Hotel Tisure Merida

... to find a posada, quite likely one of the last rooms in town, considering how long it took to find a place. Things slowed down after a couple of days, and we were able to find somewhere a little more economical. Brief history blurb: When Bolivar's army left Merida to recruit additional soldiers, the Spanish invaded. Merida's women were able to fend off the Spaniards in the mountain pass using cannons until Bolivar's army returned and ...

... from Venezuela. No-one knows why and how on earth the banks know your passport number is also a mystery. 1984. So far our impression of Venezuela has been that of a very civilised country with really friendly people, many of which speak a little English. You stand in queues in shops and people will strike up conversations with you while you wait, it is really nice. Many will start up about their political situation and it seems to be a real love hate thing with Chavez.

... the surrounding towns, hot springs and a condor rehab facility as well as quaffing the ridiculously tiny 200 ml bottles of Venezuela's Polar beer (their reasoning is it stays colder longer that way). I took a ride up the telefrico to the blustery and snowy peak, a shade under 5000 meter, named Simon Bolivar (who else). We than trekked back to Merida via an isolated mountain village known as Los Nevados that looks exactly as it did ...

... back to write my journal with the spare time we had. Beers at pubs here range inbetween 1,500 Bolivares and 2,500 Bolivares. (35c to 75c). Friday night, Carnival starts for a week. Everywhere in South America this week is celebrated and bullfighting is everywhere. Im not particulary fond of it, as I disagree with putting the bulls through such agony. Alot of anti bullfighting art is everwhere on the street. Looking forward to some of La Fiesta's!!! Ciao!

... matches and rum. The walk back to Olge´s place alone was stunning. The sun was golden just before it was about to set....and there was hardly a sound to be heard. There was nobody to be seen on my 30min walk back to their house...aside from a couple of cows and mules. After watching the sunset from the hill above the house, Olge returned with her neighbour. Originally Italian, and married to a Venezuelan for 35 yrs, she was now living with her ...

... you have to drink for the rest of the week! Monday 29th October 2007 - Day 140 Unfortuntely for Homero he had to go to work so he left us to look after ourselves so we headed out to a local cafe for breakfast. We ordered food but the place was so busy we decided to eat our food whilst it was warm before trying to pay for it, as they have this crazy system where you have to get your order written up on a white board by the baker ...

... and then got a bus back to Savana Grande, looked some more, had lunch etc, then I realised I didnt even have money for a hotel anyway (food and taxis here are about the same price as Sydney, so I didnt have much left). But of course, I didnt have my trav cheques with me, and couldnt figure out the ATMs. I tried about 3 more ATMs, which meant I had to input my pin about 10 times in total. I was getting very frustrated and worried at this point, and so I wasnt as cautious as I ...

The last part of my journey which leads me through Venezuela has begun on the 2nd of July with one of the highlights at the airport of Caracas as I could finally hug my boyfriend again. Que emocion after 2 months of distance!! In Caracas we had a 3 day hard-core induction into Venezuela culture between Shopping in the Centro de artesania Hansi, enjoying Ceviche on the roof bar of the Centro de ...

... normal 4 timer, men paa grund af en oodelangt bro, maate vi over bjergene og vores tur blev yderligere forlaenget med 7 timer. Saa da vi naaede campen var kl 04 om natten. Dvs. 09 dansk tid. Selv om vi var 10 mennesker klemt inde i en varm bil fyldt med bagage, tog vi hele turen med godt humoer. De andre i gruppen virker super soede, saa vi skal nok komme til at faa det sjovt.

... disturbed *nd disrupted some Venezuel*ns who were there before us. I h*ve never before felt so completely intrusive *nd *wful, but everyone else seemed oblivious to it. I think the w*terf*ll w*s re*lly pretty, but it would h*ve been nicer if we h*dn't been there. Another thing th*t I found difficult during the trip w*s seeing * monkey on * ch*in *t the pl*ce we *te lunch. It w*sn't the ch*in th*t disturbed me, but the f*ct th*t everyone w*s h*ndling the monkey, getting bitten ...