27-29/12/2011 - Goodbye Venezuela, its been emotional

We spent the morning driving back to Merida where upon arrival I made my way back to my ridiculously budget hostel and was greeted as an old friend. I decided to pay another visit to the ice creamery and bumped into my russian friend en route. He told me he'd just come from the ice creamery and really wasn't impressed. According to him there were only 10 flavours available, and the ones he'd tried had tasted disgusting and artificial. Poor guy; he'd gotten so close but had ended up going to the wrong place – a tiny little cafe which was indeed selling horrible artificial ice creams. Fortunately, I showed him the real place, where I was recognised by the lady who'd served me last time, and after 4 scoops of obscure yet delicious flavours he was visibly impressed.

Inside Merida Cathedral

Although I'd only really had one full day in Merida in total, I felt the travelling itch again and had heard so many recommendations for Colombia that I resolved to spend new year's eve there. Therefore the next morning I headed early to the bus station so that I could buy a ticket for an overnight bus to Maracaibo (another city in Venezuela) from which I could cross into Colombia. Incredibly, it seems to be impossible to buy tickets for advance travel (even a day in advance) in Venezuela, so despite arriving at the bus terminal at 7am I was greeted with a huge queue in front of the kiosk I needed. This being holiday season, all the Venezuelans are on the move but fortunately I spotted a guy I 'd met in the hostel who was already in the queue so I managed to squeeze my way in and get a ticket. So far so good.

Having the day to spend in Merida, I flirted with the idea of doing some paragliding, but when it turned out I wouldn't have time, I had a stroll around Merida, taking in some of the cathedrals and churches and, yes you guessed it, paid one more visit to the ice creamery. If there is one thing that would make me return to Venezuela it would be that ice creamery, but since the prospect of any immediate return seemed unlikely, I savoured every last spoon-full.

The list of flavours in the ice creamery

The bus to Maracaoibo was uneventful and the repeat showings of “The zookeeper” (a terrible, terrible film) made it difficult to sleep so I felt a little sleep deprived when I arrived into the bus terminal at 5am. I'd arranged to meet the girls from Coro here (they were also travelling to Colombia for new year's) but had quite a while to wait until they arrived so I spent the time talking to a Finnish guy I'd met on the bus. We discussed physics and philosophy and I felt my brain rejoice at the first really intellectually stimulating conversation I'd had in months. He headed for the Colombian border, and a few hours later the girl from Coro arrived, we jumped in a taxi (sharing with an old Venezuelan lady) and did the same. After formalities on the Venezuelan side, our taxi dropped us off outside the visa office on the Colombian side of the border where I bumped into the Finnish guy looking a little distraught. Turned out he'd gotten a bit confused as to the arrangements with the visa formalities and hadn't properly communicated with his taxi driver and the other people he was sharing the taxi with (all Venezuelans and he spoke minimal Spanish). As a result he now had no idea where his taxi was, which still had his massive backpack in. Poor guy.

I gave him my contact details in case he needed them but I haven't heard anything from him which is hopefully a sign that he tracked down his bag.

Me and the girls got over the border no problem and as the taxi drove to the nearest town of Maicao from which we'd catch a coach to the coastal town of Santa Marta, the feeling of relief at being in Colombia was fantastic. At Maicao coach station we changed money, got excited about colombian beer (a noticeable improvement on the Venezuela's efforts) and got on our coach and, after what seemed like hours of people getting on and trying to sell us random crap (the best being a guy who had about a 20 minute spiel about some herbal medicine which cured everything from cancer to impotence), we were off to Santa Marta. Fortunately once we got going, sleep overtook me quite quickly and I slept like a baby through a flat tire incident and the numerous police checks which the others told me about later.