“We’re in Mérida”, says Rachel

Since our last blog we’ve got into twittering too, which was probably a better way (avoided excessive moaning) to report our hours of bus journeys and break downs over the last few days. Worth noting though that the mood on the bus stayed pretty high and the children were really well behaved – even when it was boiling hot and we were standing at the side of the road for hours cowering in the shade of the bus. Anyway, onwards and upwards: after spending a night in a busy town called Barinas at the foot of the Andes, we wound our way up on a small bus through spectacular scenery to the big student city of Mérida.

We’re having a lovely time here relaxing. We’ve found a great posada with wi-fi and it even has hot water. It’s pretty cool and rainy up here in the mountains so that’s definitely good timing on the heated water front.  There’s more of a buzz about Mérida, more bars, lots of great places to eat, interesting music, fruit shops and this afternoon we’ve been to a fantastic, friendly market.  It seems to have taken over an old building which must have had a previous use – pretty grand 3-storey lump of concrete.  It sold fruit, veg, local crafts, plus an art gallery and berry wine (which of course we had to buy a bottle of.  We’ll be sampling it later and will fill you in on its taste and effects).

Tomorrow we’re catching a local bus to have a walk around a lovely park with great views of the Andes and another Sugar Loaf Mountain.  On Friday, we’re very much looking forward to heading off on a guided tour to a village called Jaji in the Andes and maybe to a coffee plantation.  Thank you very much to Katie (also for organising it), Sam, Han, Dave and Emmy for our fantastic going away present. We’ll fill you in on it with lots of photos.

The other thing worth mentioning is that the mayoral and governor elections are coming up – on Sunday – and the excitement and hype is definitely building – more on this and Chávez in another entry.  Perhaps once we’ve crossed the border!