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Whitneys on Tour
We arrived in Merida, in the South West of Venezuula via a 11 hour night bus from Maracay on 31st January.
Our first job before anything was to sort out our money as we have encountered an ATM problem which has dogged us since we arrived in Venezuela. Basically not one single ATM will accept either of our cash cards since we arrived in the country. Not in Caracus airport, not in Maracay and not here either. It's an absolute nightmare as having no money is the absolute worse thing when you're abroad. Fortunately Banco de Venezuela gave us a cash advance over the counter but it sure was a stressful process and we only found out that we could do that through luck. It's ironic as Venezuela wants to promote tourism yet makes it as difficult for the tourists as possible. Most of the tour operators and many hotels want dollars as payment which just adds to the hassle as you can't get dollars from anywhere unlike say Peru or Ecuador. We had to hang around for a couple of days just for bank visits as they limit you on withdrawals over the counter and we needed a fair bit of money for upcoming trips.
Merida is in the Venezuelan Andes so we've been back at altitude again. Not that this is a bad thing as the weather is pleasantly warm here and there is loads to do in terms of trips and sporting activities not to mention the worlds highest and longest cable car system.
Many people come to Merida to visit Los Llanos which is a jungle and wetlands area where you can see much wildlife such as alligators, anacondas etc on a 4 day trip. Although this sounded great and we heard lots of good things about it we decided to give it a miss simply because when we visited the Pantanal in Brazil we had seen this sort of wildlife already plus we're going to do the Angel Falls and the Amazon jungle in Brazil so we didn't want jungle overkill. Maybe we're getting a little blaze about things? Anacondas, pah, seen it done it mate!
We decided instead to do a two day trip to an area called the Chatacumbo which involved on the first day heading into the mountains to see sugar and coffee plantations and some remote mountain villages and farms. The highlight of this was the overnight stay on Lake Maracaibo, south Americas largest lake. We actually stayed on the lake itelf on a sort of platform on the water where we slept on hammocks. We embarked on a night time boat trip on small fishing boats where we saw monkeys living in trees on the edge of the lake. We were actually looking to see and catch crocodiles believe it or not. Apparantly they aren't big or threatening here but we couldn't help feeling a little nervous as we searched the banks looking for them.
Fortunately/unfortunately the guide couldn't catch one although we saw a couple of sets of their eyes in the dark in the undergrowth. The lake's main attraction is electrical storms which occur regularly and spectacualrly at night. In our haze of sleep there were a few flashes but we were too tired to watch them. Anyway, huge electrical storms, pah, seen 'em already in Bolivia!
The next morning we were out on the boats again on the lake where we saw some dolphins, albeit from a distance. We didn't realise this untill now but dolphins don't just live in the ocean but in lakes like this and in Los Llanos they get pink dolphins which live in freshwater. The area on the edge of the lake was georgous, with many birds and interesting vegetation. The tour wrapped up with a visit to a waterfall which we could walk under and some more mountain villages which were pretty and a good deal cleaner than the rest of what we've seen in Venezuela. All in all a cool and interesting trip.
On our last full day we went up the Teleferico, the cable car system which runs for 12.6km, has 4 stages and is 4800m above sea level on top. It's certainly spectacular and we were lucky with the weather up there as the views were superb although it got pretty chilly at that altitiude level and Jo felt a little dizzy at times.
We enjoyed Merida, it's cheap, unthreatening, has plenty to do, has nice weather plus a few people who actually spoke English. It's a bit short on decent restaurants, suprising for a tourist destination but guess thats being a bit picky.
We left on 5th February with our next destination, being to Cuidad Bolivar on the other side of the country where we intend to do a 3 day trip to the Angel Falls. This involves a lovely 24 hour or so two stage bus trip. Joy....(not)
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