Merida and Navidad

Merida is the biggest city in the Venezuelan section of the Andes. It lies in the valley between mountains and two rivers, so it boasts very dramatic, beautiful views. The safest city, Merida has a large student population and is known as the city with the most festivals. We read about some of them in our trusty Lonely Planet guide, and our favorite is "Paradura del Niño: Game in which villagers 'steal' the infant Jesus from his crib, then search for him and celebrate his 'finding', it's popular throughout the region for the entire month of January."

We spent four nights in Merida. We stayed in a little posada owned by a sweet grandmotherly lady, where we stayed in bunk beds. We've been getting used to cold showers, but in Merida, where it gets cold at night, cold showers were a little more intense than we like.

One of our favorite places in the city was the Heladeria Coromoto, a Guinness Book of World Records holder for the most ice cream flavors (about a thousand). The list was impressive and almost covered an entire wall. They don't have all the flavors available all the time, unfortunately, so we had to choose between about 40, poor us :). We each tried two flavors, Miriam had 'Dulce Vita' and 'Rosas' (Sweet Life, and Roses), and Gabe had 'Miss Venezuela' and 'Coco Chocolate' (Coconut Chocolate). They were all very tasty. Other titles include: Power Rangers, Diosa Venus (Goddess Venus), Guinness, Becks, Avocado, Meat, Rice with Chicken, American '92, Titanic, Love sweet love, and Passion Fruit.

One day adventure took us to the top of Pico El Aguila, a mountain 60km away from Merida. We expected it to take about an hour to get there. Instead, as the roads were all little zigzagging up and down mountains, it took us 3.5 hours. Although it took awhile, the views were amazing along the way, even we before we hiked to the top. After exploring the top, we went down the mountain a little ways to one of the mountain lagoons, Laguna Mucubaji. We were thankful to have arrived at the lagoon when we did, because half an hour later, a cloud came across and shrouded the entire area in thick, cold mist for the rest of the time we were there. As it was the 23rd, we unfortunately had a really hard time finding a bus that would pick us up to take us back to Merida. We ended up waiting an hour and a half in the cold for a bus, but none stopped. We finally realized that we had to try something else, or we weren't going to get back to Merida that night. So, we decided to hitchhike. We ended up getting picked up by a truck driver in one of the biggest tractor trailer trucks that we've seen in Venezuela, so it was very interesting and time consuming (even longer than the bus) to go back down all those little winding roads through all those tiny Andean towns in a massive truck. The driver was very nice, and we were just thankful to have made it back to Merida.

We ended up spending Christmas in Merida. First a note about Christmas in general in Venezuela. We found the ideology surrounding Christmas very interesting. As it is a more Catholic country, the religious aspect is more heavily emphasized, but it also includes more modern interpretations of Christmas: Niño Jesus (Baby Jesus) delivers presents on Christmas, but Santa Claus helps! So, when children write a letter to say what the want, they send it to Niño Jesus.
Another thing you'll realize if you spend time in Venezuela in December is that people set off fireworks all month leading up to Christmas. The government tries to regulate this by limiting the sale of fireworks to after November 15th, to keep the explosions to December. So, on Christmas eve and Christmas there are small fireworks going off all day and all night.
In Caracas, although we weren't there, apparently everyone rollerskates to church on Christmas!
In Merida, it was relatively low key, people went out with their families to the plazas, but went back in before midnight.
We spent Christmas Eve with some Turkish and Argentine travelers in our posada, with some traditional Andean liqeur (Crema Andina, a tasty Christmasy drink similar to kahlua, but unique to the area) and wine.

On Christmas day, we had some fruit and tried some Venezuelan Christmas sweets. We also took a walk around the city, as do many locals.

Later in the afternoon, we were driven to the top of another local mountain and went PARAGLIDING!!! Because the strength of the wind varied, our times in the air (there were three of us) were spread out over the afternoon. We flew tandem with a very experienced pilot (18 years), so our only responsibility was to sit down and enjoy the view. Gabe went first, when the wind was stronger, and went way out over the city. Miriam ended up going at dusk, and was able to see the moon right above her kite. By the way, the moon is oriented differently than we're used to seeing it, it's horizontal as opposed to vertical. Miriam thought it was going to be scary since she is generally not great with heights, but instead had no fear at all! Gabe loved the techno music that the guide played in his jeep on the way up and down the mountain (Miriam was not so impressed). It was a blast, especially since it was Christmas (we kept turning to each other and saying "We're going paragliding on Christmas!!").

The day after Christmas we left Merida on an almost 24 hour bus ride across the country to Ciudad Bolivar. We had heard that overnight busses were cold, so we brought our fleeces and wore pants. However, we were not prepared to the extent of cold that we experienced that evening. The first several hours were manageable, but at about 6pm, it turned arctic. We couldn't even sleep it was so cold, we had to regularly rub our arms and legs to keep them warm. The bus only stopped once, and when we got out it was sweltering out. Needless to say, we were very happy to get off that bus in Ciudad Bolivar this morning (the 27th).

We are now staying in the humid, colonial city of Ciudad Bolivar until we leave for Angel Falls (tallest waterfall in the world) on Tuesday!

Number of Americans seen: 0

Number of Westerners seen: 50ish

Pictures of Chuao + Coro + Maracaibo

Chuao

Playa Chuao.
Us after swimming at the beach.

On the only road to Chuao.

First thing we see as we walked into Chuao. It was the only big graffiti in the town. How awesome is that?

A mural in Chuao. One of many in the Choroni area, as a tourist compaign to show off local art.

Some of the chocolate products that we found in Chuao. Ponche de cacao (the drink), quesillo, and natilla (?). Delicious :)

Coro

At the National Park in Coro with 26 sq km of sand dunes.

Here is Gabe, shown jumping off one of many sand dunes.

From Coro to Maracaibo

Our bus driver, as Santa Claus. Awesome.

A view from the bus window which shows one of the most significant aspects of modern Venezuelan culture, the juxtaposition of natural beauty and oil.

Maracaibo

At the Lago (Lake) de Maracaibo with Raul.


A statue in the beautiful 2 block plaza in the old quarter, the only clean part of the city of Maracaibo.

A really cool blue church in Maracaibo.

A common slogan in Venezuela, "Patria, Socialismo, O Muerte" or "Fatherland, Socialism, Or Death." Here it is shown on the national oil company building in Maracaibo.

Here is an example of the trash in the markets in Maracaibo. It is not typical to see this much trash other places in Venezuela.

Chuao -> Maracay -> Valencia -> Coro -> Maracaibo

We spent three days in and around Puerto Colombia (the area is referred to as Choroni). One of our favorite days was spent in Chuao.

Chuao is an isolated village known for producing some of the best cacao in the world, and is only accessible by boat or 20 km hike over mountains. We hired a motorboat from Puerto Colombia to Playa Chuao, a beach a 45 min walk from the village. On the walk there, we saw Cacao, banana, mango, and coconut trees. The tranquil village was built in a colonial style, and had a few shops where you could buy cacao products. We tried various types of eating chocolate, with different percentages of cacao (from white, to black, to semi pure and pure) which was the best chocolate we've ever had, you could even taste the thicker granules of sugar. Miriam's favorite chocolate was the semi-pure bar that is used to make the most amazing hot chocolate, that we also tried. As it was midday and swelteringly hot, we tried various cold chocolate products as well. We had chocolate ice cream (not as creamy as standard ice cream, but still delicious), chocolate quesillo (a flan-like dessert), and a sweet chocolate custurd. What made Gabe's day was our favorite chocolate product by far, poncha de cacao, an alcohol made from fermented cacao butter, sugar, and milk. It has a very thick, creamy texture, and has an estimated alcohol proof 60% (Gabe's estimation). Sooo delicious that we bought some to drink throughout our travels. The whole time we were there (4 hours), two stray dogs followed us absolutely everywhere, and didn't seem to be begging, so they were like our little tour guides.

After Choroni, we were headed to Coro. So, we traveled back on the three hour, crazy honking, music blaring, mountain crossing bus to Maracay, then we took an hour bus to Valencia, where we were then able to catch a bus to Coro that took just over four hours (all in sweltering heat). It is interesting to note that although the weather is very hot, Venezuelans wear pants instead of shorts in urban areas (some wore shorts in the small coastal town of Puerto Colombia). So, in order to be less obviously tourists (not that the lighter skin and big backpacks didn't give us away...), we wear pants in urban areas too.

We arrived in Coro at about 7:30pm, and were able to find our way to our posada through the bustling crowds of the main streets. However, when we went out to look for somewhere to eat (around 8:30), the crowds were gone, the streets were nearly deserted, there was a police officer on most street corners, and almost every restaurant was closed. We ended up eating pastries for dinner, and quickly returned to the hotel. One woman said that there had been more gang activity recently, while others didn't seem to know anything about it. Falcon State, where Coro is located, is one of the poorest regions in Venezuela. Another thing to note is that most locations in the Lonely Planet guide for Coro no longer exist. The Old center, where we stayed, had great cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. The Posada where we stayed, El Gallo, has a great atmosphere. The French owner wasn't very friendly, but made beautiful art displayed around the posada, and his wife was wonderful - very friendly and sweet, and their (7 yo?) son Ludovico was hilarious and adorable, Miriam played super secret batman missions around the indoor gardens and upstairs terrace with him.

The major attraction in the Coro area is Parque Nacional Medanos de Coro. A National Park of endless sanddunes. We went Sunday (20th) afternoon, so as to avoid the midday heat. We shared a taxi with a nice German couple. Miriam and Gabe each had a great time doing different things. Gabriel had been looking forward to this attraction because of the landscapes similarity to the Dune book series. So, he had fun running around, climbing, jumping off, and rolling down sanddunes. He went running off half a mile out into the dunes. He came back completely caked with sand. Miriam instead had a good time taking pictures of the dunes as the wind swept the sand across the landscape.

On Monday morning, we left Coro early to catch a bus to Maracaibo, the oil capital of Venezuela, and a port city on the massive Lago de Maracaibo (Lake of Maracaibo) . We arrived midday, and met up with one of Miriam's professors, Raul, who grew up there. We got a personal tour of the city in air-conditioning! Raul was a great guide and was able to explain a lot of the city's idiosyncrasies. Maracaibo isn't a beautiful city, but is very interesting and has a unique history and personality. Like Catalonia in Spain, Maracaibo has hostorically always separated itself from the rest of Venezuela, and even now is one of the only strongholds of opposition against Chavez. Maracuchos (people of Maracaibo) like lots of fried food and are crazy drivers. When we say crazy drivers, we mean it. There is a lot of traffic in the metropolitan area, so cars frequently back up out of the highway to try different routes. It was also the most polluted city we had seen, with piles and piles of trash everywhere. We walked around the old center, an almost continuous flea market of vendors selling fruit, cooked meat, and knock-off American brands.

We left at 9:45pm on a night-bus to Merida, a more relaxed city in the middle of the Andes Mountains! Yesterday marked the end of our first week in Venezuela, so if each week is as eventful as this one, then we're up for quite an adventure!

Peace!

Factoids:

Number of Americans seen: 0

Number of Westerners seen: 26

Avg daytime temp in Coro: 92º

Avg daytime temp in Maracaibo: 95º (according to weather.com, feels like 104º)

Avg daytime temp in Merida: 83º

Avg nighttime temp in Coro: 88º

Avg nighttime temp in Merida: 58º

Puerto Colombia Pictures

This was taken from the bus from Maracay to Puerto Colombia through Parque Nacional Henry Pittier. You can see the mountains that the bus took us over and the typical adobe building style, and that gates similar to this are popular along roads.


This was taken as soon as we arrived in Puerto Colombia, where the town meets the ocean. On the right side of the photo you can see where the boats come in to dock. On the left, you can see the old cannons that used to protect the town from pirates.

This is Playa Grande, a beach a 10 minute walk from our Posada (Hotel/Hostal). The waves were fairly strong, so we were able to play in the surf. This beach is usually very crowded (this picture was taken early in the morning, so the crowds had not yet arrived), so we spent most of our time here in the afternoon or early morning, to avoid crowding and theft. We also went to another beach, Playa El Diario, which is a 2 hour hike away through an arid jungle over a small mountain , and was completely deserted. However, we forgot our camera :(

Caracas Pictures

Here we are in our overpriced, but safe hotel in Caracas. You can't see them behind us, but there were birds (pigeons and we even saw a vulture) living in a hole in the wall in the building across the way.



This is a view of Caracas from the street where we were staying (in the business district). You can see the mountians and crazy driving in the background. A note about the cars, we were surprised to find that unlike other parts of South America, Venezuelan cars are not small and compact European cars, but large American models.



Here's another picture of the Altamira district in Caracas.

Caracas -> Maracay -> Puerto Colombia

Hi everyone!

First of all, we are safe and happy, and the only person to touch Miriam's bag was a toddler who thought she was his mother.

Monday evening we arrived at the Caracas airport at 10 pm. We took a cab to our hotel. The airport is 26 km from the city, so we got to see what the outskirts of the city look like, at night that is. We drove through valleys between steep mountains covered in shanty-houses. It was wild to be surrounded by mountains of lights.

We stayed at a hotel in Altamira, Caracas' business district, one of the safest areas in the city. The next day we met up with a friend of friend to exchange money and give us some pointers. The only way to get the local currency (Bolivares) at a reasonable rate is through the black market. If you try to change money through the official exchange companies, they even tell you to go change it somewhere else, and look at you like you're an idiot.  We had to change enough to get lunch through a exchange company, and it took 45 minutes (they even fingerprinted Gabe), yuck!

We had one of the most famous Venezuelan foods for lunch: the arepa. A thick corn tortilla cut in half and filled with various stuffings. We had the reina pepiada, which is chicken and avocado. It was the best thing we've had so far, and we'll take a picture next time we get it. 

We saw Santa Claus. 

Venezuelans, ethnically, range from white to mullato/mestizo (majority) to dark. For the most part, the women are gorgeous, as Gabe likes to point out to Miriam every five minutes. We're very thankful that we have a Spanish speaker among us, because outside of nice hotels in Caracas, no one speaks English. 

We finally walked to the private (nicer) bus station at 5:45, but by the time we got through the lines, the last bus to Maracay had left. So then, we rushed to the metro station to get to the public bus terminal across the city. We were impressed by the cleanliness and modernity of the Caracas metro (compared to the Boston T, minus the red line because it rocks, says Gabe). We arrived in a chaotic, dark, packed street, where we had to walk a few blocks (quickly)  from the metro to the bus station. We were clearly the only foreigners in the entire compound (in Caracas in general there were almost no foreigners, especially westerners). Although it was late, fairly unorganized, and crowded, it was safe. It took us an hour and a half to get on a bus to Maracay (the destination of each bus was unannounced, so whenever one arrived, a crowd formed, with everyone trying to force themselves on). 

The bus was surprisingly spacious, and the ticket collecter was friendly with us. You don't buy tickets ahead of time, instead when you get on, they take your name and phone number (in our case, our passport number) and come around with a video camera, making people look at it with their face fully shown.  The government in general has a lot of survelience and tracking protocol, even more than London and China, which surprised us. They showed a bootleg DVD of '2012' in English with Spanish subtitles (which made Gabe muy happy). 

We arrived in Maracay at 10:30pm on Tuesday and were able to grab a taxi to the hotel where we had made a reservation (one of the only budget hotels in Maracay not characterized as a 'love hotel'). We were just glad to be out of Caracas.

Maracay, a city of 1.5 million people, was not a place we had any interest in seeing. So, the next morning we walked to the bus station and left for Henry Pittier National Park. What followed was a 3 hour journey over jungle covered mountains, over windy roads, in a tightly packed bus with a loud salsa/reggaeton soundtrack. At this point, we turned to each other, smiled, and acknowledged that we were really, truly in Venezuela. 

We arrived in a small colonial style village called Puerto Colombia, on the Carribbean coast. In town, the coast is rocky and theres a dock for small motorboats. We checked into a cheap hotel (50 Bs. or $10), and went directly to the nearest beach Playa Grande, a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Playa Grande is a beach paradise, with perfect, immaculate, cream-colored sand, coconut trees, and mountains on either side. 

There are other beaches along the coast of this National Park, except many are only accessible by boat or long hike. We plan to go to Playa El Diario this afternoon. 

The hotel we stayed at was so noisy (our window, that didn't close, was right on the main street) that we decided to move to another hotel this morning. This morning we had a fantastic breakfast of mini arepas, beans, cheese, eggs, and meat. Afterwards, we took a walk to the closest town, Choroni, another colonial, 400 year old town, but more peaceful. 

More later (pictures will come when we have access to faster internet),

-the traveling duo

Factoids:

Number of Americans seen: 0

Number of Westerners seen: 15

Avg daytime temp: 90º

Avg nighttime temp: 70º

Avg number of liters of water per day : 7

Preparing for our trip

As we mentally prepare for our adventure:
-Miriam is finishing up her exams and papers in New Orleans this weekend at Tulane University.
-Gabe is wrapping up a long week of work and putting his life at home into stasis for the 27 days he will be gone.

On Monday the 14th Miriam will fly from New Orleans and Gabe will fly from Boston and meet in Miami before they board the same flight to Caracas, Venezuela! We will return to Miami on January 10th and then to our respective residences.

We have made reservations for a hotel and one of Miriam's professors who is from Venezuela has arranged for us to meet some of his friends the next day in Caracas.

Then off to the bus station to travel West along the Caribbean coastline!