Merida is a mountain town and is known as the adventure capital of Venezuala due to fact that you can do most adventure activities going. Due to the fact that we have had a great rate on the local currency it has made the activities about US$50 a go which is the cheapest we will find on the trip so a lot of the group have decided to do something here. Myself, Lisa, Geoff, Francois, Anthony and Duncan booked to go mountain biking which was great fun despite the fact it wasn't quite the off road experience I thought I'd booked. We got off to a very slow start, leaving 2 hours late (another case of Venezualan time and lack of organisation) but we had a good hour going downhill on a very windy tarmaced road. After lunch we headed to a different road which was a mix of tarmac, concrete, gravel with lots of potholes leading to the tiny village of San Jose which was also great fun and I've taken pride in the fact that I didn't have to push my bike up the hills. Lisa, Duncan and Francois were paragliding and we were due to drop them off and the rest of us head back to Merida. It didn't quite happen like that though and we ended up waiting for them to do the gliding and we all came back together. I don't think any of us minded as we had a great view of the sunset. All in all a great, but long and tiring day!
Today Myself, Tony, Geoff, Lisa, Francois, Vanessa, Lesley and Terry went canyoning. For those who don't know, canyoning involves getting kitted out with a wet suit, helmet and harness and making your way down a canyon. I have also wanted to give this activity a go and it was fantastic. We waded through the river, slid down small and much larger rapids, jumped off a ledge into a plunge pool with not a lot of space either side, and we also abseiled down a 6m, a 20m and a 30m waterfall. It was actually amazing and completely worth the bruises and scrapes. I hope that the funds will stretch to another go further along the route. We now have another 3 nights in Venezuela as we make our way towards Colombia for more fun and games.
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