Posada La Casona de Margot Merida

... 1.2 km in altitude, up to 4200 m. I've got to stop going on these hikes; they hurt. The first day of the hike was through an incredible cloud forest with cascading bamboo plants, palms, ferns taller than ourselves and everything covered in epiphytes. There were flowers everywhere, and we would find the odd avacado on our path. Our first campsite was next to Laguna Coromoto in a transition zone. The second day of the hike began with a hugely ...

... s, and ship wreck´s, but the best part is we part are buts on a very remote islands in the middle of no were. were the ocean was Cristal blue and the sand was so whit, it was like i was on a post card, we spent the hole day there, i really got to know some people quit well, we ended back to the hostel around 5pm, it gets dark early here. What a great day that was!, the following day, we got bake on to the truck heading to a ...

... market crashed by 50% from $1x6Blv to $1x3Blv, solidifying Venezuela as the worse value for money tourist proposition in South America. Merida is supposed to be hip and artistic university town perched in the foothill of the Andes. Down the alleys it is - a street artist here, a museum there. And yes, there is a mountain and my window at the home stay is facing it. For the most part however, Merida is square concrete buildings, narrow straight ...

... 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 ...

... the beans and drying the beans and husking the beans, and then they are exported for roasting. Animals We saw mostly birds on the way down the river and out to the lake. The osprey or fishing eagle was the most impressive but other raptors included vultures (yellow headed and turkey), swallow tail kite, black collared hawks, a curious falcon that feeds solely on snails. It is called a snail falcon. We also saw various wading birds, such as the ...

... a Sefan s ktorymi sme potom zazili neuveritelny vylet do nizinatej krajiny Los Llanos. V Meride je jedna uzasna atrakcia, najdlhsia lanovka na svete, respektive do najvyssej nadmorskej vysky n kopec Pico Espejo (4765 m). (http://www.telefericodemerida.com/ ) Z neho sa da potom pesou turou dostat na najvyssiu horu Venezuely, ako inak menom Pico Bolivar (5007m) Tam sme sa bohuzial nedostali, strasili nam ze treba skoro rano vstavat aby ...

... great price and head back to the hostel to rest and prepare ourselves for the busy week coming up. Canyoning begins with a hike through some harsh forest, in just our swimming shorts/suit in order to get to the river we are to canyon down - Canyoning for those who do not know is a mixture of absailing. jumping, sliding and walking along a river and waterfalls - Brilliant!!. We finally arrive at the river and get into out wetsuits, harnesses and ...

... 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 ...

... the roof terrace and bonded by swapping stories and sharing booze. There was another british couple who funnily enough also had a bottle of rum to share, and needless to say that along with two very nice guys from the US we polished off what we thought would be a weeks supply of booze (we were so naive). In a drunken flash of inspiration we remembered to consume our TMNT left over pizza, a considerable feat seeing how I was barely able to operate ...