FOR SALE

dinner or pets?

SALTY FISH SALTY FISH SALTY FISH

Cloud Forest!

Hairless cow? 

me: "Hairy Nipple"
kyle: "Jessica, I don't think thats a nipple"

Sweet little stray puppy that decided to join us on our hike 

Tree Fern, prehistoric plant. It is really cool because once the fern leaves become too heavy, the break down towards the drunk and die. Those are the brown root-like structures surrounding the base of the tree. However, being a tree it continues to grow up therefore when the leaves break down and die, more sprout out from the top. Circle of life. They look like cartoon tree's from a nintendo game or something. 

this was a huge catipliller, our profesora told us to be careful because it was most likely poisonous 

Learning about plants. This dude was a professor from ULA , the huge University in Merida. 

Vine swinging

More vine swinging

Foliage

Lost in the jungle

Andrew looking all Tarzan. 

Spencer

This picture captures it pretty well, but there were about 8 different vines that you could swing on or climb on. Hurt the shit out of my hands. I sort of hated it but regardless it was cool. 

kyle standing on sarina's head 

Cloud Forest

Profesora

Swimming hole. I didn't get in. I figured that my body would hate the cold considering it was just recovering from the black plague and parasite infestation. Luckily I'm feeling healthy still. 

Hydrating

Contemplating cold water.

Butterfly taking a bath

Gringo's taking a bath

this is funny

weird food

HIKING

we went on a hike to a small town called mucuchies (moo-KOO-chee-is). it was really great. there were a ton of people on horses at the bottom of this hike that were sort of offering tours but more just hanging out. the weather was obviously way colder because we were about 4400m high, which i think is about 1000 above Merida, where i am usually living. when we got back from this maybe 3 or 4 hour hike, it was incredibly foggy. to the point that you couldn't see huge trucks or busses from what seemed like a block or two away. we therefore couldn't figure out how to catch the bus back to the main town a few miles down the road. our lonely planet book said that we could walk, but the foggy conditions were not conducive to that. after hailing down a bus, me and two friends got off the bus hoping to catch the next (last) bus at around 6,  and decided to explore the three block radius of this town and drink beers with some locals. it was a good time. we must have missed the bus because one never came, but we ended up hailing another bus that stopped. it was completely empty going somewhere unclear, but passing through the outskirts of Merida, so gave us and our leftover beers a ride. the man was very nice, even stopped to let the two silly gringos off to make a pitstop halfway through.

cheese empanada for lunch

this is where the bus let us off

clear day

we were above the clouds

alive on top from the waste up

resting in peace

one of the highest seasonal forests in the world

mountain lake in the clouds

lake lost in the fog

cool old cars everywhere

tiendas lost in the fog, the bus stop is missing

Mucuchies, Venezuela. Maybe a few hundred meters below where the last photograph was, and entirely out of the fog. This is where we hopped off the bus to explore/eat/drink

This is proof of two things. One being that there is more than just "Polar Ice" beer in Venezuela--a beer equivalent to that of a shitty beer that comes in a 30 pack. The second being that this german beer, costing us under a dollar, officially naturally brewed according to the German  Purity Law.  We thought that was funny. They were good, or better than usual.

Drinking a round of beers next to some stray dogs you can't see because the farms on the mountains across the way are prettier.

Cuban Cigarettes. Really cool design/packaging.

pitch black bus we hitched a ride back to town in.