Time Sure Flies...
November 27, 2007
...when you’re having fun.
We had a short week last week, ending school on Wednesday. Ten of us took off directly after work and headed for the mountains. We drove for eight hours that day, arriving in a town called Santa Domingo late that night. It was beautiful, peaceful, and cold. We leapt out of bed the next morning and headed off for Apartederos, further into the Andes. There we visited a refuge for Andean Condors.
The Condor is the largest flying bird on the planet and it’s almost extinct. In fact, there are no more wild ones in Venezuela. The refuge has three. We learned that they mate for life and lay an egg every two years. If they lose their mate, they will not find another. These birds had all lost their mates through hunting. They are a sport bird as they live high up in the mountains and are difficult to locate. It was a gorgeous spot, even if it was incredibly sad.
From there we continue driving on up the mountain to the highest road in Venezuela. We stopped at Pico Aquila for pictures, but there was a ton of fog and it was impossible to see anything. At over twelve thousand feet, it was really cold so we beat feet back down.
Friday we headed off for Merida, a good sized city high in the mountains. We arrived in time for a bunch of protests. The constitutional reform has brought out many people on either side of the issue. We were blocked on one end of town by the no vote and on the other end by the yes vote. The yes vote has better funding with red banners, flyers, and tee shirts, but they’re both annoying when you just want to get to the hotel.
We finally found a small posada with rooms just before the skies opened up and a torrential downpour happened. The streets became rivers and the roof started leaking. We hunkered down and waited for it to stop.
Saturday we got up early to get tickets for the Teleferico (cable car). It is the longest and highest in the world. It goes in four stages, starting at about four thousand feet and ending at almost sixteen thousand feet. It takes an hour and a half from bottom to top. Each station has a café and a gift shop. At the top is a statue of the Virgin Mary. The air is quite thin. I could not stay for long as I started to feel ill. We had some tea in the world’s highest café and headed back down to Earth. It was quite an experience.
That afternoon we wound down through the mountains to Apartederos. Half the group stayed there as they were anxious to tour the local observatory. We decided that a two hour tour in Spanish would not be that much fun. Furthermore, the whole thing starts at eight and ends at eleven so we were pretty sure Zachary probably wouldn’t enjoy it much either. We said goodbye to our friends and returned to Santa Domingo. We had dinner in the Puebla, stayed in a nice little cabin, and took a leisurely eight hour drive back to Valencia, arriving around five pm. It was a fantastic weekend, even if there was a lot of driving. The Venezuelan campo is gorgeous, the people are friendly, and the posadas are cheap.
MJR
...when you’re having fun.
We had a short week last week, ending school on Wednesday. Ten of us took off directly after work and headed for the mountains. We drove for eight hours that day, arriving in a town called Santa Domingo late that night. It was beautiful, peaceful, and cold. We leapt out of bed the next morning and headed off for Apartederos, further into the Andes. There we visited a refuge for Andean Condors.
The Condor is the largest flying bird on the planet and it’s almost extinct. In fact, there are no more wild ones in Venezuela. The refuge has three. We learned that they mate for life and lay an egg every two years. If they lose their mate, they will not find another. These birds had all lost their mates through hunting. They are a sport bird as they live high up in the mountains and are difficult to locate. It was a gorgeous spot, even if it was incredibly sad.
From there we continue driving on up the mountain to the highest road in Venezuela. We stopped at Pico Aquila for pictures, but there was a ton of fog and it was impossible to see anything. At over twelve thousand feet, it was really cold so we beat feet back down.Friday we headed off for Merida, a good sized city high in the mountains. We arrived in time for a bunch of protests. The constitutional reform has brought out many people on either side of the issue. We were blocked on one end of town by the no vote and on the other end by the yes vote. The yes vote has better funding with red banners, flyers, and tee shirts, but they’re both annoying when you just want to get to the hotel.
We finally found a small posada with rooms just before the skies opened up and a torrential downpour happened. The streets became rivers and the roof started leaking. We hunkered down and waited for it to stop.Saturday we got up early to get tickets for the Teleferico (cable car). It is the longest and highest in the world. It goes in four stages, starting at about four thousand feet and ending at almost sixteen thousand feet. It takes an hour and a half from bottom to top. Each station has a café and a gift shop. At the top is a statue of the Virgin Mary. The air is quite thin. I could not stay for long as I started to feel ill. We had some tea in the world’s highest café and headed back down to Earth. It was quite an experience.
That afternoon we wound down through the mountains to Apartederos. Half the group stayed there as they were anxious to tour the local observatory. We decided that a two hour tour in Spanish would not be that much fun. Furthermore, the whole thing starts at eight and ends at eleven so we were pretty sure Zachary probably wouldn’t enjoy it much either. We said goodbye to our friends and returned to Santa Domingo. We had dinner in the Puebla, stayed in a nice little cabin, and took a leisurely eight hour drive back to Valencia, arriving around five pm. It was a fantastic weekend, even if there was a lot of driving. The Venezuelan campo is gorgeous, the people are friendly, and the posadas are cheap.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 11:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home