Ande-Man

It's been a while since my last post but I'll start off with a Bang! which was the sound (well not really, but it's the only way I know in written form without having to pay royalty money to the creators of Batman) that woke me and the rest of the passengers on the Merida nightbus at 1 AM. This is one of the last noises I want to hear followed by the bus swerving out of control whilst driving amongst some of the worlds highest mountains. The bus came to a halt and luckily we hadn't reached the curvy mountain passages yet, but we were stuck on the side of the highway with an exploded front tyre. Nobody came to harm and as soon as the tyre was switched we were off again. Seven hours later (Eleven hours on the bus total) I was in the Andean town of Mérida. The actual city itself is pleasant allthough nothing special, but as you know it's all about location, location, location. Merida is beautifully nestled in the valley with Venezuelas highest mountains surrounding it on all sides, this leaves it with a very comfortable climate and temperature all year round. The city's main claim to faim is it's Teleferico (cable-car) which is the world's longest travelling and highest climbing. Unfortunately I found out (which my brand-new guidebook hadn't) that it has been closed due to maintenance for the past three years. At my posada in town (which has the highest backpacker and gringo population I've encountered on this trip so far) I met fellow Swedes: Joanna, Johan and Tobias. After a hard night's drinking with them we decided a trip to the immense plains, which take up nearly a third of the country, called Los Llanos was a good idea. The winding trip through the almost 4000 meter high moutains was apparantly not a good idea for me, as I was throwing up throughout. By the time we were on a two hour trek through the valleys I was so dehydrated I actually passed out. Finally after 1½ days travel we reached the savannah landscape along with some Swiss, Koreans, Germans and a Brit. We stayed in Los Llanos for two days, horseback-riding (which was surprisingly fun) going on night- and boat-safaris and just generally looking at the wildlife, mostly an abundance of different birds but also animals like; caymans, freshwater dolphins, capybarra and the most important of all Anacondas. On the fourth day we took the long and winding roads back to Merida and got some rest before next days activity "canyoning." Basically you pay a lot of money to go on a death-defying trek in the moutain's rainforest canyons, absailing through high waterfalls, jumping into narrow gaps of water and sliding down natural water-slides. By the time we were done I was freezing cold, pumped full of adrenaline and one camera poorer. Yeah that's right it took me 17 days to lose my camera on this trip as the currents of the river proved a more potent threat than the Caracas gun-man. Well, well, shit happens and now me and the Swedes are taking a nightbus to Valencia where, fingers crossed, we can quickly travel to Ciudad Bolivar as my schedule is getting rather tight.