Wow.....time is flying by!

I´ll start with an apology about the length of time its taken to update the blog.....its seems like a long time ago!! Anyway its been a fantastic couple of weeks! we finally left merida in venezuela and travelled to the border of Colombia! Border towns are always a little crazy...people trying to scam you etc and this was no different!! luckily we made the journey with some new friends (3 irish girls and an english guy!) and walked across the bridge to Colombia!! a great experience!! It was time to find a place to stay...Ville De Leyva had been recommended to us so we all decided to go!!! This is a beautiful colonial Colombian town off the beaten track towards the capital Bogota. I have to say it was absolutely beautiful...(although it rained more than England for the first couple of days :-) ...) After a good look around the town we decided to take a walk up a mountain....i would strongly advise thinking about this carefully if you find yourself planning the same activity...i have learnt a very valuable lesson in south america....mountains are always higher than they seem!!! ha ha!! anyway it was a stunning view of the town and the thunder and lightening added to the moment :-S anyway! I´ll stop babbling on....pictures say a thousand words....take care all!! promise to update this more often!! love pi and mj xx

hellooo everyone,

Well we finally made it out of maracay! (where we got stuck due the easter break) and headed west to Merida, a very nice town with lots of hippies, beautifull squares and a great overall atmosphere!! The hostel we stayed in was amazing! They organised their own trips into the surrounding areas so we decided to book a 4 day tour into the savannah with a group of 16 gringos (all from different countries)!!

The first day we hiked up a mountain to some hot springs (we uploaded these photos on our blog last week without a description!! sorry about that!). Anyway they were very hot and crowded (easter again!!!) On the second day we started the safari, sitting on top of 4x4 safari jeeps watching all the wonderful wildlife.....thousands of exotic birds, caiman (little crocodile creatures), capibaras (giant guinea pigs!), anteaters and we finished the day wrestling an annaconda! awesome! The sunset on the savanna was amazing and back at the camp we had a lovely dinner and went to sleep in our pre-prepared hammocks. the next day we went on a boat trip. This was incredible! We were very lucky to see pink dolphins playing around the boat, there were more beautifull birds such as the white necked heron. We moored the boats and went piranha fishing which was a fantastic experience! when we had all caught one each we headed back to camp to cook and eat them!! yum yum!

after dinner we went on a night safari to catch a caiman! scary stuff! our guide (a local native we called steve irwin...ha ha!) lassoed one from a 20 foot bridge which was very impressive! after returning the caiman safely we headed back to camp and then home the following morning. overall it was an incredible experience, we saw so many varieties of wildlife in their natural habitat.... and we met some fantastic people too! ha! love to all! xx

a beautiful walk to some hot springs in the mountains!!

an assortment of photos from Choroni!

Choroni beach

mmmm....still getting to grips with this blog thing!! and failing miserably! ha ha! Anyway here's our second update. Due to our trip colliding horribly with the easter holiday (made worse by Chavez extending it by 3 days....god bless him!) we were unable to leave Maracay by bus for a week. This provoked us to join the locals and head to the beach! The closest and most talked about being Choroni. The ride there is difficult to put into words!! The very narrow winding roads climb a couple of thousand meters through arid then rainforest landscapes. The highest point is in the clouds where we climbed to get the best view!! (in flip flops....not advised!) The next hour is spent gradually descending towards the Caribbean coast where the heat becomes intense! Our mouths were open as we saw the crystal blue sea, palm trees and beautiful rolling waves!! We stayed in Choroni for 3 days in total spending the days at the beach (turning a very attractive lobster red!) and the evenings at the Mercion (the small square where the fishing boats dock and the people meet to party). If there is one thing about Venezuela that has suprised us the most its the music!! No matter how old the car (or bus) or how shabby the building it has a huge sound system blaring out Reggaeton and Salsa music!! YES! Our hostel was a story in itself....it was the cheapest around (which says a lot) and the owner was sleeping in our bed when we arrived...but they were very friendly welcoming hosts. Cleanliness was not high on the agenda but i guess the cockroaches in the shower had to live somewhere?! ha ha! Anyway enough rambling we need to get a bus outta here!! easter is finally coming to an end...so Happy easter to you and the cockroaches!
paz y amor xxx

Maracay

After the rather traumatic flight (Turbulence, Tears and Terrible food) we arrived in Caracas. The temperature as we walked out the airport was 31 degrees, which was quit a pleasant shock. We then met our couchsurfing host Marco, who immediately made us feel welcome. He drove us to Maracay, 2 hours from Caracas, and invited us into his wonderful home, where we met his brother Jose and their mother. We had a lovely evening with them, made some traditional Venezualian food, and then passed out......