Merida Land

Merida, VE

Kristin's hubby--Jovi-- has family that lives in a city far far away from Maracaibo. It took about 9 hours to drive there Wednesday afternoon. The beginning was a bit rough, because we realized we didn't have any music, and the air conditioning took absolutely forever to get cool. But luckily we stopped at a gas station and picked up a CD of 141 songs (mind blowing). The first song was the theme song of the Titanic. Thank you Celine Dion. It was an AWESOME CD! So many classics, sing alongs, hum alongs, you name it!!

When we arrived in Merida it was around 10:00 pm and we stopped for Shwarmas which were so satisfying (I obviously didn't get meat on mine). As soon as we stepped out of the car, the cool air made me feel so relaxed! Jovi's mom allowed us to stay at her apartment during the weekend. Jovi is 1 of 12-- so they were not at all short on beds. Vicki, Alyssa, Kat, Jenna, and I all slept in one room comfortably! It felt like sleepovers I had when I was a little girl: not being able to fall asleep because we were just laughing about anything and everything.

Jovi's mom, Nina, greeted us with open arms and a huge open heart. She woke up every morning around 4:00 to make us arepas and eggs for breakfast in her leopard print night dress. I learned very quickly that if something is on your plate, you NEED to eat it, or else! We laughed often because even when our plates were empty she was still very passionate about giving more even when we told her we were super full. Poor Jenna is a vegetarian, but Nina could not figure out how anyone would ever do that, and she was persistent about asking Jenna if she wanted pollo or carne during all of our meals with her. For our lunches Nina made amazing chicken soup one day, and rice, potato and egg salad on another.

Nina referred to us as her muñecas lindas which means beautiful dolls. I love her. Every night she came into our room and blessed us a good night with a little prayer--her rosary beads in her hand. What was most frustrating was that I couldn't really talk to her because my Spanish is so weak. And everything she said had to be translated to me. Although through her expressions and actions I felt that she genuinely loved the company at her home, she gave us lots of hugs and kisses, and she was sad when we left.

Outside of the house we went on different adventures. Thursday, we went to a botanical garden where we planned on doing an obstacle course and zip lining, but it was closed for renovation. So from there we went to a huge indoor market that basically had everything you could imagine: food, candy, clothes, jewelry, hammocks, cookingwear, art...etc. I bought a hammock which I am very excited about and I can't wait to put it up! We were all wiped out by the time we got home around 3:30, and so everyone napped for the next few hours. But instead of napping, I went to get my nails done with Kristin and Emmie (her daughter). It was quite an interesting experience because she worked with the man who owned the bar next door, so I paid for my manicure behind the bar. When we got back to Jovi's mom's house, we got ready to go out for dinner. We called it an early night because on Thursday we were heading out early to go canyoning.

No one was really prepared for such an intense day. We left for the mountains (Andes) around 9 am and got home around 5 pm. I purposely did not ask about the details of how our canyoning adventure would be because I knew I would be tempted to back out. Am I glad I did it? Yes. Would I do it again? MMMM probably not. There were three major waterfalls that we repelled down--which at first didn't seem like a big deal. The first was 6 meters, the second was 20 meters, and the third was 30 meters. Leading up to the first one was great--but the anticipation was building stronger. And if you know me at all, you know that I can't deal with anticipation of anything.

There were a few things that were imperative when going down this first fall. First, we must stay very close to the rock. And second, we must keep our chins tucked into our chests to breathe because water was exploding down of course. It sounded pretty basic until I got down into the water. I felt like I was suffocating and the water whipped me around so I couldn't figure out how to get back to the rock! It was stressful mostly because I knew I couldn't panic when I was going down, It didn't paint a pretty picture for how the second and third would go. We hiked a lot, jumped into narrow spaces, free fell down rocks, and really just tried to survive! The second waterfall was much easier than the first because we slid down on our back, instead of climbing backwards down the waterfall.

By the time we reached the 3rd waterfall, we were ready to hit our breaking point. The water was frigid, we were tired, and terrified. Repelling down the last waterfall was probably the easiest of the three because we weren't being smashed in the face with pelting water. At the same time, it also felt like it was the longest (probably because it was). When we finished, we felt really relieved, and I personally was super proud of myself for being so spontaneous; I usually never am!