From Merida, Venezuela

Hello my frozen friends!

Paul and I just got back from a trip to this place called Los llanos. It was awesome! It is slightly simmilar to the everglades, wide open, lots of water, caimons everywhere you look, and thousands of birds. We went on a boat trip down a river, seeing bunches of caimons, lots of freshwater dolphins, and catching pihrannahs (Which we then ate for dinner). Next we went anocanda hunting. We went with several locals, and they wouldn´t let Plods and I in the water, but they waded up to their waists through this swamp poking around with sticks. They started yelling, all gathered around and pulled out a huge annocanda! They say it was 7 meters (who knows? I´m not metric. It was flippin huge!). We got to hold it, and mess with it for a while. We then went on a safari, sitting out on top of a land cruiser spotting ant eaters and all kinds of crazy birds. I got to climb up a tree and pet a sleeping ant eater. That was cool! I´ve never seen an animal quite so strange.

The next day we went on a horse back ride. Paul and I are now deffinately gauchos. I assumed that it would be lame because we´d bo on lazy tourist horses and ride around a trail in a straight line. I was wrong. We went racing out accross the plain at a dead gallop. I´ve never run on a horse like that! We went for hours. We chased a herd of cows, cantered right through a swamp, then took a break and paul and I caught some baby caimons. It was an all around good time. It felt like a western movie! You The sky was so wide open and blue, it was blazing hot and sunny, and we were racing at full speed! The hooves pounded the ground and raised a big cloud of dust. It would have been a complete western if we had whiskey, six shooters, and Whooping indians, but that didn´t happen. I did my part though and added some whooping.

Back in Merida the weather is nice. You can see the mountains all around and they are just beautiful! We plan on getting some much needed sleep, getting up and riding the highest and longest cable car in the world, then watching the game tomorrow. The next day we set out on a 3 day backpacking trip. We will climb to 4,000 meters and set up camp, the next day we´ll mess around (ever so carefully) on Pico Humbolt, the second highest mountain in the country. The next day we will go back down and catch an all night buss back towards the coast and make our way to a little fishing town called Santa Fe´. It should be really fun! You probably won´t be hearing from us again. I doubt that there will be internet access in the fishing village and I´m sure that there won´t be any on Pico Humbolt.


Keep rocking!