MERIDA, VENEZUELA

It is no coincidence that the state of Mérida and its capital have the same name. The thousands of native and foreign visitors who come to this Andean paradise in western Venezuela want to know both the historical and university-like city as well as the splendid beauty of the surroundings blessed by a wide diversity of features. This diversity ranges from the snowed Pico de Bolívar, the highest peak in Venezuela with an altitude of 5,007 meters (16,450 feet), to the small and tropical Palmarito beach, located on the southeast side of Maracaibo Lake. Only by visiting one of the four national parks that cover an area of about 750,000 hectares (about 1,85 million acres), 12 state parks, three natural monuments, or 172 glacier lagoons, tasting freshly caught selected trout, visiting coffee growers' farms and chapels lost in the heights, buying handicraft in its place of origin, and walking the tough Andean paths, can you say you indeed visited Mérida. And if we add the stay at a rustic and cosy inn in the mountains, by the heat of a comforting fireplace, then the trip will be complete.

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