Mérida and Los Nevados

No posts for a long time because I am having a nice time and when you have a nice time you don't give a shit about going on a computer.

Alright, so I took a 24 hour bus from Ciudad Bolívar to Mérida, an Andean Venezuelan city with copsmopolitan (well, as far as Venezuela goes) atmosphere. Set in a valley at about 1800 meters elavation, Mérida has a much differnet feel than the other Venezuelan cities I've encountered. I arrived with the two Englishboys, Jesse and Joel, hereinafter refered to as Dingus and Dingus. We met their buddy, a Torontonian named Glan, hereinafter refered to as Dingus, in Mérida and the scene was set.

We took the teleférico up to the top and then back down to the second-to-last station. The top station is at 4800m. You start from about 1600m altitude, so this is the tallest and longest cable-car in the world. We hiked about four hours to an isolated little town of about a hundred people called los Nevados. After some rum and tuna in the evening, the next morning mules were ordered and it was on their backs that we made it back to the cable-cars to come down.

Not much time, so I'll leave it there.

Canaima National Park and Saltó Angel

On Friday morning I took a one hour six-seater Cessna flight to Canaima, a small Pemón native village accessible only by air. The landscape slowly changed from dry hills to intense green valleys and massive tepuís, table-top mountains. My diverse and fun group for the tour consisted of 3 Brits, 5 Venezuelans, 1 Kiwi, 1 German, 1 French, 1 Spanish, and me. There, I went swimming in Canaima lagoon, which is fed by several large waterfalls. We took a traditional canoe, with a 70hp motor, accross the lagoon and then hiked to a nearby falls that was fed by the lagoon. There, we walked under, and a little bit through, the falls to rocks on the other side. In the evening, we stayed in Canaima town and drank the rum we brought with other travellers and the locals.

The big day was Saturday. We travelled up the river from Canaima towards the falls, flanking the Auyantepui. Stopping for lunch, we took a dip in the river, knowing the falls weren't far off. As it appeared in the distance, we approached with anticipation the hike to the falls. After a 45-minute scramble up the path to the lookout, we made it and saw Angel Falls in all its glory.

There is not much I can say to give you a true understanding of the magnitude of the falls. By about 20% of the way down, the water is already a thick mist. Any attempt at following the trajectory of a large drop is in vain. An amazing sight that must be seen to be understood.

I will leave it to the photos to explain...