Blogs from Mérida, Andean, Venezuela, South America - page 2

My Opion of Venezuela I am very happy that I visited Venezuela as for me it was the most interesting experience of my South America trip but their seams to be a sense of unstableness within the country, On my first encounter to Venezuela I quickly noticed the difference in the infrastructure between the two neighbouring countries second being Colombia and only divided by a human line, the two border offices one with computers one with out, the conditions of the roads leading to and from the border and then the courtesy or lack of by the military / police, In Colombia they smile and say Buenos dais and are happy to lead you in the correct direction but in Venezuela for example they are sitting on park benches texting on there phones. On my arrival ... read more

So I have finally summited my first mountain of some sort of altitude. he Mountain is called Pan De Azucar and the altitude at the summit is 4680 meters. It is 27 miles north of Merida in the Andes. We set off from the agency in Merida at 8am on Monday morning all set with our tent, sleeping bags, lots of food, gloves, a lots of warm clothes. The climb on the first was not too difficult, the only issue was our bags on our back, although it was slighty lighter than it usually is was still giving us a challenge. Poor Anne had never had to trek with such a large bag before so was quite a test for her. We arrived at our base camp at arond 3pm in the afternoon tired but feeling ... read more

Soooo....I'm in Venezuela! And even though it's not really my thing I'm gonna try this whole blog dealio to keep my mom happy in MN with updates. :) I've been here a little over a week and I'm in love. The people here are so nice and generous with everything, it's impossible not to feel welcomed. I'm going to a small language school called VEN-USA where there is a huge mix of students taking classes to learn both Spanish and English. The classes I am taking are Communication Skills, International Economics, Latin American Art, Art of Reading Literary Texts, and Linguistics. So far I've liked them all, they're all pretty easy and I haven't had a lot of homework in any. Mainly I just go to class and shoot the breeze with the professors about topics ... read more

Mit meinem letzten Geld fluechtete ich nach Merida. Das ist eine ganz nette Stadt in den Bergen. mit der laengsten gondelbahn der welt, die leider fast nie in betrieb ist. hatte leider ja wenig geld. konnte deshalb nicht zu lange bleiben und keinerlei touren machen. aber ein bisschen gefeiert habe ich :) Bilder folgen, vielleicht.... read more

Tim Version: * Enjoyed Merida for its laid back atmosphere with a slight political student lifestyle edge to it. * Visited thermal hot springs, saw some incredible graffiti, learned more Spanish... and I think I experienced altitude sickness! The version that is sitting back drinking a Solera Verde in a colder mountain climate, trying desperately to understand Spanish conjugations again: Merida is a town up in the Andes region, fairly close to the border with Colombia. To me is sounded like a good place to escape the pollution and humidity of the rest of Venezuela. Home of the world famous longest cable car, currently broken, I originally planned to go there to ride that, see the Catatumbo lightning, and do some trekking! My plans however changed greatly once there. After Roraima and Angel Falls (Salto Angel) ... read more