Piranhas and capybaras

Hi everybody, sorry it´s been a little while since I wrote but I don´t get the chance to internet much, which is quite a shock for me :)

The last time I wrote I was in Ciudad Bolívar, which was a pretty place but we discovered there wasn´t much to see after all - we visited the Plaza Bolívar, which every town has, the cathedral next to it, an old fort on the highest hill in the city, a museum and an art gallery so we did quite well I suppose! Anyway we decided to move on and make a long trip to Mérida, in the west of the country. We took a night bus to Barinas, fortunately we both managed to secure 2 seats each so we managed to grab a bit of sleep and the time passed a bit quicker. Once we arrived in the morning we got a por puesto to take us to Mérida. That was also a long trip, and not very comfortable - we had to climb a very twisty mountain road, going uphill and downhill all over the place, but the views over the mountains were spectacular! Luckily I seem to have got over my travel sickness a bit now and I managed not to throw up :)

Anyway I take back what I said about Ciudad Bolivar being my favourite city, it´s definitely Mérida! It´s at an altitude of 1640 metres, right in the middle of the Andes, and the climate is great, warm enough to wear a t-shirt during the day without it being as terribly hot as the rest of the country, and cool in the evenings. Perfect! It´s very popular with the tourists (so we get stared at a bit less), there´s lots to do and it´s very relaxed.

Irene and I shopped around at the many tour operators here for a trip to Los Llanos, a lowland area southeast of Mérida which is great for wildlife spotting. We intended to get one from Monday or Tuesday, but we got a good deal on one leaving on Sunday, so we went along with it. Coming with us were 2 Danish girls who were lovely, and 3 older French tourists (who weren´t so lovely) who were actually with another agency that joined forces with us. Their guide Diana was the weirdest looking woman I´ve ever met - she painted her face white, with black lips and eyes... of course I took a photo so you´ll all see what I mean! (I will put my photos on my website when I have a chance, probably when I´m back home!) She was very nice though, and knew so much about the area.

Anyway it got off to a bad start because Diana´s jeep broke down on the long drive there :( Irene and I are starting to wonder if Carla has cursed us, we have so much bad luck sometimes!! We finally got the jeep more or less fixed, but it broke down twice more on the way and we didn´t make it to the camp but all had to stay in a hotel for the night somewhere :( But the next day we arrived with a different jeep and the adventure could begin. We slept in hammocks again but this time we had toilets and showers so it was quite luxurious compared to the Orinoco delta! We went on a jeep safari with another group of tourists, to hunt for anacondas, but sadly we didn´t spot any.... but we did see loads of capybaras! They´re so cute, like giant guinea pigs! We saw a lot with babies, as it´s apparently the mating season, so sweet! We also saw a lot of unusual birds, and crocodiles and caimans (smaller versions of crocodiles) from a distance. Fantastic! In the evening there was a bit of a party, and everyone had to dance a bit... luckily I learned some merengue during my salsa lessons, which came in handy! Although I wasn´t nearly as good as our guide Manuel who I danced with among others, they´ve all been dancing since they were children! We were all keen to have a shower in the evening after the sweaty safari, but our showers were full of huge toads! So we left it till the morning...

Next day we went on a boat trip on the river. Manuel grabbed a huge turtle from the river to show us, it was enormous! And we saw dolphins again. The highlight was fishing for piranhas! The river is so full of them, we could just stand on the riverbank and throw a line in not far and you could feel them pulling almost immediately! At first I had no luck, but soon I caught two!!! We had the big ones for dinner in the evening - the smaller ones (like mine :( ) were used for bait to catch the bigger ones. After lunch and a siesta we went horse riding. We saw a few more crocs, but no other interesting animals. The riding was great though - at first Irene and I thought we had the worst horses because they didn´t even want to trot, but after some encouragement from a branch against their bum (only lightly!) they got going, and I even did a bit of galloping, it was great! Bit of a sore bum today though... In the evening when it was dark we set off crocodile hunting. Manuel and some of the other guys there caught a crocodile for us! About 2 metres long! Fortunately they didn´t keep him tied up for too long (I felt a bit sorry for him) but let him go. Even when he wasn´t tied up, we were standing about 5 metres from him, with him watching us with his beady eyes... eek!

Anyway today was the last day and sadly we had to return to Mérida. It was a great trip, shame we didn´t see any anacondas, or anteaters which also roam Los Llanos, but the memory of me screaming when I caught my first piranha will stay with me for a long time!

My time´s nearly up, and the computer is behaving strangely so that´s all for now, but more news when I have time. Everyone in Venezuela says ciao when they say goodbye, so... ciao!