Merida
I visited Merida in Venezuela in 2004. It’s a beautiful little city in the Venezuelan Andes.
Merida boasts the world’s highest and longest cable car. However, it is notorious for constantly undergoing repairs. When I visited, it was only running up to the middle station, which is at a height of 3452 meters. The top station lies at 4765 meters. Depending on the weather, there are great views of Merida and the surrounding mountains – including Pico Bolivar – Venezuela’s highest mountain.
Merida is also home to Heladeria Coromoto – the ice cream store the Guinness Book of Records recognises as having the most flavors in the world. Portuguese-born Manuel Da Silva Oliveira is the store’s owner and creator of 806 flavors of ice-cream. The flavors are listed on a large wooden board, although there are only around sixty available each day. There are the usual flavors you would expect such as chocolate, orange and strawberry.
Then there are his own creations with exotic names such as French Rose, Wish You Were Here, Miss Venezuela, Love and Peace, Kisses That Kill, 1000 Loves, King of Kings, Sun & Shadow and Angel’s Kiss. And then there are the flavors you don’t normally expect to find in ice-cream: Spaghetti With Cheese, Chicken With Rice, Asparagus, Tomato, Tuna and Mixed Salad. I tried the tomato flavor and it certainly tasted very tomato-ey.
Merida has lots of parks and plazas to while away the time. The main square, Plaza Bolivar is a perfect place for people watching. One of the locals I encountered is a man who has trained his pet bird to tell your fortune. The bird sits on a box full of folded up slips of paper and then picks up a piece of paper in its beak. The paper has a fortune on it.
Have fun,
Aidan.
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