mérida, venezuela

Two days and two nights on the bus to get to Mérida. First, I took a bus back to Caracas, took a micro to the Metro, rode the Metro to a different bus terminal, and finally caught a bus to my destination.

On the first bus two kids were playing with me. This little boy gave me the middle finger with both hands, and he had a huge grin on his face as he did so. When a look of shock spread across my face, he changed his gesture to thumbs ups and kept the grin. The rest of the trip he kept switching between both. The mom said another young boy had taught his the middle finger and that she had tried to encourage him to use the thumbs up signal instead. I didn't want the mom to see me taking a picture of the double middle finger, so this is all I have.

The sister had no inappropriate gestures for me, but she did have funny hairstyles to give me.

At the bus terminal in Caracas I saw the remains of a scorched bus and wondered if it was a souvenir from the rioting.

Chicken and Porker Luncheria

typical taxis

After a very long commute, I finally arrived in Mérida early in the morning.

Mérida is famous for its mountains, paragliding, and being an adventure sports town with a fresh climate.

So... I decided to go paragliding.

We took this jeep and began to make our way up that winding mountain road.

On the highway the gear fell off the roof of the jeep!

My turn!

My guide told me to move my legs apart for the camera, but it seemed a bit weird to me, so I just have the partial leg going on.

I can't count the number of times I've thought 'this would never happen in Canada' during my trip. And that's for the good and the bad things, by the way.

Love how they gave us tons of juice when we bought lunch.

walkin' about Mérida