Posada San Rafael del Paramo Merida

... and the sword-billed hummingbird, the hummingbird with the longest bill on the world; the bearded bellbird was a treat; in one day in the llanos we saw 6 species of ibises and at least 8 different herons. Of all the birds I have seen so far however I think the Great Potoo was by far the coolest. I (Pierre) have been looking for one of these since we started our trip and I was not disappointed. This has to be one of the neatest type of bird camouflage ever.

... money for the bus fare out of the country..most frustrating. I was told that the black market gives good rates simply because all the rich people are scared that at some point Chavez will just confiscate everyones money in banks and therefore is hoarding Pesos and Dollars. Obviously there's a bunch of money laundering going on too. Venezuela is a very interesting place which I would like to visit again when I have enough time to see it properly. I only hope they ...

... to climb up there" and I agree but know I would probs die of exhaustion along the way.... The hostel is really nice, as are the people in it. At breakfast on the 1st morning, Imo and I got chatting with this old german man who describes himself as a "professional vagabond" (which obvs makes him a hero), and has apparently been "vagabonding all over the world since ´95" (his words!). Best of all, his name is Ruddolf. We have decided we want to do ...

... the bridge comes a small town called San Antonio (sounds nice but it is in fact a dump). In San Antonio I have to find a small office which is the Venezuelan border office (which going by reports from fellow travellers is a ******* to find). Also, the road from San Cristobal to Merida is famous for military searches (for drugs I presume and the scary strip searches). Well, all things considered it all went pretty smoothly. I caught a cab to the bridge, sorted out my Colombian exit ...

... like some kind of hebe. The colour scheme was similar to the Central Plateau. I was surprised to see hummingbirds. It took longer than we had thought but we finally got to Los Nevados and stayed at a very poorly built place with a beautiful view over a very steep valley (on which the tiny township perches precariously), and which included dinner and breakfast and - this rarest of things - a hot shower for $20. Hot water is fast moving to the top of my list of 'things ...

... Chavez dreams of. A pretty historic day for Venezuela so I hunted round to get a photo of people voting. The next morning we found out it was 50.7% against and 49.3% for. We were relieved, both for Venezuela and also for our personal safety as people had predicted major unrest and demonstrations if Chavez won. What surprised everyone was how gracefully Chavez conceded defeat, saying the country was clearly not ready for 21st century socialism.

... dollar on the black market. So, we had to go cheap. We turned down a pricier trip from Arassari Trekking, where we´d visit the stilted village of El Congo, apparently the best spot to witness the lightning. Arassari´s tour sounder better, but so what, we saved 260,000 bolivares ($72 US black market). Besides, while in Peru, we already saw a tribe that lives on a lake. They used buoyant plants to construct these floating ...

... as it is cheap by Venezuelan standards, although I am once again plagued with the super slow Internet connections syndrome, which the friendly man here tells me is affecting all of Merida at the moment (what else is he going to say), so no photos as of yet, and even the text is a stone drag!!!! Well cannot say much beyond this, as just got here, and it is raining, so I ducked into the first Internet place I could find to wait it out... More to follow... A

... bought another "La bomba" which was the final straw that broke the camels back as far as I was concerned I could do no more, I was finished and had to call it a night. Next day we only had to walk down for a pre tour briefing that the tour guide gave us before we would set off the next day. The briefing was given on the balcony of the Posada which they also owned. The view over the valley was really pretty and as the sun set the full moon rose with awesome ...

... above the ground! Tuesday we went Mountain biking - basically a jeep drove us all the way up this mountain and we attempted to cycle down it - We spent alot of time pushing the bike! Had lunch at some scottish guy´s ranch - amazing place, with horses, trout farm, and all the work´s done the traditional way by 2 oxen. On Wednesday we went up the longest, highest cable car in the world - it was so long, we had to change ...