*Arrives at the bar, completely exhausted*

Hello, every...! Heh, still empty. Anyway, I'm back. That trip had its upsides... and lots of downsides.

The route to Mérida was brutal. Due to protests, lots of roads were blocked, and many drivers were afraid something might happen to them if they went there. So, we (I, my aunt, and her boyfriend) had to take like five buses due to them refusing to go further. We had to do a stretch on foot, due to a barricade blocking a road (and these were not peaceful protesters; these are assholes known as guarimberos, who block roads, carry both homemade and real weaponry, attack members of the security forces, loot and burn both public and private property... all in all, they screw over anyone who doesn't actively fight against the government, even Opposition supporters. I'll tell more in a second).

On the second day, after arriving at Mérida itself, and having a spectacular tour of the mountains, in the return trip to the hotel, our bus got stuck in a town due to another fucking barricade. We spent eight hours as hostages of some asshole guarimberos (I know I shouldn't wish for the death of my fellow human beings, but fuck those bastards. Fuck them). I got altitude sickness (the town is at 3,000 metres above sea level), and almost got hypothermia (temperatures at 6 °C!), and genuinely feared for my own life, as the idiots on the barricade did not have any intention to let anybody go until morning. They eventually opened the barricade at midnight, only after 100 or so people went there to protest (and the rioters made clear that they didn't care for our lives).

Anyway, went to the cable car (there wasn't any snow, unfortunately), had a blast there, and had a trip back home just as hellish as the one we had to make to get to Mérida in the first place. My conclusion: this country is fucked, there is no solution to this shit, fuck everything.

Maybe I'll write the full story, who knows...?