Posada La Montana Merida

... sighting. At about 3200m within a forest-paramo transition ecotone, we clearly spotted a listless capped heron. Both the altitude and habitat were completely wrong for this bird (this would be a 1000m altitudinal sighting record for this bird); it was sombering to see. Meanwhile, hummingbirds zipped around everywhere, and we were able to spot the bearded helmetcrest a number of times. It's a unique-looking hummingbird that feeds on insects ...

... place called Merida. Merida is a Beautiful city much cleaner, you can tell people have more money here, ainything you want they have it here.Its a city nestled in a Vally surrounded by huge mount en´s. I had the best New year´s here,we went for a great authentic Spanish diner, then ended up having drink´s in a local PARC and dancing till early in the morning with the local´s.I forgot to tell you i went paragliding on ...

... with tiny sidewalks, arranged in a perfect grid and busy with huge American cars and people going about their business. It feels polluted. There are small red plastic stools on random corners offering mobile calls. Four or five plastic mobiles lay on the table, chained with long shiny chain usually to an umbrella above - just in case I suppose. There are run down Arrepas (local specialty) and Enpanadas shops. Copy services are advertised ...

... my mule to start running ahead too....which my behind really did not appreciate! Especially not for 5 hrs!! The Colombian guy then decided he wanted to change money with me...but at half the rate. He didn´t understand that I meant "no" when I said it...so for the final 30 mins of the journey I had to ignore his pleas. Finally making it to the teleferico, it took me about 25 minutes to descend all the way to Merida in the world´s longest cable car...

... then take it to the cashier to ring in. Any ideas of Carly's Spanish improving were washing away when she was given the task of getting the order written up but ended up confusing the poor man behind the counter which resulted in him giving us another breakfast each! In the midst of all this people were going crazy grabbing cartons of milk and Garvo grabbed a large cartoon when a lady asked if he liked milk assuming they must be ...

... 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

... anyone like the rest of the bunch seems to be. Sue: Only chica my age, but I am so glad to have a girl around I can relate to. She´s got mad style and is very sweet - is a Nanny back home in England. This is my tent buddy and roommate now so no more sharing with smelly boys! Woohoo! Kristina and Erik: Swedish couple, very nice, generally quiet, but have good sense of humor. Glad to have them around. Steve, Garreth, Brad, David and Alan: These are ...

... Colon (from where all the football matches are transmissioned), having Arepas and Cachapas in the middle of the celebrating Italy fanclub, visiting the Galeria de arte nacional and the Museo de arte moderno and doing some Shoe-Shopping. I must say Gogo has really done a good job in impressing me with organising fire-works (for the Americans on the 4th of July and for the South-American ...

Hoy fue mi primer dia oficial en Venezuela. Cindy y su prima me llevaron a conocer la ciudad y terminamos en el Mall. Lo pase buenisimo, hace mucho calor pero creo que me voy a acostumbrar. Espero por que todavia me quedan mas de 3 semanas. La gente es demasiado amable. Me han tratado muy bien.

... didn't seem to c*re *bout their bites or the monkey's obvious *nd incre*sing distress. It w*s re*lly upsetting, to those of us who noticed. R*chel got * video of it *nd it could re*lly qu*lify *s *nim*l *buse the w*y they're m*nh*ndling *nd tossing *round the poor cre*ture. L*ter *t supper we *ctu*lly ended up sitting with * nurse who got re*lly p*nicky *bout the monkey bites especi*lly when she he*rd th*t the *nim*l th*t g*ve them w*s *cting str*ngely. So we did our best to ...