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Diane's DiaryJune 4 Saturday We were scheduled to take a long horse ride today- 8 hours up to 4200 meters and back to 3200 meters. The trip started off great but after a short time I realized my horse wasn't doing well. When I asked the guide he said my horse didn't have any shoes and that's why he wasn't doing well. Why they didn't shoe this horse is beyond me but the guide said Iris just called him about it yesterday. It became obvious that my horse was not confident with himself on the rocks. Also, my saddle kept slipping continuously for the entire day but he couldn't make it any tighter. My horse was making me nervous, as he was obviously very uncomfortable. I had to get off and walk uphill at various points. He was extremely uncomfortable where there were rocks and was continuously traversing the mountains. Due to the altitude, I got winded very fast when I tried to hike uphill myself. The scenery was absolutely beautiful but the horse problems I was having definitely detracted from my enjoying the trip as much as I would have liked. The trip uphill was not too difficult by horse as there weren't any problems with the trail. We stopped by a beautiful lake to have lunch at 4200 meters or 13,700 feet! I was starting to get a slight headache and didn't feel too well which I knew was the start of altitude sickness. I knew the best thing was to descend. The lake was the highest point of the trip so we would be descending from here. The downhill portion of our journey was a disaster! It started to rain, the paths had a lot of rocks so we couldn't use the horses and had to walk. The path was difficult to walk with all the rocks and was extremely difficult on our knees. I had asked Andes Tropicales if we needed hiking sticks and they had said no! I now consider hiking sticks, boots and a flashlight to be a necessity on this excursion- not a luxury! We walked downhill for over 4 hours and I didn't know if I could make it. The trail was not ride-able for us on the horses due to the rocks; narrow trail and they were now getting slippery from all the rain. We were both getting extremely tired from the strenuous hike and it was getting late in the day. When the guide showed us how much further we had to go, we both got very upset as it was a lot further to hike and it was 5pm by this time. The guide had us get back up on the horses and we forged our own trail directly down a steep section so we could save some time. He had to hold the bridle of my horse, as it was not doing well. I don't know if we would have made it down the trail before dark if he had not taken this short cut. We had to hike some more and finally got back on the horses for the last 10 minutes in a relatively easy stretch near the end- we just couldn't walk any longer. We were both utterly exhausted when we arrived at the posada. Both of Larry's feet were bleeding, his toe nails were blue as he didn't have the boots pulled tight enough, and he had a cut on his toe. We both felt like we couldn't move. The posada owners were extremely nice and gave Larry a basin with hot water to soak his feet. Although it was a light dinner, both of us weren't very hungry and didn't eat much. We were extremely tired and just laid in bed after dinner. We both felt sick and didn't feel good all evening. Again, there was no other comfortable place to sit so we sat in the bedroom. I talked to the owner for a while but I really wasn't in the mood to socialize. The owner told us she thought the route we had taken was in her words - "dangerous due to the altitude and trail"- I agree. Why Andes Tropicales sent us on this tour was beyond me- this was not an "easy" tour as they made it out to be. We were sleeping by 9pm but again didn't get a great night's sleep. We felt we were severely misled as to the difficulties of this trip. If we had been in very, very good physical condition and were accustomed to the altitude, maybe it would have been OK, but we were not, and felt the trip was far beyond our current abilities. Also, all the rocks on the trail made the trail unsuitable for normal hiking conditions. We don't want to knock the program too much because it brings some much-needed income to the local people and is a great idea to help these people. However, after 5 years, the program should be much better run and managed. They should have never sent us on an excursion like this. We would like to go on further excursions with them but will ask very detailed questions IF we go again. I would like to write a story on it for the Caribbean Compass and hope I have the time to do so. I will give the good and bad points of our experiences. The program asked us to come back to their office after we finished the trip and we will- someone needs to tell them suggestions for improvement! June 5 Sunday Our English itinerary said we got lunch but the Spanish version said we didn't - another problem with the language conversion- just one of several we found. So, since there was no reason for us to stay until lunchtime since it wasn't included in our price, we had the posada order a taxi for us for 11am. Actually, they have no phone service but one of the family members was going into town and would get a taxi for us. We had a light breakfast of the usual arepas- boy are we sick of those! We were both still exhausted and didn't want to do much. We both did not get a good night's sleep and woke up tired. This family had one TV in their room. The other posadas had no TV at all. This posada had no heat like the others. Also, the bathroom was in the hallway so this was not too great either. The grounds here were filled with beautiful flowers. This was also the only posada where the family actually lived. The taxi came as scheduled. Larry wanted to take it all the way to Merida but this would have been 35,000B. Instead we went to take a por puesto- a shared bus- from Mucuchies and this was only 7,000 for the two of us. The taxi was 10,000 B to Mucchies and 3500B from Merida to our posada so we still saved over $6 for an easy do it yourself journey. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the small bus to fill up before it left. The trip took about 1 hour and 20 minutes into the Merida bus station- from there we just took a cab back to our posada. Our room wasn't ready yet so we walked over to a local restaurant, La Nota, about 2 blocks from the posada as we didn't want to walk too far, we were just too tired. We just watched TV and relaxed the rest of the day, as we both are extremely tired. We went to our usual pizza restaurant for dinner. We wrote up a good, bad and suggestions list for Andes Tropicales so we could give it to them. We hope the program continues but they definitely need some improvements. June 6 Monday It rained on and off part of the day. We were just to exhausted to do much. We went to our tour guide right near the posada to get our jam back and he said he told the program we should get our money back for his transportation since he didn't complete his trip with us. We were very glad he mentioned this without our prompting him and thought it was very honest of him. We also thought we should be given at least a partial refund for the day since it didn't turn out well. He called Andes Tropicales for us but they asked if we could come over tomorrow instead. We walked over to Guamanchi tours to get some information on Los Nevados as we would like to go up there later in the week. Since we were so tired from our trip, we didn't do much the rest of the day. We went to the restaurant Bimbo's for lunch- it was expensive and not that great. We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and that wasn't too good either. Seems like the best restaurant we have found is La Mamma restaurant and the pizza place. Fast food is very big here since it's a large college town and students don't have much money for fancy expensive restaurants. June 7 Tuesday We stayed up till 11:30 pm just watching cable TV so got up late this morning around 8:30am. We took showers, went to our normal breakfast restaurant and took the bus to Andes Tropicales office. We gave them the list we wrote of the good and bad points about the program along with a list of recommendations. They also refunded our entire 60,000B, the price of the car ride that wasn't completed- we thought they would only give us a partial refund but they did the whole price. We were impressed they refunded the entire amount. They told us they were just putting a new posada in place in Los Nevados and would be able to arrange a tour for us. They asked us to give them some time and call back later that afternoon. The weather was chilly and rainy out but of course this is rainy season. We had lunch and then came back to the posada since it was raining out. We watched some TV and later walked around town trying to find a cheap rain poncho so Larry could have it in Los Nevados. We also looked for hiking sticks but they are expensive- $100 for 2 of them. Larry wants to buy them but I know we're not going to get much use of them so really don't think they are worth the price just to use occasionally. Both of our sneakers were coming unglued so we went to a shoemaker to get them fixed. We called Andes Tropicales in the pm but they said they still weren't finished with making the arrangements for the trip yet so call back tomorrow morning. We walked pretty far to a restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet as one of the nicest restaurants in Merida called La Alcada. We went there for dinner, it had a good view of the mountains but the food was expensive and just OK- I certainly would not go back. I had trout but it was just OK, a small portion and wasn't nearly as good as what we had in Irene's posada. June 8 Wednesday It rained out really hard last night and is chilly out. We had showers; breakfast, walked around and than called Andes Tropicales. They didn't have the tour or prices planned yet so asked us to come by later that afternoon. We went to McDonalds for lunch- we wanted to go back to the municipal market before going to Andes Tropicales office since it's nearby but didn't want to eat there. We went to the Andes Tropicales office and wound up staying until 5pm as they were still getting together the details for the trip. When they gave us the price, we couldn't believe it, as it was extremely high. Also, the hacienda they wanted us to stay in had not had any tourists yet- we would be the first ones. There was no hot water and no dedicated bedroom for tourists- family members would just vacate the room for the night. We didn't like the sound of it and told them we thought the price was too high. When we said we would just ride for one day they gave us a lower price but again we felt this was to high. We said we would think about it and call them back. We figured it out when we got to the posada and their tour was over 60,000B or $24 more expensive than going on our own. Plus, if the weather were bad, we just wouldn't ride for a day. If we went with Andes Tropicales we would have already paid for the tour so would have to go hiking or riding rain or shine. We felt like we had wasted 2 days of our time with them. We couldn't believe they wanted to set us up in a hacienda that didn't know how to accommodate tourists. We had asked what the cost of a private car would be and they said 100,000B or $40! We could go in a por puesto (shared car) with others for 40,000B for the two of us. June 9 Thursday We were woken up at 7:30 by the hotel who said the driver was there to take us to Los Nevados- Andes Tropicales had assumed we would go at any price, booked the driver and than never canceled it. We decided to go tomorrow on our own so we would be back sometime Sunday. Sunday is a dead day with nothing to do so it's no sense in us being here. We went to breakfast and than decided to go up to the zoo and back to the jam store as they have another store near the zoo. 2 men got between Larry and I when we tried to get on the bus, one tried to get off the bus as I was entering and tried to shake my leg. They were obviously after my bag but all I had in it was water and 2 jackets. I always keep my money on my body, not in the bag. I do keep a small amount of money in my pants pocket but they didn't get that either. The people on the bus told me to look in my bag for missing items after they were gone but fortunately they got nothing. Fortunately, another cruiser had warned us of frequent bus robberies so I had been prepared. Still, it was a little scary. In all the years I had taken the NYC subway system I had never been robbed nor had any attempt. Good thing I was holding my bag very tightly and had nothing in it! The zoo was OK, very small, not much and really not worth going too. Some of the larger animals like lions and jaguars were in such small cages it was pitiful. Larry's sneaker became unglued again- he had not noticed it when leaving the hotel. We were going to go elsewhere for lunch but his sneaker was so bad he couldn't continue walking on it so we took the bus back to the hotel so he could change shoes. The only other pair of shoes he has with him are the hiking boots we just bought. We went to the restaurant La Nota's again for lunch since it was close by. We got to the shoemaker's at 3pm when he opened up after lunch. He said to come back at 6pm to pick them up. We had to get them fixed today as we are leaving tomorrow for Los Nevados. Larry wanted to go back to La Mama Italian restaurant so we went back for dinner. We also bought 2 hiking sticks for $100USD. I thought it was too much money to spend for a day but Larry said he thought we should buy them so we did. He said we can use them in the future but I didn't think it was worth the money to just use a few times. We had to pack for the trip and to leave our things in the posada once again. June 10 Friday I was up at 5:30am and didn't get a good night sleep as I had stomach cramps the whole night. I'm not sure if it was due to the Cesar salad I ate at La Nota's or the "sterilized" water I drank at La Mama but suspect it was the Cesar salad. Anyway, we took showers and left our excess baggage in the posada. We walked down to take the por puesto bus to Los Nevados before 7am. We had breakfast at the panaderia when they finally opened after 7am. We asked them to make sandwiches for us but the store was crowded (although they did have 3 people working there) and they wouldn't make any. We did buy some water and soda though. I would highly recommend cruisers just bring some tuna or peanut butter with you to Merida so you can just make your own sandwiches. I wish I had bought our peanut butter with us. Be aware that a lot of the bread here is not made fresh daily as it is in PLC- arepas are much more popular here than in PLC. Anyway, we had to wait until the por puesto filled up before they would leave. We were the first people there so got a forward facing seat, which Larry gave to me - the other seats were parallel to each other and definitely not as comfortable as they did not face forward. We finally left around 8:30am. The first half of the trip was OK along a paved road yet up and over the mountain and was not bad at all. Than we left the concrete road for a dirt filled road that was terrible- twisty, turning mountain road that was not in good condition. The only cars that can possibly pass like this is 4 wheel drive SUV's. The car went slow nonetheless we all kept bumping around so hard I hit my head on the roof a few times! Thank goodness the road was dry or it could have been a lot worse. We didn't arrive at Los Nevados until 1pm. The recommended posada, Bella Vista was closed as the owners were away, but someone got the caretaker and she opened it up for us. The view from the posada was magnificent! The posada itself was nothing to write home about but at least it had hot water. Lunch was only available up the street at "El Cafetin"- it was really just a bar but the caretaker's (Cecilia) father ran it. The only thing he had to eat was small empanadas that were sitting out there- God know how long they were there but we were hungry. We had 2 small ones each and 2 beers each and the bill was 6400B - not worth it for the little we had. Afterwards, we hiked around the town a little but we were back up at altitude again, the roads were steep, the altitude was affecting us and there wasn't much to see. We looked at the other posada Guamanchi and were glad we stayed at the Bella Vista - definitely a lot better. After we went back to our room, rested and just read outside admiring the wonderful view until dinnertime. We had to have dinner up here at El Cafetin again since the posada was closed- unfortunately it's about a 2 block uphill walk from our room. It started to rain and we had to walk back to the posada in the dark and rain- we could hardly see our way to our room since there were no lights on. We were asleep by 9pm and got a great night's sleep. The room was cold but not nearly as cold as Mucuchies. |