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Published: January 26th 2010
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I finally arrived in Mérida, the city I have been most looking forward to visiting in Venezuela. Besides the bus breaking down in the middle of the night and having to wait an hour for a replacement to arrive, the journey from Maracay was good, with picturesque scenery as we journeyed into the northernmost foothills of the Andes. The biggest disappointment in arriving was the temperature; having been told that Mérida was cold, I was surprised to find that it was still baking hot (during the day at least). At the bus station I met a German who was promoting his posada (hostel), and as it sounded better than the one I was going to head for (for the same price) I let him persuade me to stay there. The city itself has a rather compact but scenic centre, with panaderías (bakeries) and fruterías (exotic fruit shops) on virtually every corner. The city feels very safe and not at all intimidating, unlike a lot of other Venezuelan cities. The only real issue was that the Teleférico (cable car), which goes up one of the highest mountains in Venezuela and is the longest and highest in the world, is closed for maintenance
until at least February. Somewhat of a shame that it wasn’t possible to use it, as it’s one of the main attractions in the city, and there isn’t a great deal else to do once the centre has been explored. There are hundreds of tour agencies however offering trips and outdoor sports to the many tourists who come to the city. I booked a tour through my hostel to go and see Los Llanos - savannah style plains between the Andes and the Amazon rain forest, and the trip was definitely worth every penny. It was nice to be travelling in a small group - myself, an American, 2 French people, 1 Italian and 1 Dutchman - and with a very friendly (and more importantly, understandable) Venezuelan guide. The first day we drove through the foothills of the Andes stopping off at a few scenic rural towns, the first of which, Muccuchies, is famed in South America for a breed of dog after which it is named. Bizarrely on the road into the town we were greeted by a man holding a Muccuchies puppy in either hand, trying to sell them to passing tourists. After these towns we ended up
on Pico Aguila (Eagle Peak), which at 4000m above sea level is the highest road in the country. The air was noticeable thinner and it made a nice change to be cold despite midday sun. Native to the area are Andean Condors, but these have been hunted to near extinction. Consequently only 3 remain (in captivity) within a National Park reserve nearby. Next stop was a lagoon for lunch and then a leisurely walk through the forest to another lagoon before heading to our lodgings for the night in the neighbouring state. Rural Venezuela seems to suffer from power cuts on a daily basis (President Chavez ensures that areas that support him i.e. Caracas receive constant electricity and other areas receive more of the cuts). The hostel we were staying in had no electricity, making the evening a bit more difficult than would otherwise have been, and over dinner we heard in great detail from the owner of all the problems that Chavez has caused Venezuela since he became President.. The following day it was off to the plains of Los Llanos. Occupying around a third of the land area of Venezuela, Los Llanos are inhabited by vaqueros, or South
American-style cowboys. The flat, arid lands are extensively used to graze cattle; nevertheless wildlife is extraordinarily abundant. After lunch at the hacienda where we were staying, we were taken out horse riding to gain insight into the daily lives of the people who live on these isolated farms. As it was my first time horse riding, it was difficult to start with and somewhat scary when we went fast, but at the end of the 3 hour tour I felt a bit more confident, but yet very achy. After dusk we had a night time safari, for which we sat on the roof of the 4x4 and tried to spot as much wildlife as possible whilst clinging on the roof-rack we were sat on as we went over large bumps and pot holes. After seeing owls and many other types of nocturnal birds, there were also capybara, savannah foxes, deer, wild boar, we came across an anteater who was not at all camera-shy. The only downside to the safari, besides not being too stable on the roof, was all the dust from the dry roads which gets in your eyes and mouth. This aside, it was a very surreal and
enjoyable experience. After a night in a hammock, the next morning it was off in the 4x4 in search of more wildlife. I migrated from the roof to inside the 4x4 due to the dust and the heat of being in the open air. As it is dry season, most animals tend to congregate around watering holes, all of which are filled with Caymans, which although look menacing, only feed on fish, birds and baby capybara. The capybara themselves are somewhat numerous - they are no longer hunted in the area we were in as they became endangered - and large family groups were visible by most watering holes. Our guides then took us to a shallow stream, which they began to systematically poke with sharp sticks until after about half an hour they came across what they were looking for - an anaconda. They then proceeded to drag it out of the stream to show us before it was replaced from whence it came. This one was only 3 metres, but in the Amazon they apparently grow up to 12 metres long. In the afternoon it was time for a river safari to see the hundreds of species of
birds that live in the area, including types of heron, king fisher, cormorant and most noticeably, the scarlet ibis. It was incredible just seeing so many types of bird in such a small area along the river bank. In the river itself were plenty of caimans, capybara and river dolphins. Before returning back to camp, there was time for fishing, specifically for piranhas, which is a local speciality. In about an hour 10 or so were caught, which were to be the evening’s dinner. The fourth and final day saw us travel straight back to Mérida, which was a long and bumpy journey. From here I am about to catch a bus to the Colombian border from where I will go straight to Bogotá (around 24 hours in total). I’m going with the American I met on the trip, Dustin, though he has a lot less time than me so he will have to leave shortly after arriving in Bogotá, whilst I will probably spend the best part of a week there. Mérida has certainly been the best place in Venezuela to meet other backpackers, and hopefully Colombia will be more like this than the rest of Venezuela, which is,
on the whole, rather unfriendly to travellers. The food in Mérida has also been much better than the rest of Venezuela - they have vegetarian restaurants here for example! Looking forward to arriving in Colombia, and hopefully continuing the good times!
As always feel free to check out more photos on my picasa page, though I haven't got around to uploading the most recent ones just yet.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/graemejbingham/Venezuela
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