Blogs from Andean, Venezuela, South America - page 2

Venezuela Border Crossing from Macau (Colombia) to Venezuela, a 4 hour bus journey to Macauibo it was starting to look like the end of Colombia, as stated in my guidebook it was a shabby bus station with everyone wanting to take you somewhere or sell you something, so I paid for my ticket to Marricibo from the Colombian border town and not a bus as I expected but a old chevelet car this is the normal kind of transport for crossing the border and onwards to further towns. So we arrived at the border and I received my Colombia exit stamp and then I had to obtain my Venezuelan entry stamp well the immigration officer could not find my exit tamp and nor could I, so I had to run back to the Colombian side to ... read more

On ne pouvait pas etre dans les Andes sans faire une petite rando en montagne! Une fois a Merida, on a organise avec la meme agence que pour Los Llanos (Gravity Tour) une randonnée de 2 jours avec un guide jusqu´au Pan de Azucar, la 9eme montagne la plus haute du Venezuela (4680 m, et oui presqu´aussi haut que le Mont Blanc!!). Rendez vous a l´agence à 8 heures pour rencontrer le guide et préparer les sacs. On devait emporter à manger pour 2 jours, une tente, sac de couchage et des vetements chauds. 9 heures, nous voila partis en jeep jusqu´au pied des montagnes. Nos sacs pesaient environ une dizaine de kilos. Après un peu plus de 4 heures de marche, nous avons atteint la vallée où nous avons établi le camp et monté les ... read more

This past weekend I took a trip to aguas termales (hot springs) with a group from Venusa. We took a bus into the mountains and then hiked the rest of the way to our campsite just a small distance from the springs. The mountains were gorgeous. The drive up the mountain was a little scary because the roads are very narrow and most Venezuelan bus drivers are crazy, and don't seem concerned by going 80+mph on curvy roads inches away from a cliff. The hike was almost equally as nerve-racking because the "trail" was inches wide and was also ... read more

What a couple of days we've had. Our bus journeys have often provided entertainment - normally with people selling food, drinks, toothbrushes, dvds, arthritis creams and assorted other stuff, but from Cartagena it was something else again. As the journey started the 2nd bus driver gave a little speech, he started off talking about the toilets, rubbish bins etc but then he started to get excited, after a while we realised he was preaching !!! after about ten minutes he led the bus in prayers !!! he was like a Colombian version of the American preachers you see on the tv !!! Crossing the border was straightforward on both sides, although the taxi fare in Colombia was more when we got out than he'd quoted when we got in, but I guess that's life. The interesting ... read more

What a nightmare journey! After the two hours to Maracay, we then awaited the overnight bus to Merida, all was going well, we had brought more clothes this time to stay warm and at about 6 in the morning we stopped, and didnt move for a good few hours, we saw people outside starting to make their way on foot. We were unsure what was going on, a nice girl tried to explain in Spanish something to us but I wasnt picking up much of what she was saying, one man on the bus was able to speak english. He told us that there was a protest ahead and the road had been blocked since the previous day. After much tooing and froing in Spanish it was explained that the people on the bus had decided ... read more