Telefèrico
Mèrida is home to the worlds highest cable car at about 4900 metres. It`s the obligatory thing for gringos to do here, so of course we did it. An amazing view from the top, and we felt a bit light headed after gaining so much altitude in under 30 minutes. But the Cornish part of me couldn`t help thinking it was cheating a bit - getting a lift to the top I mean.
Mucuchìes
Mucuchìes is a quaint little town that time seems to have ignored (kind of like Indian Queens but with good weather ... and quaint), perched in the almost desert like landscape de Los Andes at somewhere above 3000 metres.
I initially went there as a short day trip just to soak up the atmosphere of one these typical villages. But after talking with some locals, it turns out there are some natural hot springs about 30 minutes jeep ride and 2 hours hiking up the mountains starting just outside of town. Far too good to ignore right? On my quest to get to the start of the trail leading to the springs I ended up making friends with a local guy, Yonathan, he`d just clocked off work on a local farm at midday and was already a bit drunk with a bottle of vodka in his coat pocket. Anyway, he ended up joining me on my adventure, and despite me not being able to understand a word of his accent and dialect we became friends.
The springs were amazing, just a pool of hot water fed by a natural stream poking out of the mountain side with an epic view across the valley. After 2 hours of bathing in the hot water, we returned all the way on foot, to Yonathan`s house/shack balanced on the side of the main curving road running through this part of the Andes. This was just a hut made out of wood and mud with a corrugated iron roof; everything was basic but he had everything he needed to live - very down to earth.
The following weekend I returned to visit Yonathan again. This time I met his cousin and family who lived in the houses near to Yonathan´s. I went on another little trip with Yonathan and his cousin Roger up into the mountains to a lake. In the evening we went to the local basketball court; which like all good basket ball courts, had been turned into a 5 a side football pitch. It seemed like the place where all the kids from the houses scattered on the local mountain side went to hang out on a Saturday night, it had flood lights, and even some changing rooms, some cars had been brought down to pump out the music, and there was a little Sangria flowing. I had a great time chatting with the locals practicing my Spanish, and playing football until the early hours of the morning. Although I have to say the locals weren`t over impressed with the quality of this visiting English football superstar, I was a shadow of my former self, and far from dominated that mid field role. I blame it on the altitude, the poor lighting, and the ball was too small..and...and...
I stayed the night in Rogers hut, it gets surprisingly cold at that altitude at night. But it was a great opportunity to get to know people who are part of the poorer side of Venezuela. They have a very simple life, I guess surviving from week to week on the money they have. It was strikingly obvious how different our lives were, and it was awkward at times as conversations all ways seemed to return to money and the cost of things. And there was no getting around the fact that I had the money to go off on a 6 month holiday on the other side of the world, while they struggled to get by eating basic foods and hitching lifts everywhere.
Zoo
I was ill one day, and had nothing to do, so I went to the local zoo. Which was pretty appalling, with tigers and lions kept in very small cages, with just a concrete floor to play with. The big cats were constantly walking in a small circle, they had obviously gone crazy. And the zoo didn`t even have the decency to put signs on the outside of the cages to tell you what the animals were. Pointless cruelty.
Plaza de Toros
Well you`ve probably seen the photos and video, I`m not a fan of killing a bull like this, but nobody else seemed to have a problem, so when in Rome... After the event I ended up on a night out with some university students, somehow, I can`t quite remember how (oh to be a fresher again). But everyone was really friendly and interested to talk about everything with me, despite my appalling Spanish.
Theatre
I went to the local theatre to see a comedy, and understood very little, but enjoyed the atmosphere a lot.
A bit of a Trek
So this weekend I ended up on a two day trek into the mountains with a friend/guide. I met Rolando on another short day trip into some near by mountains. He was a part time tourist guide, who seemed to do what ever job he could to make ends meet. He was a strong supporter of the government, and his English was better than my Spanish so I thought it could be a great chance to find out the views of these kinds of people, whilst making a trip into the wilderness, and help give some work to a local who clearly needed it.
On the first day we hiked for six hours, constantly up hill of course, with food and equipment to last us for three days. We ended up staying in an abandoned shack (as it turned out Rolando`s tent that we had carried all that damn way wasn`t particularly good if it rained - which he was too embarrassed to tell me about before we set out). That night, and all the following morning it rained. Our shack was water proof thank god. Rolando had also neglected to tell me that he had no water proof jacket or trousers. Bueno.
By mid morning we had run out of water so I went to collect some from the local river, which was now swelling up from all the rain; the water was much darker than the previous evening, I thought due to all of the mud, horse and cow crap covering the surrounding land that had been washed into the river by the rain. I decided not to drink this water, however Rolando was less cautious. Within an hour and a half he had stomach cramps, a headache and diarrhea. So we decided to head back the way we came the previous day. This time thankfully, most of it was down hill as I was having to carry both rucksacks. We made it back to a jeep track at about 8pm, when it was completely dark and we were both dehydrated and Rolando in tears with the pain. By some miracle a jeep was returning to the local town from a nearby mountain lodge. Needless to say when we returned to safety, I pointed out to Rolando how he could improve the quality of his guiding for future customers. But despite all this it was an exciting trip, in some great remote scenery with an interesting person.
Language
Oh yeah, I`ve been studying some Spanish as well. Its going OK although I`m still fairly useless, and I know I have a long way to go. But I`m speaking some form of Spanish all the time here; I don`t know anyone who speaks English, which helps, and I was staying with a local family. I`ve now just about covered all of the 175.4 tenses of this damn language, so the understanding of the grammar is there, but the vocabulary is still fairly weak, and I think the brain needs time to let it all sink in properly. I`m becoming fairly fluid speaking in what they call the `simple tenses`, but I`ve got to work on developing that `subjunctive mind` I think. But if you give a monkey a type writer, and enough time, then he will eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. So I`m holding on to this fact, and I will keep at it a little longer before I throw away my typewriter.
Any advice on the best way to progress in learning a language from those of you who speak a second language would be very welcome. I am very interested in learning how to learn a language if you know what I mean, if any of you have any references to articles on the web regarding this topic, that would be great.
I have also been working on another little project recently that maybe some of you can help me with, I`ll let you know about it soon.
I plan to leave Mèrida tomorrow morning, I`m still staying with the family in Mèrida until then. I`m still waiting on certain things to happen to know exactly where I`m heading in the next few days, but I have a rough idea of where I´m heading in the next few weeks .... I`ll leave it as a surprise. In three weeks time I have a flight up to San Josè in Costa Rica, where I will continue my trip up through Central America by land possibly finishing in California to eventually get a flight back to Kingdom United.
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