The
first day we leave Merida in the morning with our jeep equipped
with everything we need for the next 2 days. Our adventure
tour will pass through several different ecosystems and
will start with a drive through the abundant vegetation
of the cloud forest on the road between Merida and Jaji.
We visit the waterfalls of Las Chorreras de Las Gonzales.
Jaji is one of the most popular Andean villages with a colonial
style, and in the area you can observe small family-run
coffee plantations. From here we start a descent by mountain
bike through a semi-arid scenery with many cacti. At the
end of the descent we reach the village of San Juan. In
the region of San Juan and the neighboring village of Lagunillas
we have the opportunity to observe sugar cane plantations
and maybe visit a sugar cane mill where they produce the
"panela" (a sugar cane block). We also visit the
Laguna de Urao in Lagunillas, the unique salt lake in Venezuela.
Next we visit the Coffee Museum of La Victoria. Afterwards
our route has us climbing up a mountain side on the way
to the quaint village of San Jose (2300mts) up a winding
trek with a breathtaking view over the valley of the river
known as Rio Chama. In San Jose we spend the night in Posada
Mochaba, also known as "la casa de Martin", a
typical mountain guesthouse where Martin will give us the
warmest Andean welcome.
The second day after a good breakfast we leave
the posada for an invigorating horseback outing on the way
to the hamlet of Tostos. Along the way we enjoy crystalline
rivers and spectacular mountain views. Our excursion brings
us back to San Jose for lunch and after a brief rest our
adventure goes on. After an exhilarating downhill mountain
bike run we arrive at Tierra Negra, one of the best take-off
areas for paragliding in the country, well known all over
the world. If you are ready for some adrenaline, a skilled
pilot will take you in the air for a tandem paragliding
flight of more or less 30 minutes. After a full day of adventures
we will return to Merida.