TRAVELING: Mérida - Venezuela

Mérida is a very popular place to visit in Venezuela, if you like mountains weather you will like this place for sure. Merida is an special place with good food and restaurants, beautiful landscapes, the streets insite the city are nice, also have lots of places for tourist to stay with different kind of prices, night clubs with music for all the tastes.

  Mérida, officially known as Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida, is the capital of the municipality of Libertador and the state of Mérida, and is one of the principal cities of the Venezuelan Andes. It was founded in 1558 by Captain Juan Rodríguez Suárez, forming part of Nueva Granada, but later became part of the Captaincy General of Venezuela and played an active role in the War of Independence.    The capital city's population is 204,879 inhabitants and the metropolitan area, that includes the municipality of Libertador, reaches 345,489 people (Census 2001). The city accounts for 28% of the total population of Mérida State, which has more than 750,000 inhabitants (Census 2001). It is home to the University of Los Andes and the Archdiocese of Mérida.  To see more click here.

In my road trip with a group of friends to Merida, was the first time for most of us and we agree is a place to come back again definetively. We knew we arrived there when we started to see this kind of beautiful landscape:

As you can see is very cold place and you have to cross a lots of mountains to reach the city of merida. In Merida there are lots of places to see, in this blog only will appear several ones.

Mucubají Lagoon

Is a very special place located inside Sierra Nevada National Park and is one of the biggest lagoon in the region, also is a place easy to reach. 

The condor hill

Is located inside Merida´s Cordillera,  It has a height of 4118 metres, so is one of the highest of Merida. The place is one of the coldest so be prepared for winter weather.

Square the trout

This monument is next to the Aquarium Park on the Avenida Andrés Bello. Mérida. Such a beautiful place to take pictures.

The cathedral and the Christ of the multitudes

The center of the city is surrounded by colonial buildings, among which stands the cathedral as one of the most important, have an amazing energy and is a really big place.

Manuel de la Fuente is the artist who created this sculpture in wood. In his work, the Christ of the Multitudes shows in his body the simple man, related to the mass man, in communion with the Son of God.

The heroines square

Its name is represented by the bronze statues of the brave Meridean women who helped the Liberator Simon Bolivar, to be saved from the royalist troops; these women were two of humble origin and very brave.

The stone chapel

An 80 year old man named Juan Félix Sánchez decided one day that he was going to build a chapel made entirely of stone moved by his spirituality.

Some more landscape pics :)