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MERIDA
and the ANDES MOUNTAINS trip notes,
including Colonia
Tovar and Caracas
MARCH
2005
by
Deborah & Steve, s/v ARGO
NOTE: All prices are for the ROOM
per night double occupancy, not
per person. All had private baths
and matrimonial bed except as noted.
US$ 1 = Bs 2,600
MERIDA
Gioia’s house
– Bs 26,000/night. Excellent
location. She has 3 rooms in her
nice and clean house she lets out.
Private bath (although one bath does
not adjoin room but is yours.) She
gives you keys and you come and go
as you like. No meals served. Upon
arrival she will give you an
orientation to Merida including
listing of restaurants and places to
see and side trips so this makes it
a great place to stay your first
night(s). She is very accommodating
and will pick you up at the bus
terminal, etc. She gives an
optional day tour to the NE to see
the condors – Bs 120,000/tour, so if
you can find others to join you then
it’s cheaper per person. Highly
recommend staying there initially.
She only checks email every few days
but will respond, best way to
quickly reach her is on her cell
phone. She speaks excellent
English.
Gioia39@hotmail.com, house
(0274)252-4807 (her mother may
answer who does not speak much
English), cell (0414)746-1121. We
spent the first 2 nights with her.
Incidentally, she will only take
English-speaking (American, Canadian
& Brits) cruisers – in 10 years she
has never had a single problem.
 Posada La Montana
-
Bs 35,000/night, 10% discount for
4
or more nights.
Excellent location. All
rooms look out onto a nice atrium;
upstairs covered outdoor sitting
area with great view
of mountains great for happy hour
and reading, and patio on ground
floor with tables great for take-out
pizza. Rooms are small, clean, H&C
water, cable TV. Recommend 2nd
floor as will get better
ventilation. Only negative is only
windows look out into atrium so air
flow and natural light are lacking,
although there is a big wall mounted
fan that provided us with more than
adequate air flow. We enjoyed the
sitting area (usually had to
ourselves) for reading and happy
hour. After we returned from Los
Nevados we stayed here for change of
pace. Highly recommend also.
GETTING TO / FROM LOS NEVADOS
The options are:
-
the teleferico (aerial cable car)
o
then a 5 or 6-hour hike, OR
o
4-hour mule ride – it’s the same
path up, over and around the
mountains
o
or reverse the order
-
4-hour jeep ride between Merida and
Los Nevados
-
or some combination.
We took the earliest (7:30)
teleferico up to level 3, then rode
mules to Los Nevados. We spent 2
nights there, and then took the jeep
back to Merida. We know others who
have done it in reverse order, or
took jeep both ways.
 Teleferico
– Bs 20,000 / person one way, plus
they hit us up for a
park fee of
Bs 10,000 (they asked for Bs 30,000 but
Steve balked). This goes from Merida
up to Level 3 (the 4th
and highest section was not open
when we went). It is closed on
Mondays and Tuesdays during low
season so plan accordingly. It’s
about an hour ride and gives you a
great view of Merida and surrounding
area. You’re up at 13,000 ft. so be
sure to wear/take warm clothing,
including gloves and hat. Having
said that, we overdressed and pulled
layers off as the clouds never moved
in as is usual in the afternoon.
TIP: Going up, sit looking down
as the view is better.
 Mules
– Bs 7,000 per mule and per guide.
When you get up the teleferico, go
immediately to line up your
mules/guides. The day we went,
there was only 1 mule and 1 burro
there so we started off with them.
You want MULES, as the burros are
low to the ground and thus harder to
ride and NOT very surefooted. Some
of the terrain is steep and we opted
to walk a few times instead of
risking falling down the mountain
should the mule/burro slip. After
an hour into the ride, some
available mules came by and so we
took one of them to ride and used
the burro to carry our backpacks
(another Bs 7,000 but worth it).
 Jeep
–
Bs 20,000 / person.
The only vehicles that travel these
treacherous
mountain roads are 4x4
Jeeps driven by the locals from Los Nevados. They leave mid-morning
from Los Nevados to Merida, so they
have time to return back before
dark. The son of the owner of
Posada Bella Vista drove us back.
TIP
– The mules are kept overnight in
Los Nevados and the guides bring
them to the teleferico early each
morning (yep, they do the 5-hour
walk both ways each day). Although
most people seem to do the trip the
way we did it, it may make more
sense to reverse the order and ride
the mules from Los Nevados
to the teleferico since there
would be more assurance of having
mules available.
LOS
NEVADOS
 Posada Bella Vista
– Bs 60,000/night including
breakfast and dinner (there is
really no other place to eat). We
stayed for 2 nights and paid a
discounted total of Bs 100,000
including breakfast and dinner.
H&C shower, NO heat in room but they
give you several thick plush
blankets that were cozy. Room
#1 in the lower building is the best
with extra window and great corner
view over valley. We highly
recommend spending at least 2
 nights
here so you can enjoy the wonderful scenery
and to reward yourself for the
effort of getting there no matter
how you did it! There isn’t much
to do here but relax, hike around a
little, and read a book in the
hammocks on the patio or enjoy the
view from several vantage points.
This was probably a highlight in our
trip, but it is rustic! The other
recommended posada is Guaramuchi
(sp?) but the rooms are not as
“nice”. (0274) 808-2520 / 808-2517
(Picture at lower right: View from
our room.)
COLONIA TOVAR
 Rancho Alpino
– Bs 60,000/night including American
breakfast. Located just below where
the bus drops you off, just west(?)
of the main street. Great location,
big room & bath with H&C water,
cable TV, and we had cabana #8 which
had a private balcony overlooking
valley. Most other accommodations
are hotels and more expensive.
(0244) 355-1470
www.hotelranchoalpino.com.
(Picture: View from our balcony.)
CARACAS
Hotel La Floresta
- Bs 80,000/night. Recommended to
us as it is in a relatively safe
location (Plaza Altamira),
conveniently located to metro subway
station, lots of restaurants around,
within walking distance to the huge
Sambil mall. A very nice park/art
gallery backs up to the back of it.
Ask for a room on the back side
(facing park) as it is more quiet as
opposed to front side which faces
the busy street. Ask for Mr. Nelson
as he speaks English. (0212)
263-1955 or
hotellafloresta@cantv.net. Best
to make reservations in advance as
it tends to stay full.
BUS TRAVEL
 We traveled by nice bus from PLC to
Merida (Merida Express,
Bs
58,000/person,
24 hour trip due to
mudslide detours, normally more like
an 18-hour trip). Nice bus from Merida to
Maracay (Flamingo, Bs
28,000/person, 12-hour trip), then 2
local buses to Colonia Tovar. From
Colonia Tovar local bus to El
Junquito and taxi to Caracas
(advised not safe to take bus all
the way into Caracas). Very nice
double-decker bus from Caracas to
PLC (AeroExpreso Ejecutivo, Bs
25,000/person, 6 hours). The long
distance buses have reclining seats,
foot rests and play movies (usually
in English).
TIPS:
-
Carry passport and
immigration papers showing that
each person has cleared into the
country. (NOT boat papers) Our
bus was boarded by the Guardia
Nacional during the night and they
wanted to see that we had legally
entered the country and paid our
fees. If you can’t prove this,
they’ll hit you up for big bucks.
We know someone who this happened to
(they wanted US$100 but ended up
paying them US$60), and also
witnessed this on our bus. We
had our original passports with us
(although a copy may have
sufficed) and we were not hassled at
all.
-
Take flashlight(s) and/or candles
with you as we experienced several
power outages on our trip.
Deborah & Steve, s/v ARGO, March
2005
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