Merida Pictures

In and Around Merida (the city where we stayed in the Andes), not exactly chronological.

Early morning view from the streets of Merida. Basically, anywhere in the city you can turn around and see gorgeous mountain views = sweet.

View from the back of our posada (hotel).

Heladeria Coromoto, Guinness book of World Records holder for most ice cream flavors. This wall lists them all. Delicious (most of the time, probably not the garlic flavored one)!

Our Christmas morning feast, consisting of traditional sweets, cake, crema andina (traditional liqeur), fruit, honey (with lots of herbs and pollen in it), and other things...

Traditional Andean drinks we had in the mountains. The left is Calentado, a hot Andean drink with Anise-flavored spirit, milk, herbs, and brown sugar. It was very very strong. The right is hot toddy, basically a rich hot chocolate drink.

Prep for PARAGLIDING on Christmas! One of Miriam's favorite parts was that the suits we had to wear made us look like bugs (the suit formed a seat for us while we were in the air). So, Gabe acted the part briefly.

If you look carefully, you can see Gabe paragliding in the background.

Miriam paragliding as the sun set.

Our Epic hike to Pico el Aguila (Eagle Peak, 4118 m or 2.55 miles)

A mountain lagoon way high up on the mountainside.

A Venezuelan Santa!

Lagoon Mucubaji, 5km (as the bird flys) from the peak. This picture would not have been possible 30 min later, as a large cloud came by, and shrouded everything in mist.