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November 1999- On a warm Friday evening I met my friends Tom and Dan at the Metro station and we departed for La Bandera to catch our bus to the Andean town of Merida. It was 7:30 at night and we had an hour to waste in the sketchy bus terminal before departing. Once on the bus arrived I relaxed a little bit; it was much nicer than some of the buses I had previously taken in Venezuela. I had also brought along my CD player, a blanket, and some water to help make the ride more comfortable. All three of us slept during most of the 12-hour ride and arrived Saturday morning to find Rob waiting in the sunshine of the Andes. Our group walked through town to stretch our legs and get to the posada where we would be staying for the night. Once dropping off our packs we ate breakfast and took a bus up into the eastern mountains to the town of La Culata (Note: The "buses" in the town of Merida are actually just full size vans with a couple of bench seats.) I say "eastern mountains" because Merida sits on an alluvial terrace in a north-south valley that is straddled by the Andes. We hiked around all afternoon above La Culata and took pictures under the clear blue sky. The geology was very different from what I had previously been exposed to in Venezuela. It reminded me of the Sierra Nevadas in that it was mainly granite and the formations were very rugged, having been formed from glacial activity. In the afternoon we headed back to Merida by bus again. Well, this particular "bus" was overly full, but Rob warned that it was likely the last one back down to Merida so we had no other option. I suspect that the real reason Rob was in such a hurry was because some random girl with a video camera in La Culata was trying to interview him and it made him uncomfortable. Whatever the reason, I ended up sitting on the floor of this grungy van with someone's ass in my face for 45 minutes. There were 21 people in this passenger van; it nearly burst at the rusty seams. Needless to say, by the time we finally reached Merida I was in a rather foul mood and I let Rob know just how I felt about our little bus ride. |
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I quickly got over my foul mood (as I usually do) and Rob made it up to me by buying me a banana milkshake at Bum Bum, the local café/tour operator. It seemed like every other shop in town was either a net cafe or a tour operator. This was truly the tourist circuit through Venezuela. One of the nice things about the Bum Bum office is that it is directly across from the famous Teleferico cable car and offers fantastic views of the mountains and the valley below. After taking in the scenery we had a snack on a street corner where a guy was selling kabab. Rob had previously learned that the vendor is from Syria so Tom took the opportunity to impress us all and speak Arabic with this man. It was really nice that Rob had already been in Merida for a month because he could show us the best things to see in a weekend. The food was delicious, the only person who didn't seem to like chwarma was the guy across the street trying to sell hot dogs. As night approached we wandered around town before going back to the posada and cleaning up. Rob came by to get us around 8:00 PM and we went to a little restaurant for dinner. At dinner we all shared our pictures from our Roraima trip. Rob had some real good photos that Tom and I had not had the opportunity to see yet. At around 10:00 that night we went to a hip little bar on the west side of town and finally got to meet the woman that Rob came to Merida for. We had a couple of drinks (Tom had a piña colada in this giant glass, complete with little umbrella) and after I made fun of Tomi and made a vain attempt to hit on the waitress we headed across town to another bar. We had a couple of more drinks there and then about decided to turn in at close to 1:00 AM. We had a big day ahead of us...
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Sunday we awoke at 6:00 AM to go wait in line for the teleferico. The teleferico is the longest ariel tram in the world, and travels from 1577 meters in Merida to 4765 meters at the summit of Pico Espejo. We arrived at the bottom station at 6:30 and there were already nearly a dozen people waiting in line. In addition to the anxious tourists there were local children selling disposable cameras, knit hats, and coffee. Most of the people in line looked like foreigners and some were carrying backpacks to begin trips into the backcountry from the top of the mountain. The cable cars starts running at 7:30 but Rob suggested that we go early for a number of reasons including: a) Sunday if half price day and it is always crowded b) They were shutting the gondola down for six weeks the next day for repairs c) The earlier you go the less chance you have of cloudy weather d) It takes an hour to get up to the top if you go straight up We were lucky enough to make it on to the first gondola up and from there we just enjoyed the views. The tram is separated into four stations where you must change gondolas to continue on. First you see the town of Merida and the mountains on the east side of the valley lay out before you. For the first two stations the vegetation was dense and lush, it still looked tropical and not alpine at all. Going up to the third station of Loma Redonda the temperature started to drop and the vegetation changed from trees to just ground cover and flowers. We saw a few small alpine lakes at this point too. The lodge at Loma Redonda has a snack bar and a small lounge where you can sit down. We didn't stick around long enough to enjoy these ammenities though before queuing for the last leg of the gondola. Once on top of Pico Espejo the air was cold and thin. Although it was sunny there was snow on the ground at the peak. The rocks on Pico Espejo were of great interest to me. They were similar to what we had seen the day before; mainly granite that was very shiny due to the high muscovite and pyrite content. We just enjoyed the spectacular views, took some pictures, and ate our lunch on the peak. The lookout reminded me of a weather station near Lake Tahoe that I used to visit with my parents as a child. |
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We slept most of the ride down on the teleferico and made it back to Merida near midday. Once back we packed our bags and checked out of the posada. Rob had planned on taking us to some hot springs that his new flame had taken him to previously. It was another interesting "bus" ride and I alternated talking to some drunk Venezuelan rocker and Rob's dorky Czech friend whom we ran into on the way there. Our group hiked up to where the hot springs are located only to find them overrun with Venezuelans. Apparently Rob had gone on a weekday before when the springs were deserted and the water was clean. Neither was the case, however, on this particular day. None of us was brave enough to swim, but we still hung out there and enjoyed each other's company. To be perfectly honest it wasn't too cool but after the fit I had thrown the day before after the bus ride I did not feel like bitching everyone out again. The story winds down from here. Around 4:00 PM we hiked back to the main road and caught a bus back into Merida. We ate some Chinese food in town and then Dan, Tom, and I picked up our bags from the posada. We all said our good-byes to Rob and took a taxi to the bus terminal for another 12-hour journey. Lucky for us our bus driver drove like a maniac and got us back to Caracas in 11 hours, leaving me enough time in the morning to take a shower and still get to work on time. |
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