Paragliding in Merida, in the Venezuelan Andes

Author of the Bradt Guide to Venezuela Takes to the Air in Merida

On October 26, while taking part in the Venezuelan International Tourism Fair (FITVen2013) in Merida, I did a tandem flight from Tierra Negra with local paragliding legend Jose Albarran, better known by his nickname "Piojo" (Flea).

Jose has been flying from Tierra Negra for more than 15 years. When not paragliding you'll find him taking tourists hiking and mountain bilking all over Merida State with Fanny Tours, which he runs with his Swiss wife Patrizia.

If you want to fly tandem from Tierra Negra, or would like more information on the adventure sports available in Merida State, contact Jose at www.fanny-tours.com.

For full details about this and many other amazing adventures you can experience in Venezuela purchase my book: the Bradt Guide to Venezuela.

For a full description of what it's like to fly tandem in a paraglider from Tierra Negra, read an account of my first paragliding experience.

Mariano Rangel: Merida Sculptor Carves Life into Wood

Mariano Rangel is a Venezuelan folk artist from Tabay, Merida, and something of a local legend. Born in 1944, he is completely self-taught. He worked as a farmer until 1984, when one day his wife asked him for help to finish a wood carving of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.

The idea of creating the image had come to her in a dream, she said. The Virgin had appeared to her in person, so this was no mere whim, but an obligation that needed to be met.

Mariano was working in the fields at the time, driving a plough with oxen and pulling potatoes out of the soil with his big, strong hands.

After work he would try and help his wife with the carving. Neither of them had ever carved anything before, but she was determined it must be done, and he seemed to have a natural instinct.for working the wood.

By the time the Virgin was finished and painted, Mariano realized he had a natural affinity for carving and wanted to do more. Over the years he gradually perfected his skills, took on larger and more ambitious projects, and his makeshift workshop became a magnet for national and international collectors of folk art.

Mariano's sculptures have been exhibited as far away as France, Japan and the USA.

The inspiration for his art has barely changed over the years. He still focuses on the saints and virgins of the Catholic Church, and 19th century independence heroes like Simon Bolivar, with his trademark mutton chop sideburns, bright blue jacket, white trousers and riding boots.

Mariano likes to leave a section of bark showing on his sculptures so that when you handle them you get a tactile sense of the wood. He's also keen to mark the difference between his own work and ceramic figurines.

This October, Mariano's sculptures were featured as part of the International Tourism Fair, FITVen 2013, which this year was held in his hometown state of Merida. I had seen his work before in exhibitions of popular art in Caracas, but it was a great honour to finally meet the man in person and shake his massive gnarled hand. It was even more impressive to see how delicately he carved a figure of Simon Bolivar with his tools of choice, two stubby kitchen knives that he had filed down for easier whittling.

He told me that he never imposed a figure on the wood, but just handled it until the shape and contours inspired him to carve. That's how he achieves figures that seem to have an inner life, a sense of movement, something which sets them apart from many other carvers who display their works in Merida,

Mariano's success has now inspired his children and grandchildren to take up carving and there is a recognized "Rangel School" of carving.

If you are in Merida try and visit the family workshop where works of all sizes are displayed. From Tabay head for Mucuy Baja and ask for "Taller Mis Principios".

Merida Cable Car to Re-Open Mid-2014 as Mukumbari

This short but enlightening film, "En lo Mas Alto", shows exactly the working conditions I encountered on my trip on the cable car at the end of October as part of the FITVen2013 press trip with the Tourism Ministry (MinTur). 

It used to be known simply as the teleferico (cable car) but in mid-2014 when work finishes in the Andean city of Merida on a huge project to completely rebuild the longest and highest cable car in the world, the teleferico will be known as Mukumbari.

This is a major moment for the people of Merida who relied on the cable car to attract tourists to the so-called  Ciudad de los Caballeros (City of Gentleman) ever since the first cable car system opened to the public in 1960.

Back in the 1950s it took some 25 European companies three years to put together the towers, winches and wires that took cable cars from Barinitas in Merida (at 1,640 metres above sea level) to the stations at La Montaña (2,436 metres), La Aguada (3,452 metres), Loma Redonda (4,045 metres), and finally Pico Espejo (4,765 metres).

This time, the work is being undertaken by the Austrian firm Doppelmayr in conjunction with the Venezuelan government and the project is much more ambitious, not just replacing the old infrastructure but creating a completely new cable car system with completely new installations that will offer greater access to the mountain and allow wheelchair access.

The work has not been easy, and the dismantling of large concrete buildings at such a high altitude while respecting environmental concerns has proved difficult, It also represents a physical challenge to the more than 500 local men and women who have been toiling away on the project over the last few years, sometimes in severe weather conditions that include high winds, freezing mist and snow.

The video shows the conditions the workers have had to endure better than I can ever describe them, as well as the investment that local people have made in the success of this project.

For the local guides, known as baquianos, who take travelers on horses and mules from the Loma Redonda station on the four-hour trip through classic paramo vegetation to the picturesque mountain town of Los Venados, the reopening of the cable car cannot come soon enough.

As one of the Austrian supervisors told me when I traveled to Pico Espejo "this is the highest and longest cable car in the world, by it's very nature it's a challenge to achieve this but we have the cables in place, you can travel to the top now, and we just have to finish the buildings. It will be ready in June 2014, trust me".

Riding with the workers in an open-sided car that left nobody in any doubt that we were suspended on a wire with a huge drop below us, I was able to corroborate that the cables do indeed take cars all the way to the top.

 I also had the privilege of traveling down the final stretch in one of the shiny new cable cars, decked out in the colors of the Venezuelan flag and with ample viewing room. The new cars can carry 60 passengers compared to the old cars that carried 40. Once fully functioning the system will be able to take 500,000 passengers a year to the top, explained Jose Gregorio Martinez, the head of the Merida Cablecar System.

That's why Mukumbari is such a fitting name for the rebirth of Merida's greatest tourist attraction. An indigenous name for Pico Bolivar, the highest peak in Venezuela, Mukumbari means "place where the sun is born".

FITVen2013 - Talking Tourism in Venezuela

After writing a tour guide and book about living in Venezuela it was good to spend time talking tourism at Venezuela's International Tourism Fair, FITVen 2013. I even got interviewed a few times by the local media. 

Venezuela is so blessed with natural treasures that it's hard to understand sometimes why more people aren't visiting the country. Where else can you find the world's highest waterfall, Angel Falls, which cascades down from a heart-shaped mountain in a jungle setting that is so lush and wild and untouched by man that it looks like it comes straight out of the movie Avatar? Where else can you sit on the porch of a stilt house surrounded by water and watch the night sky lit up by fiery arcs of electric lightning like you can in Catatumbo? 

With more Caribbean coast than any other country, Venezuela has more than its fair share of beautiful, unspoiled beaches, islands, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and tropical rainforest.  

The seasonally flooded Llanos, or great plains, are so teeming with anacondas, capybaras, caymans and piranhas that getting up close to the wildlife is as easy as opening the door of your lodge and stepping outside. For birdwatchers' the ranches of Los LLanos are the best kind of paradise. 

Sure there are issues that affect tourism, some of them political, some social, some economic, and others that come down to how much marketing you do in what is a very competitive battle for the tourist dollar, but the raw material, the natural attractions, are all in place.  

And so when I was invited by the Venezuelan Tourism MInistry (MinTur) to attend FITVEN 2013, Venezuela's International Tourism Fair, I jumped at the chance to visit Venezuela again and to talk tourism with people in the industry. 

This year the even was held from 24-27 October in the Andean city of Merida, at the Cinco Aguilas Blancas Complex.

Merida is a great place to start any tour of Venezuela and an extreme sports and hiking destination that is worth a few days at least to explore.

It was good to hear Tourism Minister Andres Izarra began his inaugural speech  by emphasizing the importance of tourism to the Venezuelan economy.

After oil and the agro-industry, tourism comes in third place, he said, pledging greater resources for tourism promotion and a boost to tour operators and hotels with a scheme offering access to cheaper credit lines.

Minister Izarra was open enough with the international journalists to acknowledge that crime and insecurity and distortions to the economy created by the black market for dollars were problems that have to be overcome for Venezuela to become more attractive to foreign tourists.

The minister also acknowledged that in recent years investment in tourism had been low, but said that a new plan is being developed to increase promotion and boost tourist numbers. This Plan Maestro (Master Plan), includes the development of Margarita as a central tourist hub, with more incoming flights and greater links with mainland destinations like Angel Falls, Merida and Barinas.

Other plans include the long-awaited termination in mid-2014 of the fully revamped cablecar in Merida, known locally as the teleferico. 

World-renowned for being the longest and highest cablecar system  in the world, the teleferico was always a key tourism magnet for the Andean city and Minister Izarra said that tourism had fallen from a million annual visitors to about 500,000 since it ceased to function in 2008.

The new system is being built by the Austrian firm Doppelmayr and is nearly 80% completed. When it is finished it will be able to transport 500,000 tourists a year to Pico Espejo (4,765 metres, 15,633 ft) at the foot of Venezuela's highest mountain Pico Bolivar (4,978 metres, 16,332 ft).

Luckily, as part of the trip to FitVen2013 I was allowed to travel up to the cablecar station at Pico Espejo with the other invited journalists, and it was amazing to ride with the workers in their open-sided cars and see them engaged in the backbreaking work of dismantling the old concrete infrastructure at such a high altitude.

More than one of the workers had the telltale stains on the teeth of the strong local chewing tobacco, called chimo, that has been used since ancient times in the Venezuelan Andes to keep out the cold and stave off hunger and exhaustion.

It was reassuring to see that the cable system is all in place and operational, leaving the construction of the concrete stations as the last major infrastructure task facing the workers.

Another plan announced by the minister is the completion of the cablecar system on the Caribbean side of the Avila mountain in Caracas, which would allow passengers to travel from Caracas up to the Humboldt Hotel (at 2,140 metres above sea level) and then down to the beaches of Macuto. The Caracas-Macuto journey time - on a day with no lines to wait in - is estimated at 45 minutes. 

The cablecar is expected to be operational by 2015, and in the meantime the government is planning to reopen key hotels, such as the former Melia Caribe, and Macuto Sheraton. 

This is the 8th edition of Venezuela's annual FitVen tourism fair, and it attracted large crowds to the three pavilions. One showcased tourism in Venezuela and the different regions and states were represented; another focused on International Destinations with stands from Germany, Ecuador, Spain, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Japan and Russia; a third was for tour operators to hold business meetings and there was another area where food and handicrafts from Venezuela were on sale to visitors. 

It was certainly busy, final figures on the last day showed some 58,000 people passed through the doors of the Cinco Aguilas Blancas Complex. 

Having traveled so extensively in Venezuela to many places that my Venezuelan friends at the time considered to be no more than "monte and culebra" (scrubland and snakes), it was refreshing to see so many young Venezuelans eager to learn more about the tourism alternatives in their own country.

For more information about visit the official FitVen2013 website here:

Venezuela Guide on Instagram - FITVen2013

INSTAGRAMEANDO ANDO YO...

In October 2013 I was invited to travel around Venezuela on a Press Trip organized by the Tourism Ministry (MinTur) in the run up to the FITVen2013 International Tourism Fair.

As I lost my laptop and camera en route to Venezuela I was forced to improvise. Armed only with an HTC One S mobile phone with an 8 megapixel camera, I decided to document my trip on Instagram.

Through trial and error, I learnt how to get the most out of a single shot and train my eye to find images that would work in a square. The filters I just responded to depending on my mood that day. The feedback on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter has been really encouraging.

I am pleased with the results.

The restrictions of Instagram forced me to be more creative and think carefully before taking each shot, which helped me to see Venezuela in a different way.

I came home with some great new images of Caracas, the islands of Margarita, Coche and Cubagua, rafting in Barinas, paragliding in Mérida and the folk festivals of the Pueblos del Sur, remote villages in the Andean mountains south of Merida.

To see more of my Instagram images follow me at @Venezuelaguide - http://instagram.com/p/gJ0qZdNZZG/



Street Theatre: In the area around Plaza el Venezolano and Plaza Bolivar in the centre of Caracas, actors recreate key scenes from Venezuela's history by bringing to life famous characters from the past who tell the story of their time. Here, the dictator Juan Vicente Gomez takes a stroll with Independence hero Francisco de Miranda.  



Whitewater Rafting: On the Rio Acequias in Barinas, adventure tour company Arassari Trek took us on a bumpy, adrenaline-pumping ride down a Grade III stretch of foaming rapids. It helps if everybody rows together. For more details of rafting in Barinas contact Arassari Trek

Remote Andean Villages: Just outside San Jose de Acequias, one of the so-called Pueblos del Sur, we came across this tiny chapel dedicated to San Isidro Labrador, the patron sain of farmers. 

Vibrant Folk Festivals: The Locainas de Santa Rita are gentlemen who dress like ladies for a day during the festivities in honor of San Isidro, as Santa Rita in popular lore is the wife of the saint. As their name suggests, these ladies can get quite "loco" during the festivities held on 21-22 May, and after dancing with their sticks they try to liven up the festive mood by flirting with the men in the crowd.





Paragliding in Merida: Tierra Negra, close to the Andean city of Merida, is one of the best paragliding spots in Venezuela. Jose Albarran of Fanny Tours is one of the pioneers of paragliding in Venezuela and a great pilot for a tandem flight. Known to his friends as "Piojo" (Flea), due to his uncanny ability to scale sheer rock faces, Jose is one of the founders of the paragliding school in the nearby village of Las Gonzales, close to the landing site. The youngsters of La Gonzalez are now being trained to become the paragliding champions of the future. Watch a video of me paragliding with Piojo here

For more details of paragliding in Merida contact Jose at Fanny Tours

A video tour of Venezuela's top tourist spots

The latest tourism campaign in Venezuela tries to widen the scope from the usual Margarita, Merida and Angel Falls combination to take in some of the other top destinations in the country.

It's a great way to get a quick overview of the country and the subtitles in English give a fairly good description of the places featured.

Geodyssey promotes tourism to Venezuela in UK

While taking part in a meet-the-author event for the Bradt Guide to Venezuela at Destinations Holiday and Travel Show in Earl's Court, London, on 5 February, I met Gillian Howe of travel firm Geodyssey, the UK's top holiday company specializing in trips to Venezuela.

Geodyssey's brochure on Venezuela is a work of art, with excellent photos from every region of the country.

Destinations was a great opportunity to meet and greet travellers planning trips to Venezuela, sign a few guide book and give out tips on where to go and what to see.

Sculptor of Virgen de La Paz dies

The artist Manuel de la Fuente, who created a famous monument to the Virgen de La Paz in Trujillo, has died in the city of Merida. He was 78 years old.

Born in Cadiz, Spain, De la Fuente studied sculpture, drawing and the history of art in Seville, where he first found work as an art teacher.

In 1958 he moved to Venezuela and in 1959 he arrived in Merida, where he taught art and architecture for forty years at the University of the Andes (ULA).

La Virgen de la Paz is a truly monumental sculpture. Set atop a hilltop at 1,700 metres above sea level, the painted concrete structure showing the Virgin Mary with a dove of peace in her right hand is nearly 47 metres high and weighs 1,200 tonnes.

Visitors can climb up the centre of the sculpture to reach the topmost of the five viewpoints which give views over Trujillo to parts of Zulia and Merida states.

But De la Fuente's best-loved sculpture must be the large bronze of La Loca Luz Caraballo, located at 3,500 m above sea level in the park of the same name in the mountain village of Apartaderos, just outside Merida.

The woman with the tortured look and her twisted hand pointing off into the distance is Luz Caraballo, a mother who went mad after losing five of her children in different ways.

Legend has it that two of her boys joined the army of Independence hero Simon Bolivar as he passed through the Andes.

Luz Caraballo became an iconic figure after her personal tragedy was immortalized in a poem by Andres Eloy Blanco.

De la Fuente completed the sculpture in 1967.

Catatumbo Lightning - a Venezuelan mystery

Anybody who has travelled to the houses on stilts in the south of Lake Maracaibo to witness firsthand the mysterious natural phenomenon known as Catatumbo Lightning, or El Relampago del Catatumbo in Spanish, will understand the awe that these great arcs of thunderless lightning inspire.

The lightning can be seen on an average of 160 nights a year, with the electrical storms lasting up to 10 hours and with up to 280 lightning flashes an hour.

One of the first to pen an account of the phenomenon, and so bring it to the attention of the wider world, was the German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who described the powerful and sustained lightning flashes as "electrical explosions that are like a phosphorescent gleam".

Humboldt referred to the phenomenon as "El Farol de Maracaybo", or "The Lighthouse of Maracaibo", because navigators on the lake are "guided by it as by a lighthouse".

"The distance, greater than 40 leagues, at which the light is observed, has led to the supposition that it might be owing to the effects of a thunderstorm, or of electrical explosions which might daily take place in a pass in the mountains," wrote Humboldt in his famous book "Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America."

While it can be seen from hundreds of miles away, the main area in which Catatumbo Lightning is produced is in the sky over the mouth of the Catatumbo River as it empties into the south of Lake Maracaibo, known in Spanish as Sur del Lago.

Most tourist trips organized from Merida start at the small fishing village of Puerto Concha, on the shores of the Sur del Lago, from where boat trips can be arranged to houses on stilts in the Las Cienagas de Juan Manuel National Park, where the best views are available.

Congo Mirador is a community of some 120 stilt-built shacks reached in two hours by boat from Puerto Concha.

As the documentary suggests, there is still no accepted single cause for the phenomenon, which remains a mystery, although most theories are linked to the atmospheric conditions that result from heavy winds blowing down from the Andes Mountains in Merida, which then collide with ionised gases - specifically the methane created by the decomposition of organic matter in local marshes.

One of the companies offering Catatumbo trips from Merida is

Fanny Tours and Adventures

Paragliding in Merida - On a wing and a prayer

Following his inner adrenaline junkie, Russell Maddicks overcame his fear of heights to fly high in the Venezuelan Andes with paragliding pioneer Jose Albarran of Fanny Tours.

UPDATE: To see a video of my latest tandem flight with Piojo in October 2013 click here

After all the macho chat on the drive up the mountain, it was a sobering moment when I finally stepped into the harness and peered over the edge to the broiling waters of the Chama River in the valley far below.

The jump off point at Tierra Negra is at 1,500 metres above sea level, and I was now faced with the prospect of a 900-metre descent to the village of Las Gonzalez.

In a few minutes, I thought with a sinking feeling, I shall have to step off this mountain with only a flimsy length of brightly-coloured fabric tied to my waist to stop me plunging onto the jagged rocks of the Chama Valley.

Somehow, risking my life for a "cool experience" didn't seem like such a good idea. But I wouldn't be alone, thank god, I would be flying tandem, meaning a qualified paraglider would be taking me up and hopefully down in one piece.

It was a good idea to go tandem. Given the force of the wind up at Tierra Negra, If I jumped off this mountain on my own I'd probably be blown all the way to Brazil.

It had all started down in the Andean city of Merida, Venezuela's most popular tourist destination and a rapidly growing centre for adventure sports.

Passing by Fanny Tours I bumped into Jose Albarran, something of a local legend for his exploits as a mountaineer and a pioneer of paragliding, which is known here as "parapente".

Jose's wife Patrizia, a sweet Swiss lady from Lugano, was quick to assure me that Fanny Tours had nothing to do with naughty nights on the town but was in fact the name of the previous owner, a name they were now stuck with.

"At least it gets us noticed," she said.

Patrizia met Jose years ago, when he took her on a tandem flight that led to love. They now run one of the best adventure businesses in Merida, offering climbing tours to the highest local peaks, mountain biking through high mountain villages, canyoning, white-water rafting and, of course, paragliding.

Jose is better known to his friends as "Piojo" ("Flea") - a nickname he earned for his exploits on some of the hardest rock climbs in South America, the USA and Canada.

I had heard great things about him from some extreme-sports fanatics I knew in Caracas, which gave me confidence in his abilities, although they'd also used the word "loquito" quite a lot when describing him.

A tall, thin guy with a ponytail and a winning smile, Jose was keen to show me the local paragliding scene, especially Las Gonzalez, which he called "el pueblo de los voladores" ("the town of the flyers").

I had flown tandem before with another pioneer of the sport called David Castillejo, better known as "El Cafe" - they all have nicknames in Venezuela. The first time I had flown tandem was on a ridge above El Hatillo, near Caracas, and the second time was in Placivel, a legendary hangliding spot on the road from Colonia Tovar down to La Victoria.

But I had only flown from relatively low hills and for short distances, just 15 minutes or so in the air.

Merida is a completely different prospect. Surrounded by jagged Andean peaks and wide glacial valleys, Merida offers paragliders strong winds and high-altitude launch sites.

And that means much longer flights, more pirouettes in the air and plenty of spectacular scenery seen from above - if you can bear to look down.

It also meant I would have to overcome my irrational fear of heights and the jelly-legs response that usually accompanies it.

"It's the closest you'll ever get to flying like a condor," Jose said, sensing my trepidation. "I've never lost a tourist yet," he added with a big smile.

And that was that. I mean, who doesn't want to soar like a condor over the Andes?

Up at Tierra Negra, the gusts of wind were strong enough to blow my hat off when we first arrived and it was about 20 nail-biting minutes before Jose felt the wind had calmed down enough for us to take off.

Then suddenly, it was all go.

Jose called me over and strapped my harness to his. Then, before I could  say "No Way, Jose!"  the parachute opened above us as if by magic and with a whoosh we were up, up and away, my feet gliding over hundreds of metres of nothing but air.

Flying tandem is an incredibly exhilarating experience. Once I had settled back into the seat tied to my harness all I had to do was "relax" and enjoy the ride.

Using the air currents gushing up the valley, Jose flew us parrallel to the ridge, back and forth in slow swoops that gave us plenty of time to take in the scenery.

The views of the mountains were spectacular and we could see the city of Merida spread over its flat plateau like an elaborate arrangement on a rectangular wedding cake.

But the best bit was seeing other paragliders gracefully soaring above and below us, although it was hard to imagine that we were doing the same thing.

The only sound was the wind in my ears as we did the turns.

I have to admit, I had a few white knuckle moments as we shifted our weight to turn and the parachute seemed to give a little, but Jose was great and made it all seem easy.

That said, after 45 minutes in the air all I wanted was to get my feet back on solid ground. I also wanted a drink of something strong that would warm me up, get the circulation going and put some strength back into my wobbly legs.

Luckily, Jose's friend in Las Gonzalez makes his own chuchuguaza - the strongest cane-alcohol homebrew I've ever tried.

To be honest, I could have done with some chuchuguaza before I put on the harness and jumped off the side of the mountain but a few shots of throat-burning jungle juice certainly hit the spot when I did get down.

The landing was as unexpected as the takeoff. As we circled down towards the valley floor Jose told me to slip out of my seat and get ready to run, but in the end he simply pulled the chords tight, the parachute opened and closed and we landed softly in a heap on the ground.

All in all, it had been an unforgettable experience and I had overcome my fear of heights, albeit temporarily, thanks to Jose.

Adenaline junkie? Eat your heart out Jack Osbourne.



To contact Fanny Tours, visit their webpage:Fanny Tours and Adventures