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Published: September 21st 2008
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I trust everyone's been getting merry and fat!!!
Xmas Eve
Cerrado (closed)- the favourite word of la continent! Even though there’s plenty of people walking round the streets at night the only places open are the burger vans and street food joints! Had a weird sweet pancake with cheese and ham for tea and an early night!
Xmas Day
I've been spending most of my time here in Merida with Will and Michael from UK and US, failing to find anything at all open we got a taxi to the hot springs up in the mountains, thinking it would be a nice tranquil spot to chill out. Got there to find it packed full of mainly teenagers with reggaeton blasting out the speakers! Still, they had beer so settled into the 37 degrees water with an ice cold Polar and soaked up the sunshine!
Still no action down-town Merida and the only place open was a posh burger joint called La Nota, which was surprisingly full of families and couples at 7.00pm Xmas day, perhaps the telly here is equally as bad?
Fortunately the offies were open in the morning and treated myself to some red wine and we
amused ourselves with some sing songs...well, I was singing and Will and Mike were on the guitar.
Ready for some action...
Needed some adrenalin after all these quiet times so set off canyoning on Tuesday. Described in Lonely Planet 'as the maddest thing you can do without killing yourself', thought it would be a nice day out! In fact it was absolutely brilliant but not as scary as I was hoping for! The group consisted of 1 wet US guy and 2 Belgian friends one of which (45) had his 18 year old well off Venezuelan girlfriend with him. We had to stop and buy her shoes on the way and wait whilst she decided which would match her outfit best (complete with eye liner and earrings). Don't think she had any idea she would be wearing a wetsuit, harness and helmet shortly! After a short jeep ride and trek we arrived at an innocent looking stream and were soon togged up ready for action..among sliding around on rocks, hiking, climbing and jumping into pools we were also rappelling down waterfalls with the pounding current beating down on our heads. The first fall was only 15m, the second 25m
and again meant rappelling down a chimney formed by the fall, the third was 35m and could be abseiled for the most part before plunging into a foaming pool and into a cave...FANTASTICO!!!
Jaji, ha ho! It's of to work we go! (pron. 'hahee')
This is a lovely little mountain village about an hour on twisty mountain roads from Merida. Popular spot for tourists with loads of knick-knack shops and strawberries and cream for sale. Had a nice meal outdoors at a hotel overlooking the valley and discovered they had built some concrete slides like toboggan runs in their garden...MAGNIFICO!! However, I now have some nice scabs ripe for picking on my elbows!
Also took a short mule ride up the valley..breaking into a trot was pretty scary too, I’m not used to horse riding!
Free like a bird
Merida is actually the world's top parasailing location due to the temperate climate, so had to give that a go didn't I?
Set off 3.30pm Wednesday up the mountain in a jeep to the top spot. It looks pretty scary from the ground, sweeping around the sky but I only got the jitters from the actual take off. The
pilot is strapped behind you and all that is required is to run off the edge, then you sit on the harness and are free to move your hands around and take pictures before coming in for a smooth landing below. MAGICO!
NYE Baghdad
Cerrado again! All bars and most restaurants closed until about 1.00 am as it is traditional to spend NYE with your family and go and meet your friends afterwards. I made long island iced tea cocktails in the posada though and we were well on our way to merry when the highlight of the evening began. It is traditional here to make Guy Fawkes type puppets and the kids are out begging for money to fill them with gunpowder!! Midnight is when they set them off in the street, along with thousands of fireworks (no, not very safe!). We saw one guy pour kerosene on his before chucking a match on...we were stood only about 7m away and felt the back-draft of the blast and thought we were going to be singed too! It really was a war zone with people throwing fireworks out of the window, under cars, at their friends!! EXCELLENTE!
Hit one
nightclub but the boys were not into salsa and we left and I thought all was lost but George from the Posada was up for hitting another till 6am, and of course I am brilliant at Salsa!! mmm...
NY Day
Really needed to curl up on the sofa with my blanket and watch TV...so went to the cinema with woolly socks and jumper for a dose of Harry Potter only to find it was in bloody Spanish! Caught the first 15 minutes but no point pursuing the matter and waited for the next subtitled film with was the 40 year old virgin, still funny but not quite the trick!
Teleferico
The cable car here is the longest and highest in the world, 7.7 miles long, no wonder it is all booked up. I have to queue at 6am in the hope that people will not turn up and I can get on board. At the third stop you can get off and walk or ride a mule 5 hours to Los Nevados, a tiny but immaculate mountain village.
Looking forward to hearing what you've been up to for the hols and what resolutions you have made! Mine
is to learn more Spanish!
xxx Harris
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