A visit to Laguna de Mucubají in Mérida State

I visited this place in April last year, while traveling in the state of Mérida, one of the most beautiful states in my country, Venezuela, in my humble opinion. So join me in reliving the memories of my visit to the Laguna de Mucubají.

In the Mérida páramo, there are several glacial lagoons, and Laguna de Mucubají is one of them. It’s the easiest to reach, since you can get there via the Trans-Andean Highway, on the stretch connecting the towns of Santo Domingo and Apartaderos.

We drove there one morning; from where we were, it took us about an hour along the road to reach the access point to the lagoon.

I’ve been there many times, but this scenery never ceases to amaze me.

It wasn’t very cold, even though the lagoon is located at an altitude of approximately 3,500 meters above sea level. It was a beautiful day to explore the area around the lagoon.

And even though we hadn't gone there with the intention of hiking, some of us in the group decided to take a walk along part of the border of the lagoon.

This is my attempt at taking a panoramic photo during our tour, hehe.

The scenery is so beautiful there. Here, you can really feel the grandeur of nature. So we continued our hike among some frailejones.

The frailejón is a plant that grows abundantly in the páramos above a certain altitude. Its flowers are yellow and very beautiful, but around that time, it was clear that it hadn’t rained much, and the frailejón flowers we saw were dry.

Walking around the lagoon, we reached the spot from which we could see, in the distance ahead of us, the visitor parking lot on the other side of the lagoon.

One of my friends in the group is a birdwatcher, and I seem to recall that she told us that a bird we saw perched on one of the natural islands that form in the lagoon during the dry season was an Andean sparrowhawk. Can you see it?

More of the beautiful scenery that surrounded us.

Before returning to the cars to continue our drive through the paramo, we detour slightly away from the lagoon on our route, toward the mountain trails. Many hiking trails in the area start from here, leading to other glacial lagoons such as Laguna Negra and Laguna de la Victoria.

You can explore these trails either on foot or on horseback. In the area, you can rent horses and arrange a ride with a local guide.

But at this point, we decided to end the visit to the Laguna de Mucubají and go back on the road. And I was happy to have had the chance once again to enjoy those beautiful landscapes.

Thank you for reading.