Blogs from Mérida, Andean, Venezuela, South America - page 8

Mérida. If you ever come to South America and you want a serious adrenaline high, you NEED to come to Mérida. There´s everything under the sun here (and a dang hot sun it is) to put your stomach in your mouth, make you want to scream and pee your pants, and stop your heart, all at the same fabulous time! Today we were suckered into going Canyoning. Now, I really had no idea what that is... it´s basically start at the top of a mountain and follow a river all the way down. Jumping off of rocks, sliding down rock faces, and rapelling with full climbing equipment down three MASSIVE waterfalls. We started at about 9am... 8 of us and 2 guides got dropped off on top of a mountain (up switchbacks that make Hudson Bay ... read more

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, ... read more

sodeli, nochere fascht 20h busfahrt simmer endlich in merida acho. uesi befuerchtige, dassmer viellicht noed schnell e hostel findet hend sich noed bewohrheitet. merida isch wohl eini vo de haupt-touri-destinatione vo ganz venezuela, abgseh vo de angelfalls...whoever. mir hend denn i de posada suiza en platz gfunde. e herrlichi sach, mit schoenem innehof und schoene zimmer. hend ues denn e viererbude gschnappt. nochdem mir ues ipuffed hend und ues scho entschiede hend fuer en gleitschirmflug (swetter isch de hammer gsi) simmer no chli is staedtli. uf de suechi noch esse simmer denn bis zu de talstation vom teleferico gwatschlet. hend denn dete gad no gfroget ebs echt tickets fuer es faehrtli uf de pico espejo git, aber leider sich alles usbuechet gsi bis huete ziischtig. und well mir eigentli am mo. obig hend woelle witer, het ... read more

First stop in Venezuela was the border town of Santa Elena - nothing much to see here, but it was so exciting to be able to speak a few words of Spanish and be understood!! (I did try with the Portuguese, and thought that with 50-ish days in Brazil I might get somewhere, but was still getting mostly blank looks by the time we left!). Next stop was Cuidad Bolivar, the base for Canaima national park and Angel Falls. This was also the place where I discovered the joys of trying to use an ATM in Venezuela. Either they are switched off, or don't accept international cards, or if you get far enough, they will ask you what language you want, and then when you choose English, they give you instructions in Spanish anyway! By this ... read more

Dear All Covered a lot of miles since we last spoke, unfortunately picking the busiest time of year as all of Venezuela have been on holiday too! Didn’t really notice it in Mérida as you expect a city to be busy and it can absorb more people. Pico Espejo Tried to buy a ticket for the teleferico on the 2nd but was told it was fully booked until the 6th, which is mad as it´s pretty pricey at 42 bols a time, about 11 quid! But it is the highest and longest in the world and I like these sort of things! Decided to queue in the morning in the hope of someone not turning up for their reservation, despite being there at 6.30am I was behind at least 60 other people and the gates didn´t ... read more