The Andes end in Venezuela, not very far away from the international border with Colombia, in the city of Merida. Although there are mountains that fall into the sea for many miles along the sea, the highest mountains are in the Andes, that are some 6 hours by car or 8 hours by bus away from Caracas or less than one hour away by plane. Distances are short in Venezuela, and this is why renting a car could be an alternative, despite the increasing lack of safety, that is not so bad if you drive during the daytime. I have been many times to Venezuela years ago (I had to visit the country every 3 months from 1984 to 1993), and never had any incidents, but I know that the cities of Caracas and Maracaibo, and to a lower extent Valencia and Barquisimeto, pose some threats to safety.
As I already mentioned, it is important to not accept transportation offers from strangers, but to go to the taxi counter and hire your trip there, even if you have to wait (this can be nerve consuming if you arrive very early in the morning; taxi drivers seem to be fond of getting up late...). Keep in mind that there is a distance of only one thousand feet from the international airport to the national airport, and that taxis are cheaper at the national airport. Also, you can connect international and national flights in an easy way, without costly transportation between airports. Never loose your paper of admission to the country, or you might have to bargain with an immigration officer, and you never know how that could end. Unlike Argentina, where they will give you another form to fill in, or like Chile, where they will give you a sermon but request no money, in Venezuela they will say that only the office can issue that paper, that the office is closed, that you will have to wait until the next day… only to see how much money they can get from you. If you don’t loose the paper, you will not run into this problem. That happened to me once in 1993, and the situation could be better or worse by now.
The TransAndean highway from Barinas (highs in the nineties and lows in the seventies) to Merida, a colonial city founded in 1558, with highs in the high seventies and lows in the high fifties, and with temperatures below freezing point on the top of the Pico Bolivar, crosses the Andes in two or three hours, going through beautiful places. The carro por puesto (shared taxi) is the cheapest option. In Barinas you can fish dorados, and in the lakes near Merida in the Andes you can fish rainbow trout. Barinas is on the plains, and you can get there by bus or "carro por puesto" from Barquisimeto, going through Acarigua and Guanare. It is a nice trip. I have stayed at all these towns, because I had to visit them on business. Barquisimeto is a nice city, located in a rolling area, and there I stayed at the Gran Hotel Barquisimeto, that was good enough, and far cheaper than the Hilton hotel. At Acarigua I have stayed at the Motel Acarigua, and the Hotel Portuguesa in Guanare. All three hotels have good swimming pools. In the small towns on the road you will only find two-star hotels, but they are OK. The Gran Hotel Barquisimeto is a 3-star hotel. The Hilton is better, but more expensive. Nearly all the way from the coast (mountains that are some 3,000 feet high) up to the Andes (mountains 17,000 feet high) is a rolling area with tropical vegetation that you will really enjoy. The plains in most cases are away from the coast, in the areas of San Fernando de Apure and Barinas, or between Puerto La Cruz and Ciudad Bolivar, passing through El Tigre.
Once you start "climbing" the Andes on the highway, the scenery becomes fairly arid, being the frailejones, that can live up to 150 years, the only brush that can survive drastic changes in temperature. It has beautiful flowers. Some lagoons in the Andes, the testimony of glaciers that existed a long time ago, are accessible by road, as the Mucubaji lagoon, while reaching others requires extensive walking (for example, Laguna Victoria). You will find a beautiful chapel constructed completely in stone at San Rafael de los Mucuchíes. You will pass by Los Aleros, a beautiful tourist village. We have already left the arid scenery and are coming down to the green valley. On thing that will charm you are the crops on the hill slopes, very similar to what you see in the areas surround Quito in Ecuador and Pasto in Colombia. Patches of different colours give the scenery an incredible beauty. The city of Merida is the most beautiful city in Venezuela (see my separate report on Merida, the most beautiful city in Venezuela). It is a University city, with some 100,000 inhabitants, of which 30 to 40% are university students. It runs along a narrow valley between the foothills and the Andes, that in some cases is not even a mile wide. It is a quiet area, and one of the safest places in Venezuela, although no city in the country is 100% safe. The hotel Park in the downtown, and La Pedregosa in the surrounding area, are the best options. Both are 4-star hotels. I prefer La Pedregosa, because it has a 25 acre park with an artificial lake that isolates the hotel from the noise of the city, offering you an ideal place for relaxing. From the swimming pool you can see the mountains. It is a really enjoyable place to stay, and food is good. A room at this four-star hotel should be costing now some 85 dollars per night.
Founded four and a half centuries ago, Merida has beautiful colonial buildings, including the Archdiocese, the Government Palace, the sede of the University of the Andes and the Cathedral, definitely one of the most beautiful cathedrals in all Venezuela. The climate in Merida is an eternal spring, and there is a cable car (7.5 miles long) that goes from the downtown to the top of the Bolivar peak (17,000 feet high, with eternal snow on the top). So you can be sunbathing at the hotel, and one hour later be on the top of the mountain enjoying the snow... that lasts all the year round. Merida’s airport used to be in the downtown, but due to crashes of planes in the mountainside (a friend of mine, David Berríos, died in one of those crashes), they moved the airport to the nearby city of El Vigía, near which there is an incredibly beautiful wildlife sanctuary, where you can watch hundreds of birds at one time. So the ideal thing to do is to go from Caracas to Barquisimeto, from there to Barinas, over the Andes to Merida, and come back on a different highway down to Maracaibo, and from there back to Caracas.
On the way along the coast, you will have the chance of visiting the Morrocoy Marshes and the desert at Coro, a very nice colonial city. And beyond Merida and El Vigía, where there is a fantastic bird watching area, we arrive at San Cristóbal and San Antonio, just "across the street" from Cucuta, Colombia. At San Cristóbal there is a very nice 3-star hotel with an olympic swimming pool and a very nice park, Hotel El Tamá. I stayed there many times and really liked it very much. Enjoy your stay in Venezuela. Merida, Canaima, Angel Falls, Playa Colorada (between Puerto La Cruz and Cumana, and the Mochima national park between these cities), Colonia Tovar, an Alpine village in the mountains at an altitude of 9,000 feet, the Coro National Park (the South American Sahara, although far smaller) are the places you should not miss.
Venezuela is full of beautiful places (San Felipe de Yaracuy, San Juan de los Morros, Puerto Cabello, and many more). And what about the island of Margarita? Porlamar is OK, but there are some far more beautiful spots to see in Venezuela, as -for example- Los Roques, a place with nature in its primitive state, coral reefs, and bird watching.
Read Less