Blogs from Mérida, Andean, Venezuela, South America - page 6

Ran out of space again on my photoalbum so created this one for future uploads: http://picasaweb.google.com/Nick.going.to.Alaska Have finally updated my Galapagos and Angel Falls blog entries too!... read more

Hi all, i honestly don´t feel like writing much which is rare for me but it might be a result of my hangover and the fact that the girl to my right is singing very badly and a woman on my left is screeching down a telephone. Despite these distractions (stop saying Alo Alo Alo woman to my left!) i will tell you a bit about Merida because it is a rather unique place. Those of you who have backpacked may think it is common to find cheap hostels, white rastas who seem to have sat on the same chair outside forever, clubs that play a totally random mix of music to try and appease both locals and travellers....but you clearly have not visited Venezuela. Merida is, as the title suggests, a sanctuary away from ... read more

Merida is a town in the southwest of Venezuela. It is situated in a mountainous area and thus it is somewhat cooler than most other towns. Therefor it has become a popular tourist town both among foreigners and locals. We decided to go to Merida partly to go on a tour to Los Llanos, which we have told about in a previous entry on the blog, and partly to see the town itself and enjoy its sights. One of the main tourist sights in Merida is the teleferico (the cable car). In the off season it is not running on Mondays and Tuesdays. Since we originally planned to go on a Monday this forced us to stay slightly longer in Merida than we thought we would. Because there is no way we would leave without ... read more

I was apprehensive about visiting Venezuela. I had spoken to three travellers who all said the same thing: "Colombia isn´t too bad these days. It´s Venezuela you need to worry about". Our original plan was to enter Venezuela overland, crossing the Colombian border. Unfortunately the foreign office advice for Colombia had recently changed, and they were advising against travelling within 50 miles of the Venezuelan border, due to increased guerilla activity. The Colombian Army and the Venezuelan National Guard had been mobilised along each side of the border. So, our schedule was changed, and our contingency plan was to take two flights to reach Caracas (the capital of Venezuela) , and then an overnight bus to Merida, our original destination. Meanwhile one of our tour leaders, "Dave The Hat", would drive the empty truck across and ... read more

Travelling by bus, usually for several hours on end, means you get to meet and chat to a lot of different and interesting people (In between watching badly dubbed pirate DVDs). On the bus to Mexico I met Keith, an English guy who was sharing with me, in quite some detail, the relative qualities of prostitutes from around the world (Thai are the best, I'm told). Then in Cuba there was Karl Marks (his name, honestly), a boxing coach and Christian fundamentalist (with the emphasis on mentalist) who preached to me about the new world order that God was about to install on the human race. Add to that the American girl in Panama who had just completed a 28 day water-only detox diet. I call it a detox diet, though it was explained to me ... read more