The Muddy-Pants Diaries

24 August 2005 (Wednesday) – Mérida, Venezuela

Today is Jorge Luis Borges’ birthday. Today is Yasser Arafat’s birthday. Today is Paulo Coelho’s birthday. Today is Steve Guttenburg’s birthday. Today is Stephen Fry’s birthday. Today is my birthday.

And I woke up to a dreadful-looking day, pissing with rain continuously. Thank you.

I was glad I had changed my mind about taking the highest and longest cable-car in the world, which Mérida is famous for. It would have been impossible to see anything.

Anyway, I was supposed to be on an excursion to the Paramos (highlands) with a tour agency today. I had expected to be put on a tour van. However, as expected of the level of disorganisation here, the lady from the tour agency hooked me up with 2 Venezuelan guys she happened to run into, and she negotiated with a guy who drove a very beat-up and ancient Ford to take us on this excursion. Well, fine. As long as the Ford lasts through the day and does not fall apart on us…

The driver stopped by a few towns, a monument, etc… on our way to Pico El Aguila. The 2 Venezuelan guys were highly excitable. They literally jumped out of the car and ran to various ‘scenic’ spots and kept on taking photos of each other. They were really very enthusiastic about every sight, squealing happily and running off to pose again. For me, I did not find many things particularly interesting or pretty, and just calmly walked around and observed the views around me.

The driver, when both of us were alone at one point, asked me if I was WITH the 2 Venezuelan guys. Nope, why? He indicated the ‘limp wrist’ and said that he thought they were gays. Really? I had not really paid attention. I would observe closely now, hehee.

Yep, later, I spotted them giving each other pecks on the cheeks, and one of them even reached over to lick the other’s ear. Yep, gays alright. No wonder, they love taking pictures together.

We then, together with the rest of the Venezuelan tourists, slowly climbed up a mountain through a series of zig-zagged roads all the way to Pico El Aguila, at 4118m. It was very crowded and the ascent was slow as there was obviously not enough parking spots for all the vehicles on the way there. This area had also snowed last night and it was now raining non-stop as well.

Our driver parked his car along the road somewhere and we walked the rest of the way to Pico El Aguila. Here was one of the peaks that Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, had climbed across the Andes mountains from Venezuela with his armies to fight the Spanish. And here now, is a monument with an eagle (el aguila).

But it was freezing cold now, perhaps between 0-2 C. I had a terrible headache, as the sudden rise in altitude was too much for me. Also, the wind was unbearable. The clouds covered everything in sight. I could barely walk. My fingers were as good as dead. Yet some Venezuelan show-offs were in their short-sleeved shirts! Mad mad mad!!

I had wanted to go on this excursion because the tour agency said they would visit a reserve for condors. But as it was raining and the reserve was located at 4000+m, and our car which is not a 4×4 could not drive up to the reserve, we had to walk for about 45 mins. No way I could do that in this altitude and in this pissing rain and freezing cold. So, we gave up the idea. I guess I had to try and see condors in other parts of South America.

Then, we were driven to Laguna Mucubaji which was just a pretty lagoon with a type of very interesting flora, known as frailejon, found all around the lagoon area. This plant has curiously lovely felt-like leaves. Even the stems of the budding flowers had a thick felt-like feel around them. Very interesting, one of the most interesting plants I had seen in a while.

23 August 2005 (Thursday) – Mérida, Venezuela

I did not sleep a wink last night. Not because I was freezing cold. No, I was in my fleece jacket as I was rather prepared. But the elderly couple behind me could not stop talking. Many people were shushing them up, but they were clearly unaware and carried on yakking. Finally, the bald guy sitting next to me gave them a long tirade and the couple finally shut up. But later, the elderly couple fell asleep and oh my god, it was even worse! The man snored horrendously loud!!!!!! Argh…

In the morning, I got to chatting with the bald guy, Eduardo. He is a Spanish, married to a Venezuelan lady and now lives in Mérida. To my surprise, he was very kind and helpful and offered to take me to the city centre in his car, as his wife had come to pick him up at the bus terminal. He told me it was possible to find posadas for around 10,000 to 15,000 bolivares. Yep, that would be my budget range, for I intend to stay here for about 4 or 5 days, and anything more would really cost too much!

But, Mérida, like Morrocoy, was full of Venezuelan tourists as well. This time, Venezuelan tourists who prefer the mountains. I poked around a few posadas and my lucky star was shining on me, found one single room for 12,000 bolivares. Excellent!

My original intention was to sleep! But it seemed such a waste of a nice day like today, so instead, I walked around town, popping into various tour agencies and asking for information about tours around Mérida.

Mérida is set in a valley at the northern end of the Andes mountains. If the day is clear, you can have a view of all the magnificent peaks around from the town itself. The peaks include Pico Bolivar, which is the highest at 5007m. Of course, they have to name the highest peak after their beloved liberator – Simon Bolivar. The other famous peak Pico Espejo, at 4765m is where the world’s highest and longest cable-car system ends at. Imagine, taking a cable-car all the way into the clouds! It will be an amazing experience. Then, there is Pico El Toro at 4755m and Pico El Leon at 4740m. All very gorgeous rugged mountains around. Mérida is also the site where many adventure tours like parapenting, canyoning, mountain-biking, hiking, etc… can be organised.

Some of the tours to Los Llanos and Catatumbo were very expensive. I can’t afford them, so forget about them. I then settled for an excursion to the Paramos (highlands) for tomorrow and maybe, the day after, I would go to Los Nevados by myself.

Mérida has a famous ice-cream parlour called Heladeria Coromoto which is in the Guiness Book of Records. It has up to 750, or some say, 1000 ice-cream flavours… whatever! OK, there were many many ice-cream flavour signs on the board, but the ice-cream flavours available for choosing were fewer, but still, mind-boggling. Imagine, ice-cream flavours for hamburger, rice with chicken, garlic, spaghetti, etc… and others with names like Italy, Norway, Europe, Africa, Miss Venezuela, My Beautiful Mérida, For You My Love, Sun and Shadow, Viagra The Hope, etc…

I ordered ‘Cream of Crab’ and ‘Eternal Love’. The ‘Crab’ was so-so, but ‘Eternal Love’ tasted very nice. Ah, now I can say I know the taste of eternal love, hahaa…