to take forieign cards. After nearly 2 hours of walking around we eventually found one that worked, Banco Mercantil. Thank god as we had no way of raising any money ...

... they would not have the same time as the US. The people seem genuinely pleased with the revolution, though many question the idea of bringing the revolution outside the borders to continue the work of Simon Bolivar who failed at the same idea 200 years ago. (every town square has been named Simon Bolivar an the official name of the country was changed a few years ago to República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Hugo is a fan). Passing ...

... quite amazing. This place however is alot higher and made Merida look like a mere few dots far far below. A beautiful first view of the Andes ranges, disapearing into the distance in every direction. By the time we were down I was nearly asleep, but boiling hot in my thermals I was wearing. Lunch produced its ever so loving hour! Jess being an extreme vegitarian cant even look at us eating meat, so she left and matty and myself dug into some ham and a ...

... 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 ...

... gradually changing landscape as we descended. In places it didn't look that different to New Zealand. Another surprise was seeing tiny humming birds, which I didn't expect to see in a alpine setting. We had been told it was a four-hour walk but after three we asked the mule drivers how far to go when they passed and they said two hours.That got us walking faster, thinking we would never get there. It was a beautiful valley we walked alongside. Very steep with small ...

22nd October 2007 - Day 133 We arrived in Merida and Carly was still not feeling tip top and so the 3km walk uphill was not the most pleasurable experience but we quickly found a place to stay with our own bathroom which was a good job as Garvo soon suffering too with the squits and had to make a dash out of a tour agency and run to the loo-oh dear! 23rd October 2007 - Day 134 The next day ...

... grass by the mountains and suddenly, bam, they`re surrounded by water on some kind of farm animal Alcatraz. Noticing that we´re bummed out about not being able to see the village, Ingrid tries to cheer us up, telling us that our tour´s much better than the last one she did. Apparently, nobody in the group could sleep because the guy in the stilted house next door was playing loud music all night. Unbelievable. Imagine, moving to ...

... har vaeret i stykker siden koebet, saa vi skulle koerer i den gode gamle jeep/minibus - "The white *****" som vi kalder den. Den havde selvfoelgelig startproblemer, men efter nogle skub var den igang. Det varede kun omkring 4-5 timer foer det begyndte at lugte maerkeligt inde i bilen, og det osede ud med noget meget mistaenkeligt roeg - Bremserne var roeget!!! Derfor fik vi en bonus overnatning paa hotel. Efter at " the white *****" havde besoegt den lokale ...

... his somewhat undiplomatic french way. "You must have had a big lunch then" I replied curtly "If I say I´m 10 stone, then I´m 10 stone" and went back to trying to take photos of the valley with my feet in them. At the bottom, Andrea landed first, and lots of local kids were ready to help with packing up the gear, which was quite sweet. She was a little shaky, but had enjoyed it, although perhaps not keen to take me up on my suggestion of learning to paraglide ...