Advertisement
Published: March 3rd 2006
Merida
It wasn´t even below freezing temp. at the very top but I hated the cold. I can never go back home!!!!! With my Columbian visa nearly expired I decided to cross the border to Venezuela to acquire a new stamp for Columbia and explore a bit of the other black sheep member of the South American family. The plan first and foremost was to renew my visa for Columbia and then get an idea of whether I would want to return to Venezuala for more exploration.
I boarded a bus from Buceramanga at 6 am to the border city of Cucuta, which was 6 hours by bus. With only 2 hours sleep from the previous night I wanted to sleep but there was no way it was going to happen. The whole stretch of road traveled weaved through steep mountains reaching heights of 2-3000 meters. It was my first drive through the mountain ranges of the Andes and I was glad I wasn´t able to get any sleep because the views were stunning.
The mountains were constant and relentless folding in and out of eachother and I was surprised at the amount of setlements along the way. I guess as long as there is a road along the way people will find a way to live. 4 hours into
Merida
antother cable car going up as we came down...Merida in the background the drive we stopped for a rest room break and I was sitting down on the road side sipping on a coke when I heard a squealing noise...I stood up and looked over the people gathered around and saw a huge pig being pushed off the side of the road and down a little slope towards a cement pad. I watched for a moment and chuckled a bit as the pig was enormous and the two men maneuvering it were quite little. I sat back down when I heard the pig squealing again, but this time much louder with more alarm. I looked back up again without thinking for a moment what might be happening...just as the pig came into view I saw a large instrument being wielded by one of the men coming crashing down into the pigs neck. The instument looked like a large oversized axe. Hardly the tool I would think to make a quick and painless death. I jumped back and let out a bit of a wholly #&%*!!!!! to myself so as not to let the locals see that I was pretty startled. I sat back down and listened to the pig whine louder and
Merida
this canyon stretches for miles, and the main road into the city traces it...beautiful views from the bus louder as the thuds of the instrument hit harder and harder until finally no sound. The crowd that was gathered around watching, slowly filtered away and I didn't know what to think. At first I couldn't believe they would do such a grusome act right on the side of the road for all to see but then I realized that I was the only one fazed by it...the locals all went amongst their business as usual. Just normal life amongst the country folks I guess.
The bus finally arrived in the grimy city of Cucuta and I quickly found a taxi to take me to the border town of San Antonio. After the taxi driver got a bit lost and drove around for an extra hour I reached the Columbian customs office where I was stuck in a line for another 2 hours. There was one official on a friday afternoon clearing arriving and leaving persons. There are really only two things you absolutely need to travel in Latin America....a passport....and patience!
From San Antonio I hopped on a dumpy little shuttle bus for an hour to San Cristoba. My plan was to jump on the next bus
San Cristoba
Lots of anti America symbolism all over Venezuala. overnight to Merida but there was none available. I was stuck fo the night in San Cristoba. I was tired and hungry so a good night sleep was alright with me. I found a hotel in the centro district area and went for a stroll to find some food. I was amazed to find that on a Friday night in the heart of the city there was hardly anything open. I was actually some what afraid to walk be walking around by myself for the first time since my trip began...and it was only 8 P.M. The streets were empty and there was nothing open. I finally found a chinese restaraunt open so I ate and rushed back to my hotel room.
After a fairly easy and very scenic 6 hour bus ride I arrived in Merida and quickly took a taxi to the centro area of the city. After trying a number of places for accomodations I finally found a simple little hostel for about 6 bucks a night. I checked in and started to wander. The city was buzzing with people but to my surprise not many backpackers. Now is the busy holiday season for locals and
Bucaramanga
An hours drive from the Bucaramanga explains all the delays and waits I have had over the last few days of travel.
The reason I chose to travel to Merida for a few days was to travel up the Sistema teleférico. It's the worlds longest cable car and quite an easy way to climb a mountain. The system has 5 diferen't stages of height starting at the ground level of 1577 Meters. The next 4 stages take you to a height of 4765 meters and give you a great view of Pico Bolivar which sits at 5007 meters. On this day we were a bit unfortunate as there was a lot of cloud covering most of the surrounding mountain peaks but it was still a great way to get an overhead look of the mountain terrain, and I still think I saw Ingersoll from up there. The bottom is covered by lush tropical rainforest, and after a few thousand meters the forest changes into thinner starved looking vegetation with tall skinny coniferous trees. another 1000 meters brings the end of the treeline and uncovers a thin grassy meadow with a few sparing shrubs, and then the ultimate end of vegetation at about 4000 meters as
jagged rock formations begin to puncture through the grasses.
The Andes mountains run from Venezuala through Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. They are the longest chain of mountains in the world and have the highest peaks outside of the Himylayas with more than 50 of them soaring to over 6000 meters. They span a total distance of 9000 km...or the same distance from Toronto to Orlando Florida about 6 times over. The Andes mountains are an impressive result of tectonic plates working against eachother for millions of years and as I stood atop one of the high peaks at the very start of the lengthly Cordillera it is safe to say I was more than just a little bit humbled. I can´t wait to travel along this massive chain of mountains and see how they change the differen´t landscapes, and how they have an impact on the people that inhabit the land on it and around it.
The next day I took an alternate route back to the border that was 3 hours longer but the views were incredible. Leaving Merida we climbed a mountain that was oposite Pico Bolivar. It was dark so I couldn´t
see how high we were climbing. All I know is that it got really cold on the bus and the AC wasn't on, so I knew we were climbing high. By the time we climbed to the top of the mountian the sun started to reach out from the distance revealing the fluffy bed of clouds that were well beneath us. I had no idea that we had climbed so high. Only a few minutes of decent and the grassy plains started to appear with cattle grazing and small farm houses, and we were still above the clouds. After we dropped below the clouds the beautiul landscape I was told about finally came into view. It was one giant mountain after another blending into one another as if they were arm locked shoulder to shoulder but also facing another row of interlocked mountains creating a huge canyon at their feet. The road wound in and out and up and down the mountain chain, with each wind revealing a diferen´t angle of view or a new waterfall pouring into the river at the bottom of the canyon. It was one bus ride that I didn't mind.
Ater a total of
20 hours of travel on 4 diferen't buses I finally arrived back to my comfortable surroundings of Bucaramana and it was like returning home. I don´t want to base my judgement of Venezuala on just 5 days but I have to say that what I saw was spectacular scenery but the people short from a few were rude, unfriendly, and unhelpful. I was so glad to be back in Columbia.
After spending another week in my beloved Bucaramanga hanging out with friends I was starting to get the itch again to get out on the road and explore. I started 2 hours out of Bucaramanga in a small town named San Gil. The reason I decided on San Gil was that it has a river with some class 3 rapids and lots of adventure comanies to take you down them. With no experience at rafting I thought class 3 rapids wouldn't be too difficult to handle. On this day I was the only person signed up so myself and 2 guides climbed into a 3 person raft and made our way down the river. It was a little more challenging than I expected and we wound up flipping the
raft at the spot with the strongest rapids of the journey. We wound up floating through the rapids with our life vests a total of about 100 yards. It was quite a good adrenaline rush, but I lost my paddle in the rapids and we never recovered it. As my punishment the guides gave me one of their paddles and I had to do the majority of the paddling. I was sore for three days after!
That afternoon I took a bus to a smaller very scenic mountain town named Barichara. It was a cool place with cobbled streets, old churches, white washed buildings, and a spectacular view of the Andes. While I was there I bumped into a couple of old friends I had made while I was in Cali back in December. We walked around the town together had some laughs, and a few beers, and formulated a plan to go to Bogota together the following day
After a night out in San Gil the three of us boarded a bus for Bogota in time to start the weekend in Columbia's capital. Bogota has a population of 9 million people and sits in the mountains at
2500 meters, making it a much cooler climate. There is plenty to do in Bogota, and I have spent most of the time just walking around exploring the differen't museums, parks, shopping centers, and little cafes. At night the city is quite vibrant with discos and bars open all night offering any type of music you could wish for. Bogota is much more beautiful than I expected. Of course there is polution and it is a bit grimy, but it also has plenty of beautiful parks, large towering Cathederals, and there is still plenty of colonial charm in many areas of the city.
I plan to spend a few more days here sight seeing before I make a move north and then finally westward towards Ecuador. I am a bit afraid to leave Columbia. I have had such a great experience here. It's a bit like having a favourite restaurant. You know the wait staff, the menu, the taste, and it scares you a bit to try the other restaurant across the street because you don't want to be dissapointed. luckily going across the street for me means that I am going to be one street closer to Argentina
Bogota
plaza Bolivar and what is meant to be the country with the best beef in the world. Hmmmmmm can't wait!
Bye for now
Troy
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0358s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
mom
non-member comment
My littlest hobo
Hey Troy Good to hear from you again, and glad to know you are still having a great time. Not homesick yet??? Anyway, your stories are still great and this one about the pig was pretty gruesome, but that is reality in other countries. There still is no better country than Canada!!! Can't wait for the next story! We are missing you! Love mom