The world´s highest and longest cable car

Hello everybody! As you all probably know by now, Neil and I parted ways at the end of our Ecuador circuit. He returned to Stellenbosch, South Africa, and I continued on to Venezuela, extending my journey with about 3 weeks. I have inherited this blog and will post updates as often as I can bring myself to do so.

My first stop, flying from Quito (where the police actually took x-rays of my stomach at the airport - must be the beard and the green passport!) was Caracas, another noisy, dirty city. Nothing about the city appealed to me and I have no pictures or words in it´s admiration. I focused on getting to Mérida, the tourist capital of Venezuela. After one night in a styles pay-per-hour Caracas hotel I got a night bus to Mérida. As Venezuela is a major oil producing country, it is much better off financially than most other countries we´ve visited and so the buses are almost comparable to those in Argentina. And just imagine filling your car from empty to the brim for under 2US$!!!!

the valley next to Mérida

Mérida itself is smaller and although touristy, it is not overbearing. It is on the busy and noisy side though, and I look forward to even smaller towns. The main attraction of Mérida is the Teleférico, the highest and longest cable car system in the world! From the bottom at 1577m to the top at 4765m a.s.l. is 12.5km that is done in four stages. The mid stations are at 2436m and 4045m. The trip takes about an hour one way and provides beautiful views of the town and surrounding mountains. From the teleférico (third or fourth stop I think) it is possible to hike to a small mountain town, spend the night and come back the next day. I went down the same day as I was planning some canyoning for sunday morning. The way down was just as spectacular as the clouds had now come in and were right over the peak. Also, to appreciate the view and nature a bit more I hiked down from the second to the first station (about 1 hour) with an interesting Australian electritian who is also floating around South America.

a very long streach of unsupported cable

end of the first stage

the view from the very top

the jagged rocks at 4765m

Eva Maria

the way down

Now canyoning is a relatively new craze here and basically involves hiking to different waterfalls and rappelling down them. The tour includes 3 waterfalls, one of 8m, one of 15m and one of over 30m! Unfortunately this is tourist low season, and even though I booked, the agency could not get a big enough group together to make it worthwhile. They simply didn´t open Sunday morning and so the hotel owner gave me my refund. Pity. I decided to cut my losses in time and am now moving to Coro where I plan to stay for a day and then move on to Chichiriviche on the coast. I will post again from there. Lloyd