Zelma’s Trip

After an overnight bus ride which took far longer than I had both expected and it was meant to I arrived in Merida.  I had an entertaining conversation with a taxi driver and then managed to share a cab with a girl heading into the city.  I was going to stay at Posada de Montana but it was full and I found a place a couple of doors down who gave me a reduced room rate.  After showering and sorting myself out a bit I went to find out about trips in the area.  I came to Merida principally for two reasons; to ride the teleferico (the longest cable car system in the World) and to go on safari to Los Llanos, purportedly one of the best areas in Venezuela to see wildlife.

I left the posada and went into ´Gravity tours´ where I found immensely friendly and knowledgeable staff.  One of my problems with my itinery in the country was the fact I had not managed to get my yellow fever vaccintation and the area around Angel Falls has a high prominence of this.  They were extremely helpful and, before I knew it, the Manager´s wife was taking me in her car to a clinic.  Unfortunately the innoculations department was not open until the next morning but at least I knew I could get my jab the following day.

Merida is known to be one of the towns for adrenaline junkies and travelers and also for its beauty.  When I headed into town it didn´t disappoint.  The streets were pleasant and, as you got towards the central square, the architecture was quite amazing.  I particularly liked the almost gothic style crows which adorned the end of the drainpipes, squirting water out of their mouths when it rained.  The centre also sports the second oldest bell in the World, at the Cathedral, which is rather funky.

After pottering about I decided to grab a pizza.  One of the things which I don´t particularly like about Venezuela, as you may have gathered, is the guns.  It´s not just the armed Police but also the military sporting their huge Russian affairs.  Security also often have guns and there is this weird kind of machismo thing which goes on where they grin at you whilst flicking their finger against the trigger.  I´d almost managed to get used to people in uniform having ridiculously oversized guns but when I was waiting for my pizza I had a cigarette outside and there was what looked like a completely random bloke in bullet proof get up, huge boots and sporting a gun basically a big as him.  I think I looked at him a bit too hard as he caught my gaze and wandered towards me.  Like a big wuss I tried to look nonchalent, finished my cigarette prematurely and rushed back inside.   After gorging myself on pizza I watched some trash on telly and had an early night.

The following morning I headed to the clinic to get my yellow fever jab.  When I say I headed, that´s exactly what I did, i.e. headed in vaguely the right direction.  When we had left the clinic by car the Manager´s wife (I´m just too good with names) had pointed at a sign and told me to remember the road.  I knew I wouldn´t so wrote it down, however I was also conscious of the fact that she had said this about three minutes after we left the clinic and that my written down road was not the road that the clinic was on but a road somewhere vaguley near it.  Regardless of this I was having a better day than average with my sense of direction and, after asking a couple of people, found the place with no problem.  I went into the clinic, told them I wanted a yellow fever jab (it´s literally fever of yellow in Spanish) and was sent to the end of a long corridor.  The staff took down my details, well they did so eventually after I tried to tell them I was British, a tourist, my name etc, when they actually wanted to know how old I was and then Iasked how much it was and they told me it was free.  Then they asked whether I wanted any other vaccinations or whether it was just yellow fever and, for a moment, I seriously thought about it.  Then I thought that I didn´t really want a live vaccine party going on inside me just before I was about to go out into the wilderness type parts of the country.  So, vaccination card in hand (technically I could have just walked out at that point without the vaccination but with proof I´d had it) I went into the cubicle.  The nurse was friendly and gave me perhaps the least painful injection I have ever had, in a very clean environment with a new sterile needle etc.  I wasn´t paranoid but you need to check these things right?  So, after about five minutes from walking in the door I had walked out with an injection and certificate.  One of the reasons for this elaboration is that I was shocked that, firstly it was free and at just how efficient it was.  I guess the reason for the shock is that yellow fever jabs are not free on the N.H.S and can you imagine walking into a random clinic asking for one and walking out five minutes later without some kind of fiasco?  I later spoke to a Brazilian jewellery seller guy in the square who told me that all health and dental care was free in Venezuela and that this was one of Chavez´ creations (well I guess he´s got to get something right).  Apparently this extends to all South American nationals and he had come from Brazil to get dental treatment, although even he was surprised that it appeared to cover everyone regardless of Nationality.  Go oil money go!

In the afternoon I decided to check the zoo out and, after waiting for too long for buses, opted for a cab.  Although there were some animals which should arguably had have more space, overall the zoo was good and there were some very cool animals.  One of the reasons I had chosen to go was that the zoo, set on a hill, also had waterfalls in the grounds.  It rained torrentially whilst I was there which meant that the walk to the largest falls was closed, but the other walks were lovely.

After exploring the zoo I got the bus back to town which was considerably cheaper (around 20p), although the taxi was hardly dear to be fair.  I opted for a huge portion of chips from a street seller for dinner which were gorgeous and just right for another early night at the posada with trashy television.

On the Saturday I was informed that the tour I was due to go on the following day had been cancelled and that they had tried to find another one with a different company for me but had been unsuccessful.  So I took it upon myself to find another tour myself.  I walked down towards the teleferico and went into all the places, none of which had tours going out on the Sunday.  One of the problems was that Sunday was election day so any tour leaders who were local had to vote.  FInally I found a company who did have a tour going out and booked it.  I went to get money, went back and was told that this tour had also been cancelled.  Slightly miffed to say the least, I went back to Gravity tours who said that they had a two day rafting group leaving the following day, that this was more of a staff outing but I would be welcome if I wanted to go.  By this point, although I loved it, I had seen enough of Merida.  The teleferico was also broken down.  I found this out when I asked a guy about it as I looked to see some signs of life.  He told me that it was broken and when I asked when it would be working…."tomorrow?"….he said, "not tomorrow, not the day after, not the day after that.." (see sometimes I can do Spanish).  I later found out that the French engineers who designed and oversaw the build of the cable car system had come for an inspection and insisted on its immediate closure.  Apparently the likely timescale for it to re-open is around two years.  Anyway, so I had seen enough of the town and around, was not able to go on the teleferico, so decided that two days rafting sounded like a good idea.