Blogs from Andean, Venezuela, South America - page 3

Merida mountainous life and a broken cable car

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida June 3rd 2009

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

Venezuela, the first stop on my S.A. adventure

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida May 30th 2009

Bolivar Plaza in Caracas

CharlieM

I HAVE DELETED PEOPLE I AM SENDING TO BECAUSE I DIDN´T HEAR FROM THEM. IF YOU HEAR OF SOMEONE WHO WANTS IT, HAVE THEM WRITE ME AT MILLS.CHARLENE@GMAIL.COM. THERE MAY BE A FEW ON THIS ADDRESS THAT NEVER DID GET ON THE CHINA BLOG. IF SO, YOU CAN GET IT UNDER CharM. BELIEVE IT OR NOT I DID NOT REALIZE THIS SPELLED ''CHARM'WHEN I STARTED USING IT. DAH!. AM HAVING TROUBLE WITH TENSE IN MY BLOGS SINCE I WRITE THEM LITTLE BY LITTLE AND WHEN THEY ARE FINALLY PUBLISHED I AM FAR INTO ANOTHER PART OF MY JOURNEY. FOR EXAMPLE, RIGHT NOW I AM IN QUITO AND WILL LEAVE FOR THE GUALPOGOS IN TWO DAYS. SO, MY COLOMBIA JOURNAL IS STILL TO BE SENT. THE HARDEST PART IS THE DAMN PICTURES. THEY ARE REALLY TIMECONSUMING. BUT, ... read more

Just The beginning of the trip

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida April 13th 2009

view from sanare

Hey Man

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Venezuela

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida April 12th 2009

Hey Man

My oh my, what a trip! It has been a little over a week here and I have been exposed to so much. The culture is completely overwhelming. Things in the city move so incredibly fast. On a personal level, people in general are very kind, however, they dont seem to honor spatial relationships, and are so sharp with the tongue. I have weather torrential downpours- like in biblical terms- I have spent a night with a social revolutionary group- a hair raising experience- called the furs, and I have seen the parts of the andes that are completely indescribable. I find it amazing how the vegetation changes so dramatically with a change of 100 meters. We have been going in and out of rainforest along roads that are nauseating, at elevations cars dont normally go. ... read more

Climbing High

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida March 15th 2009

Antique Camera at Posada Don Carlos

SSA

Saturday 14.03.09 (continued) Before boarding the bus at P.La Cruz I decided to browse some of the tech. shops to see if I could get a high capacity card reader, as I found that this was causing the problems with uploading the photos. I eventually came across one and bought it. However the transaction took so long I only just made the coach in time for its departure. I also quickly bought a hot cheese arepa and a drink to have on the coach, as I hadn´t any breakfast. I had booked a seat on the top deck - a window seat right at the front. When I boarded I found someone in my seat, but when I queried her ticket it turned out that it was double-booked. Fortunately the seat beside her was free; she ... read more

Local children bathing, washing and cleaning.

A Story Of Ups And Downs

South America » Venezuela » Andean March 3rd 2009

Dirty Work

Couchies

Borderline Worries It's not every day you get the chance to thrust your naked genitals into the face of a machine gun toting soldier, so, when the opportunity arose, David took it with both testicles. This blog begins on the border of Brazil and south eastern Venezuela. Information in the guidebook plus stories from other travellers had made us unusually nervous about crossing this border. Apparently, due to its enormous oil wealth Venezuela has never needed nor bothered to develop a large tourism industry, or in fact barely any industry at all, preferring instead the cash rich route of importing everything. Normally this would be fantastic as our experiences have shown us that the places least affected by tourism are often some of the nicest. Not so in Venezuela it seems. As well as being ... read more

Fin de Año en Venezuela

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida January 5th 2009

LaTrucha Azul

PandM

Pasamos el fin de año en Merida y ya nos preparamos para comenzar nuestra travesia por Sur America We spent New Year's eve in Merida and now we are getting ready to start our adventures through South America Itinerary 01/06 - 01/12 Colombia (Bogota, Santa Marta & Cartagena) 01/12 - 01/26 Peru (Lima, Cuzco, Arequipa & Puno) 01/26 - 02/02 Bolivia (La Paz & Uyuni) 02/02 - 02/16 Chile/Argentina (Santiago, Valparaiso, Mendoza, Punta Arenas & Torres del Paine) 02/16 - 02/27 Argentina/Uruguay ( Ushuaia, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Iguazu) 02/27 - 03/19 Brasil (Iguazu, Sao Paolo, Rio De Janeiro, Recife, Salvador Bahia & Fortaleza) ... read more

Merida and JAJI

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida November 1st 2008

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STE and ADI

Merida and JAJI After what can only be described as a awful journey from Angel Falls to Merida which was 1 hr by plane and 32 hrs straight on a bus (with a road protest with the workers literally handcuffing themselves together and stopping traffic) we knew that Merida which is famous for paragliding and experience that great night life. We arrived at 1pm and by 3pm we were on our way to the top of the mountain to paraglide down. This was a great experience and we managed to take some shots form the air but we were both looking for more action, more adrenalin and more adventure!!! The next day we took a local bus the Jaji (pronounced ah hee) which was a wonderful tiny village set in the middle of nowhere but surrounded ... read more

First 12 days

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida October 20th 2008

Ali and Tait

Hey Gang This says Merida because that´s where we are at the moment but it sure ain´t the only place that we´ve taken by storm Caracas was a bit of a mistral actually, its big and wet and hot but the metro is really effecient, but getting on in rush our with 70l bags isn´t the greatest idea but everyone is disgustingly friendly we even got a guided tour of the historical buildings from an actual history teacher, much better than the tube they have aircon and we´re asking Red Ken, cos he´s ours now, to install sounds systems talking of which the buses are absolutely mental they all have systems better than any brigton club and blast out their creole beats speeding up incredibly steep hairpins through junglelous mountains which had a beach on the ... read more

i'm reading a book about faries.

South America » Venezuela » Andean » Mérida October 1st 2008

Mr Bills

well, strange how all this happens i guess. it's also strange that an absolute majority of my blogs start with the word 'well'. i wonder if i start many sentences with that. o, i dont wonder, but i am now. from now on i'll be really conscious of that i guess. but anyway, back to the point. im now in merida, and im genuinly feeling better. i still want to come home, i stil need to come home, but still, im feeling better. i got a bus from maracay on sunday night, and good god i was pleased to leave that place. choroni was fun and all, i had fun times at the beach, but i was very pleased to leave. merida itself isnt particularly wonderful, but its amazing what difference a bit of comfort makes. ... read more

Brief history of Venezuela

Venezuela was one of three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Colombia and Ecuador). For most of the first half of the 20th century, Venezuela was ruled by generally benevolent military strongmen, who ...more history

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