Merida Tour

The bus ride was really fun we had a full moon and therefore were able to see quite a bit of the beautiful country side. It was a pretty comfortable ride as the chairs are like recliners. The only problem was that they don’t regulate the temperature, but we knew it was going to be a very cold ride and prepared accordingly but never expected to sit in a freezer. We wore sweat shirts, winter jackets, socks and had towels over us and still were freezing our butts off; result Manuela excited the bus with a sinus infection and we organized a flight back. The drive took 20 hours but is amazingly only about 990 km long, so we must have driven an average of 50 km/30mph. By sunset we drove through Caracas’s rush hour, a two hour drive through the capital of Venezuela. It’s a huge city with rush hour as we know it in our cities. The downtown area is filled with high rise buildings but the suburb is what caught my eye. You cannot describe this area as it is a mess of the ugliest housing I’ve ever seen. One shack is built on top of another like shoe boxes are stacked; you cannot describe it, all I can say is it breaks your heart to see how the poor live here. For anybody that’s been in southern California it looks like a giant Tijuana.

Finally driving up the canyon to Merida we expected to find a small Village surrounded with mountains, instead we found a huge city with traffic worse than Los Angeles. We were pretty disappointed to find such a busy city with rush hour traffic that lasts all day long, instead of the little tranquil village we had expected.

Merida (1577m/5176f) lays deep in the heart of the Andes and is separated by the high mountain from both Colombia and Venezuela. This picturesque city sits on a flat mesa, an alluvial terrace stretching for about 12 km between two parallel rivers, its edges dropping abruptly to the riverbanks. The historic quarter is at the northeastern end of the plateau, easily recognized by the typically Spanish chessboard street layout. The city is filled with Posados, small and inexpensive family-run guesthouses with a friendly atmosphere. Our friends Dale and Sandy on Snow White stayed at the most beautiful Posada Casa el Sol which is run by a Swiss couple. We stayed at Gioia’s house. Gioia is famous with the cruisers as everybody stays at her house. She lives with Sabrina, her daughter and her Mother in the old town of Merida. Her mom is an artist when it comes to decorating cakes as she makes flowers out of sugar which are absolutely beautiful and look very real. As Dale and Sandy arrived (they flew here), we sat down with Gioia and planned our stay. Early the next morning we went to the Teleferico, the highest and longest cable car in the world. It is 12.5 km long and goes from 1577m/5173f up to 4765/15630f (Pico Espejo) in 4 trams and a total of five stations, from where you can observe the highest peak of the Andes Pico Bolivar 5007m/16423f. Plan was to take the cable car up, ride mules down to Los Nevados and from there by jeep back to Merida. But unfortunately or fortunately the cable car had some mechanical problems so we took the jeep ride up to Los Nevados first and at the end of the trip realized that this was the better way to go as it is easier to ride the jeep and mules uphill rather than down hill.

Gioia told us to get a jeep for four people as they load the trucks full with tourist, barley leaving room. We couldn’t find a jeep but managed to talk the truck driver into taking us four alone, or that’s what we thought. As we left he drove into town but before we knew it we were back by the cable car station where he loaded up a whole bunch of construction material from wood to paint, you name it. Then an older man showed up with a bag full of long candles. Then another one with more construction material which they tide up on the roof along with a huge bag full of fruits and vegetables, then we finally left for the 5 hour drive up to Los Nevados. That’s what we thought again. About 10 minutes later he stopped and picked up the one guy’s wife and 3 year old son. Off we went again for another 5 minutes, then another stop where we now picked up bags of pasta, sugar, toilette paper, flour, more fruits and vegetables. Now it was not just the 7 of us but also a load of food and provisions strapped on top of the roof and we finally left for Los Nevados. A half hour into the steep drive up the mountains we had to stop, the poor woman had morning sickness, the whole drive turned into a big adventure. The road for the first hour wound up the hill it was a fairly narrow road with plenty of room for two cars to pass if they slowed down. The view over the valley of Merida was just spectacular. Then we started heading into the valleys above the mountain where the road now turned into a very narrow dirt road, just wide enough for one car to pass with a steep cliff side to the right. It was a very exciting drive and looking down the steep mountain walls gave us the willies. Halve way up the mountain we stopped at a tiny town of four buildings, had lunch and then had to change jeeps as the road was being worked on. I tell you it was tough work to schlep all the food and construction stuff up the steep hill to the other truck. Now there was not just the four of us, the old man, the couple and son, but also another tour guide and two girls from Belgium all piled into one truck, it was tight. The road was even steeper now and more primitive and the truck was listing to the cliff side, not good. I told Dale out of fun that he should move to the other side, five minutes later the driver wanted to know Dales weight and asked him to switch side with Sandy, now that worried us a bit, you have to know the path was just wide enough for the truck and the tire had about another 10 inches before it went steep down the walls to a riverbed that looked a couple of miles below us. We were all glad to finally arrive safe and sound in Los Nevados.

Los Nevados is a charming mountain village, nestled at about 2700m/8856f half way up a steep valley. The inhabitants live of tourism and every house is a Posada. We stayed at the Bella Vista which is the most expensive but also the nicest and cleanest. The view from our bathroom window was just spectacular as we were high up the hill overlooking the wide canyon, just breath taking. We paid 40 000 BS (15 bucks) per person per night which included a wonderful dinner and breakfast, can’t complain. There was another Posado we liked with hammocks hanging on the patio, so we had a couple of beers resting in the hammocks. There is not much to do as the village is very small. It has maybe three little convenient store. We couldn’t find any wine, just beer and rum but they make local hot toddy called Calientada which is a variety of mountain herbs boiled up in hot water and served with liquors, very tasty and each Posada has its unique flavor.

Early the next morning our mule adventure started. Giovanni was our guide who provided us with three mules and one horse. The weird thing was he put the big guys on the smallest mules and us girls on the big ones; we couldn’t understand that and felt sorry for the poor mules. The 5 hour ride was just incredible. You have to know that this is the beginning of spring in this area and all the wild mountain flowers where in full bloom. It was just absolutely breath taking and we savored every inch we headed up the steep mountain. All went well for the first couple of miles, but then Sandy’s, Sid’s and Dale’s mules started fighting over who’s first while my horse stayed behind them. The mules were constantly fighting over the lead position we were laughing so hard our faces hurt. The competition got worse and worse and my horse all of a sudden wanted to be in the lead as well, there was biting and kicking. We caught up with another group of mules and the fighting over the lead involved them now as well. It was a mess, Sid’s mule seemed to like me behind him as he kept stopping and my knee would shove up his butt each time he did that. That wasn’t fun but we laughed so hard as my knee was wet and dirty, actually both of them. The mule seemed to like it as it repeated this over and over. Finally Sandy’s mule got so out of hand, it even kicked a guide and tossed hurdled downhill, luckily it wasn’t very steep and he didn’t get hurt as the mule kicked his back pack. We finally had to tell Giovanni that this was not fun anymore. So he guided Sandy’s mule behind us and we had no more problems and my horse was now in the lead. We took an hour lunch by a pretty stream and from there it was another 1 ½ hour up the hill, this was the steepest part. Sandy’s mule and my horse started playing with each other, racing up the hill. One would stop and wait for the other then they would gallop up the rocks and repeated this over and over, us girls of course screaming. Finally we reached Loma Redonda 4045m/13267f our butts were sore. From here we could have taken the cable car to the top of Espejo but I don’t think Sandy and I could have made it as our lips were blue from lack of oxygen and with every step we did we were dizzy. So we headed down instead. In Merida again we had an early dinner went home and crashed for the day, we were tired.

The third day the boys went canyoning an awesome, terrifying, beautiful, insane but amazing or quite possibly the maddest thing you can do without getting killed is canyoning – climbing, rappelling and hiking down a canyon water fall. The guys had a blast. They repelled down three waterfalls starting at 8m/26f, 14m/46f and 35m/115f, what a thrill.

Sandy and I took a tour with Sabrina from Merida up the Valley through Tabay, Cacute, Mucuruba, Mucuchies to Laguna de Mucubaji and went to see the famous Condors. They had three caged one has been there for 14 years as he cannot fly anymore. He showed off for us with wide spread wings, it was awesome. This bird is really huge, would hate having one come after us as they can run very fast.

Merida is known for trout and so we ended our fun week with a wonderful trout dinner. Merida as busy of a city as it is, it has some of the best restaurants, lots of fun stores and just grows on you. We will be back and stay with Gioia again, maybe even stay for a month and study some Spanish. This was a wonderful trip filled with fun memories.

And now El Presidente Talk: the last day we were in Merida he decided to visit. We found out that he comes unannounced as he is scared of getting killed, wonder why. In his 8 years of presidency he’s never been to Merida. We were caught in the biggest traffic jam as he closed the road off to go out of town in any direction so that his busses could drive in. (Just good we flew out the next day as the airport was closed for the day as well). There were at least 60 busses that were brought in from up the valley where we were headed. I think I mentioned this before, he sends busses to poor villages, bribes them with BS 60 000, gives them a red T-Shirt and hat and takes them to where he has a speech, then the media will be there filming all of the now supporters cheering for El Presidente, so that the rest of the country believes they all like him. Some on the trucks were cheering for him because they got a day off from work and got paid almost a week’s salary for it. So we witnessed he’s crummy little deal here in Merida. He usually feeds them too but not this time, so the locals were a bit anxious as they feared a riot. Military was staged in all corners, just glad we all were out of town for this. He has done all his speeches around the country and decided that it was enough for both, Rosales has not even been around yet. El Presidente also mentioned already that on election-day it is only necessary to count 55% of the ballots publicly to determine who wins the next election. He does not know yet that Rosales has tough followers and they will make sure that every ballot is counted. As of now it looks 50/50, so El Presidente is starting to worry. Last week his opponent Manuel Rosales was at a football game which was shown on TV, as the crowd started chanting his name, the screen went blank, El Presidente pulled the plug. El Presidente has about 3 TV channels he’s on every morning with his lying speeches, Rosales has one channel and guess what, it has been blank for a week now. We also heard that El Presidente’s dad used to be a teacher in a small village, with a salary of an average of 2oo bucks a months. Now he owns the most property in the country, wonder how he got it? The latest slogan of El Presidente is: Election for Amore (Love). Vote for MY Venezuela. I need your vote, I need your AMORE. There is not on tiny bit of room left in his heart for even a tiny bit of love. He was married twice, but no one knows who and where his ex-wifes are. Rumors have it too that he is gay as most of his goonies are, they just haven’t been able to proof it yet that he is as well. This is the second time I’ve heard this about him. Most of the business owners here are so worried that El Presidente will win and are ready to flee the country if he is. The dollar exchange on the market is rolling high as they all want their money out of the country, for us it’s good as we get an incredible rate. As you see there is a lot going on here, a lot is at stake and if El Presidente wins he’s going to turn Venezuela into another Cuba. He tells his people that he wants a socialistic country like Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, but does not tell them that he only wants one political group in Venezuela which is copying Castro.

We’ll be here for the election and it will be interesting to see what will happen.