Today was the anniversary of the city of Merida and I wanted to participate in the celebration, if there would be any. I went to the center and watched the elder playing chess on the floor, the children playing with the pigeons and had a homemade ice cream. Around the statue of the liberator Simon Bolivar some flowers had been placed as well as a sound system; some kind of preparations was going on and before I could ask around it was time for the official ceremony to start.

Unnoticed a group of around one hundred officials all dressed up gathered at a short distance of the statue and from the speaker a voice announced the individual representatives present and then invited everybody to move forward closer to the statue and the hymn of the city was played. I took some pictures and went to the nearby square of the heroes. The place of the heroes was just two blocks from the main square and was the meeting point for foreign tourist, back packers and the local in crowd. The square was also home to hotels, posadas and travel package and souvenir shops.

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The square had been built recently, was of a modern design and of good building material. Sign boards everywhere, modern steel benches and a small fountain with the seven female heroes, which then ran through a cascade pool into a big water basin with a huge fountain. The square was also opposite the entrance of the newly built teleferico. The new teleferico which would bring tourist to the top of the Sierra Nevada had not been finished yet and only the base station was open as kind of an information center; not today though due to the holiday.

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One of the many sign boards caught my attention as it was a map with a red marked recommended walk through the center of the city. I took a picture and walked along the cemetery to first square and then to the second square, to the third and the fourth before I returned back to the starting point, the square of the heroes. The city was exactly located at the end of a valley, did not have much more space to grow further and had to both sides mountains of almost 5000 meter; the Sierra Nevada on the side of the teleferico and the city center and the Sierra La Culeta on the opposite side. Both sides were connected through a handful of bridges. At the bottom of this big valley was the river that was running down from the mountains and divided the city into these two parts.

The city did not have too much of a colonial character as most of the other cities that had been found at the same time by the Spaniards. The city was home to the university of the Andes and with the panoramic setting, the mild and cool climate made it together with the island of Margarita the most popular holiday destination of Venezuela.

I liked the city but more than the city I liked the climate. After eight years in the sunny and hot northeast of Brazil an after two month now of traveling in the even hotter and humid north of the continent I enjoyed the cool nights and wanted to stay for a couple of days more before moving on back to the coast and the heat. I wanted to stay in the western part of Venezuela as long as possible in case the border would open. At the same time I was within reasonable distance to the border with Brazil in case I would have to go back. I have to go back for another reason than the closure of the border, my money was running out. I went to my snack bar before hamburgers would run out.

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