Hi all hivers and friends of this community and this platform, on this occasion I want to share a walk that I did a few days ago, to one in the mountains of the Mérida state paramo, Venezuela, the route I made and the sites I visited have been without a doubt one of the most extraordinary locations, imposing and one of the most beautiful and implacable landscapes that I have seen and in which I have ventured and traveled, the lagoons of "los chorros", in the Musui sector of the Merida paramo which is at an altitude of 3600 meters above sea level approximately. To this walk we went as a group of friends and acquaintances who have something in common that we share and enjoy with great enthusiasm, which is, hiking and mountain excursions in the Merida paramo.
That day the tour guide picked me up in a bus at my house at 6 in the morning, it was very cold but the excitement and happiness for what the mountains had in store for me that day was indescribable, we made a stop on the way to our destination, it was in a famous place in the city where they sell pastries and breakfast, some of us took the opportunity to have breakfast and go to the bathroom, then we continued to our destination, after approximately 2 hours of driving, we arrived at the destination where I would embark on my route to the top of the mountain and subsequently behind these mountains the much-anticipated site where the lagoons are located.
When we got off the bus and got ready to start the walk I was able to take some good photos of the landscape, some crops in the adjacent mountains and the road we traveled to reach the destination, here you can see some of these photos.
The hike started at approximately 9 am, cold weather with a lot of wind, a little cloudy but which means that the sun was still strong and I could get sunstroke, I applied sunscreen on the exposed areas of my body, I started walking at a slow but steady pace, the other fellow walkers were going a little faster, I tried to stay behind to capture good photos and shots of the landscape and the mountains around.
After walking about 50 minutes uphill with a slight to moderate slope, I could see the real difficulty of the route, a rather imposing mountain with dark colors and metamorphic rocks and other geological classifications, at this point is where the guide informs us that we must climb the entire mountain by a fairly demanding path with quite steep and loose rocks and then just after reaching the summit down a little behind the mountain to reach the destination which was the lagoons of "los chorros", I managed to capture some photos of the mountain and the ascent of the same.
After arriving at the plane that you can see in the photos, the real ascent of the mountain to the lagoons began, which was the real test of fire as it was quite demanding, I was able to capture some photos during the ascent.
After two hours of ascent and reaching the top of the mountain, the weather was much colder than before the ascent and the vegetation changed a little, there were frailejones, this species is protected by the government of Venezuela and its laws, it is a unique species, its leaves are like velvet and has a very nice appearance to the eye, it is a beautiful species of Andean vegetation.
After almost 3 hours of ascents and roads with moderate slopes I managed to reach the "the lagoons of los chorros" at the time I arrived, I lay down on the ground to rest I was a little short of breath but the scenery and the view of the lagoons was worth all the effort, the view of the landscape and the lagoons was impressive.
After eating something to regain strength, I started the descent with the companions of the route, the descent was a little faster but I was careful not to affect my knees and descend and take the steps correctly as it rained moderately too, the walk lasted about 7 hours to reach the starting point where the bus was waiting for us to return to the city, here I leave some photos of the descent and the landscape that I could capture, I hope you liked the photos as I did. Until a new post friends.