Norman's Blog: 2025

Wednesday, 28 May 2025

To Merida

We left Santo Domingo. The plan was to have a truck breakfast in the grounds of the hotel and then a long drive. It had started raining at 5.50am. It was still raining when the kitchen was to be set up at 7.45am for an 8.00am breakfast.

No one wants to cook in the rain or to eat in the rain. Despite having bought all the ingredients for breakfast it was decided to drive the truck further up the road and to stop at the next cafe...

...which was a trout farm and had a tower with a trout on the top. Oh, and a lot of trout on the menu and copious amounts of souvenirs.

We continued up into the mountains up winding roads with views across the valley. We soon left the tree line and had uninterrupted views across the valley.

Looking back down the valley...

...and another view.

There were a few cafes and souvenir shops at the top of the pass. The pass lies at 3,570 metres. It was cold and it was raining so it wasn't particularly inviting. There is also a lake, Laguna de Mucubaji, and the entrance to a national park. It was closed but the ranger agreed that we could jump over the wall and take a photo of the lake if we were quick. Hence the photo but it was low cloud and raining so it wasn't much of a picture. And as it was raining, we were quick.

We passed some observatories sat on the top of a ridge. The area is known for its strawberries, potatoes and garlic.

And a vocho although it was taken from a moving truck and I only saw it at the last minute, hence its not a good photo but it adds to my collection of vocho photos.

We stopped in San Raphael de Mucuchies where there is a small chapel. It was built by Venezuelan artist Juan Felix Sanchez who was born here. There is also a library and a museum dedicated to him adjacent to the little stone chapel.

Inside the stone chapel.

A monument to Juan Felix Sanchez.

We descended down the valley towards Merida past trees festooned with Spanish moss.

Looking down the valley...

...and looking across the valley.

And what a treat, two vochos in the same day.

The main church in Plaza Simon Bolivar in Mucuchies.

A statue of Simon Bolivar and in front of it is a slave boy and dog. When Simon Bolivar arrived in the town, they presented him with a dog. It is a native breed of dog, named after the town but also known as a Snowy or Paramo's Dog. It was declared the national dog of Venezuela in 1964. The breed is known for their loyalty, courage, loving and gentle temperment and for their outstanding working abilities. The slave boy's job was to look after the animal.

At last we arrived in Merida in the late afternoon. We were only staying one night so it was a whirlwind revisit to the city that I had seen just seven years before. The facade of the cathedral. It also houses a collection of bells. There is a street market down one side of the cathedral.

A statue of Simon Bolivar in the square opposite the cathedral.

The museum on one corner of the square.

The city cemetery but his photo was taken through the gates as there are opening times and the gates were locked so I wasn't able to walk around it.

The chapel at the entrance to the cemetery and unlike the cemetery that was locked, the church was open.

The view from my balcony, overlooking the cable car station that takes visitors up into the mountains. The fifth and last cable car station is at Pico Espejo, 4,880 metres high. From there it is possible to climb Venezuela's highest peak, Pico Bolivar, 4,978 metres. Merida is Venezuela's highest city at 1,600 metres so there is significant change in elevation (and temperature).

Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Santo Domingo

At the top of the main valley, it splits and a dam has been built at the confluence of two rivers to provide HEP for the community.

Other people has stopped to take in the view.

Some people had inevitably been in the way of the rising flood waters and had been rehoused nearby in new communities.

The two rivers come from different parts of the mountains and so their waters are different colours and slowly mix in the reservoir behind the dam.

Further up the valley we reached Santo Domingo. There were some fields in areas where the valley floor and sides were less steep. The ploughed fields revealed some dark rice soil and surprisingly free of stones. But after hundreds of years of cultivation, it is little surprise that farmers over the centuries have removed the larger stones.

The main church in Plaza Boliviar in Santo Domingo. It looked well preserved and modern with extensive coloured glass wndows. Not surprising as it was built as a replacement for the former church and completed in 2023. Our truck to one side spoilt the historical contect of the square.

A staue of Simon Bolivar.

Inside the church.

And we moved on to our hotel...a grand place that had once been popular and it was both large and refined but since the financal crash, the troubles and COVID, visitor numbers have yet to pick up. We were the only overnight guests.

One of the accomadation wings.

An internal corridor.

Another wing.

The games room.

Travelling across Los Llanos to the Andes

After a few hours of driving we were off the plains and after Barinetas, we were driving through the mountains of the Andes.

The road twisted and turned as it sought out the best gradient across the side of the valley.

The views across the valley were clear to see trees clinging to the side of steep slopes with occasional patches of grass where the soil was either too thin or the slope too steep for trees.

Looking up the valley, there were only trees.

The road side was covered with trees and there were only occasional breaks in the foliage to see up or across the valley. There were a few houses built on a narrow strip of ground between the road and the sheer drop dowwn to the river raging in the bottom of the valley. They had tiny fields where they grew maize or bananas or long thin terracesacross the nearby slopes.

In one break, the hill side was so steep that there were no trees on it at all, just a line of trees on the ridge line, silouetted by the bright sky behind them.

As we rose ever higher up the valley, there were clouds covering the upper slopes.

Looking ahead or back, there was a scar along the valley side where the road cut into the slope and where trees had been removed. The road twisted with few straight sections, so traffic would have to wait for lorries and trucks to negotiate the tighter turns.

We rarly saw the river in the valley below but we did see the waterfalls of tributaries cascading down the slopes to join the main river.

We stopped at a waterfall where the authorities had hacked a small car park out of the valley side. We paid our one dollar entrance fee and walked up seveal steps.