Mérida y Los Llanos

Sorry I haven´t written in awhile, but I have been on a little vacation. Can I call it that? I mean, can you take a vacation from what is in a way already a vacation? Either way, I was out of town.

I took a trip to Mérida and to Los Llanos (¨the plains) for a week. I saw some really cool things and met some really nice people. Mérida draws a lot of foreign tourists as a sort of base for a lot* of different outdoor activities. (*as this is Venezuela, ¨a lot¨ is a relative term ; it would probably be better to say that Mérida draws some foreigners period) It also has the worlds highest cable car, which unfortunately was closed. But I enjoyed the town itself and spent one day watching a cool mountain bike/motorcycle/paragliding competition.

After two days in Mérida, I left with a tour to Los Llanos. The crew consisted of 4 Germans, 3 Basques (apparently very different from Spaniards, which is what it says on their passports), 2 French (C'est la vie!), and 1 American (that would be me). It was a good trip with good people and good food. We went rafting, rode horses through the plains, went fishing for piranhas, swam in a river with freshwater dolphins, and saw a ton of cool animals and birds. The anteater is by far the strangest animal I´ve ever seen not on tv, its got this huge fat tail and a really long skinny snout, and its tongue is at least a foot long. I took lots of pictures, you can see them by clicking on the picture below.

Mérida and Los Llanos

Here´s some blog points:

• According to the World Tourism Organization, Americans receive on average 13 vacation days per year. In contrast, Italians recieve 42 days, Germans 35 days, and Canadians 26 days. America is a wonderful place to live, but I´ve got to say that I think those other folks might be on to something. My German friend Leo suggested that maybe this explains why he never meets American travelers on his trips.
• This past weekend was significant for several reasons. One, Auburn won. Two, the first day of October means that I´m 75% through with the year of running every single day. Three, I went 4 days in a row without eating an arepa. ¡Bien hecho!
• I´m not sure if its a political party, or somebody´s initials, or another type of organization, but somebody is spraypainting the acronym F.A.R.T. on rocks and walls and such in a town between here and Mérida.
• What was the most popular song that was played in the bar one night in Mérida? Not a salsa song, or that 1 damn reggaeton song that I hear 3 times a day......no, it was easily a 50 Cent song.
• If you´re ever sick, call me and I´ll let you borrow my DVD with all 4 Die Hard movies. Trust me, a big dose of John McClane is the best medicine.