23/12/2011 - 1 day and 10 scoops in Merida

On the bus to Merida I got chatting to the family sitting next to me and, although I politely declined their offer of spending Christmas with them, we had breakfast together at Merida's pristine bus terminal (something I only appreciated due to the dirtiness and disorder of all the other bus terminals I'd seen in Venezuela) and headed into the centre together. I said my goodbyes and headed off in search of the cheap hostel I'd been recommended by other travellers, which I found with no problem and was pleased to discover only charged £3 per night! The place was as basic as you can imagine for that price but the hostess, Patty, was a lovely lady and made me feel instantly welcome.

Having gotten settled I headed to a nearby bar recommended by the girls from the hostel in Coro and grabbed a pizza while chatting to a teenager about the state of Venezuelan football while we watched the Venezuelan youth team get demolished by costa rica. My next stop in Merida was the ice cream shop which holds the Guinness World Record for having the most flavours (some 863 although they only have around 80 available at any one time). Stomach and funds permitting, I would have spent the rest of the day here but instead had to settle for trying a mere 10 flavours (I bought 8 but the nice woman who served me could see how keen I was and gave me recommendations as well as giving me a couple of free scoops). The flavours I tried ranged from the more or less conventional (and unsurprisingly delicious) ones like granola, condensed milk and roses (as in the flowers) to more crazy ones like cheese (great), maize (great), mushrooms with wine (horrible) and hamburger (even worse – it had actual bits of meat in it). With a full stomach and a sugar high kicking in fast I headed back to the hostel to find that I was now sharing my room with yet another Russian who spoke no spanish and very little english (sound familiar?). After the usual travel chatter (during which I ascertained that he was a bit of a muppet) I headed out again in search of a tour to Los Llanos (literally “The Plains” - a nearby region which is famous for its wildlife). I'd originally planned to spend Christmas in Merida but having realised that there really wasn't going to be anything special going on (except drinking at night) and everything was going to be shut on Christmas day it made sense to spend Christmas doing something fun far away from reminders of the holiday I couldn't properly partake in since I was thousands of miles away from my family. Having sorted out a tour which left tomorrow morning and would see me return to Merida 4 days later I found myself in a bar and chatting to a Venezuelan doctor while my stomach mulled over the combination of ice cream, cachapa (which I'd had for dinner) and beer.