snakes, frogs and other creepies

Hola from Merida in the Venezuelan Andes. We spent the first night here after arriving from Puerto Colombia - quite a dramatic 2 day drive that takes you from the coast up to (I think) about 3000m. We had our only night wild camping on this section of this trip to split the drive up, and I´ve got to admit, it´s not what I had in mind as being the type of camping we would be doing - we ended up pitching our tents next to a motorway tolbooth! I think it´s a security thing for this part of the world, as we couldn´t pitch our tents until dark, and we had to strike a deal with the national guard patrolling the tolbooth. But it was a bit weird, as it was also a truckers stop, so we had a bit of an audience while we were setting up the tents and cooking the dinner. And of course, none of us got to sleep all night. So hopefully, the camping situation will improve on further sections of the trip!

We just spent one night in Merida, then left for a 3 day trip to Los Llanos, which are the Venezuelan wetlands, and cover a vast area, also stretching into Colombia. The trip was led be Cesar, who is an expert in reptiles and amphibians, and has discovered 50 new species. He was a bit of a mad Dr Doolittle kind of guy, who would go crashing about in the undergrowth on the night boat trip and come out wrestling with some iguana or caiman (like crocodiles but shorter) to show us. In the dry season, it´s possible to see anacondas, but luckily that´s not now, so I didn´t have to worry about that, as I would prefer them to keep their distance, rather than get shoved in my face lie all the other wildlife we found (luckily only one snake and it was quite wee, but plenty of frogs and lizards). We saw lots of wildlife, plenty of birds whose names I don´t remember, but it was good just to be out in very remote countryside, and travel about the river by boat.

After the trip to Los Llanos, we returned to Merida. Went paragliding yesterday, although unfortunately the weather wasn´t that great. The first group took off, then the rest of us had to wait the best part of an hour for the pilots to come back up and take the rest of us. During that time the rain started and the clouds came in, so by the time I actually took off it was about 10mins from darkness. All the street lights were on in the towns down below, so my photos didn´t exactly work out. But it was an amazing experience, something I´d definitely like to try again.

We´re going up in the cable car from Merida tomorrow, which is the highest and longest in the world - goes for 12km up to 4700m, which for comparison, is higher than you go on the Inca Trail. Merida also claims to have the ice cream shop with the most flavours in the world, but it´s difficult to tell as it´s always closed. We head to Colombia on Thursday, crossing the border on the truck and then spending the night in Cucuta, then flying to Cartagena on the coast. Actually, it´s the Caribbean coast...

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