Costs pp: semicama bus from Barquisimeto 65vef, local buses 1.10 - 1.50vef, almuerzo 20vef.
We arrived in Merida just before sunset with only the phone number or our next new friend Victor. Unfortunately there was no call centre at the bus terminal so we walked down to the nearest shopping centre and tried there. Again no luck, the shop there was closed so we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Carol went out exploring hoping to find someone on the street selling cellphone time, these are quite common but this evening there was nothing. In desperation, seeing a young man walking along with a cellphone in his hand, she asked if it would be possible to use it. He didn't have much money on the phone but happily sent a text to Victor to say where we were. It worked well, Victor arrived in about 10 minutes with 2 other couchsurfers in tow, an Ozzy guy, David, and his Brazilian wife Fernanda. We all got on really well and after heading back to the apartment and dropping our things we ate cachapas out on the street together then watched a movie in the apartment before bed.
Victor, who is Enrique's cousin, is a great guy and we have really enjoyed our time with him and his friends, like our friend Christian in Santiago he is an animator and has a great computer setup with which to ply his trade. David and Fernanda had been here with Victor for a week looking around Merida and were nearly ready to end their stay and head back to Rio where they live. David is an energetic organiser and he decided we had to do something for the next day so we headed out to visit the local National Park and a place called 'Mucuy'
The temperature here is very nice, not too hot in the day and nicely cool in the evenings. We walked a long way through town to get a bus to a town in the next valley. Merida sits up in the hills and is perched in a valley and stretches to the edge of one of the hills. In that next town which we have both forgotten the name of, we caught a big jeep up into the hills where we had a walk in the forest and down to a river where David had a swim. The water was freezing cold but clear and fresh and in he went, the rest of us just watched without any desire to follow suit.
We have explored a bit of Merida but not a lot, it is a university town and regularly the students go out in revolt over something the govt or in this case Chavez has done. They are in the middle of a protest at the moment and you have to be careful to stay away from the areas where they are. In the evenings fireworks are set off and around the town there are some placards up. Looking out the window of the apartment you see lots of tall buildings and beyond tall hills covered in bush. It is a pretty area but the city isn't really pretty, in the day the hills are obscured by a haze which may just be because of the height we are at or it could be pollution, not sure.
