Sunday with the family - In the recreational area Lomas de Cubiro, horseback riding and visit to the river.

Hello friends, I am here again with a weekend experience, and this time it is the turn of a family Sunday in one of the most beautiful tourist places in Venezuela, located in the state of Lara, it is called Lomas de Cubiro, and it is a place with cold and very cool environment, nice to spend a different day away from the cities.
This recreational area is located in the town of Cubiro, and is often visited by tourists and people from other towns including cities like Barquisimeto, San Felipe and Valencia.

This was the last place we would visit with my brother before going back to Colombia and we had this trip planned for a long time, although I had not been here for years I had asked friends and family how much money they spent on the attractions and if you had to take a jacket for the cold or not.

Pinmapple link: [//]:# (!pinmapple 9.78919 lat -69.56088 long Lomas de Cubiro d3scr)

The hills of Cubiro are located approximately 60km from my city Barquisimeto, by road it takes a little more than 1h, it is relatively close but when we start to climb we slow down as a precaution, since Cubiro is located more than 1500mts above sea level, and Barquisimeto is a little more than 500mts above sea level. So with this information you can imagine the change of climate, warm to cold and 1 hour away, so many people come here on weekends.
Besides that the road is very old and is only two lanes, and looking to one side you can see an incredibly high cliff, so I insist on driving with caution.

From the moment we start to climb we see a change in the relief, climate, vegetation and from the road we can see the farm houses of small towns like Cuara and San Antonio.

There is a point on the road where the vegetation changes completely and you can see humidity on the road and around the road. You can also feel the cold and it is when we reach the first small towns, one called Las Cuibas, where there is a baseball park on the road and many people go to play in the league here. In this village we did not enter but you can see the houses from the road in the mountains.

Finally entering the village we knew that the road was much shorter, and as we continued climbing we could see the green hills, mist and lots of vegetation.
Everyone gets off at the entrance of the village because they want a souvenir, there it says "Welcome to Cubiro", and it is fixed by law to stop here for pictures. In our case we did not do it because there were many people.
When we see the restaurant La Gran parada, we are in the Lomas de Cubiro, there we start to see places where to park the vehicles, which can be on the side of the road, or in the parking lot. The rates are between 2-3$.

Being finally in Las Lomas, there is an important fact, you should always wear a jacket, because ironically I had been told that it was not cold, that there was a lot of sun and the truth is that it was not necessary, however when we arrived we realized that the cold was incredible, maybe around 19°C, I am not sure but it felt a lot. What we were told is that it had rained in the early morning and that is why it was so cold, but usually there was a little sunshine after midday, even the day was cloudy as if it was going to rain.
We entered the hills and the fog was visible in the distance, and almost everyone had thick jackets or coats.

The first activity we had to do was a horseback ride, which cost $2.00 for one ride or $3.00 for two rides. There are varieties of horses, some a little more bred than others and some more docile to people.
Here my brother and I took a ride, with 2 girls accompanying us who were our cousins.

Yo jamás había montado a caballo, prefiero las motos sinceramente, pero aprendí rápido y fácil, las riendas del caballo lo llevan a la derecha o izquierda y halarla un poco atrás hace que este pare o baje la velocidad. Hacer un grito como las películas del lejano oeste "Jihaa" o incluso haciendo sonidos como lanzar un beso hacían que el caballo acelerara el paso, había otros que aplicaban golpearlos pero con estos no hizo falta.
Incluso el caballo iba a su velocidad y por su puesto ya conoce el circuito de la pista, que es relativamente pequeño y caminaba solo hasta volver al punto donde inicio, simplemente había que cuidarse de esas personas extraña que comenzaban a correr en el caballo con si estuviesen en una carrera (habían varios personas así).

After this we took a little brake for breakfast, since we left without eating, there are many restaurants and menus, you can find cachapas from 4$ with cheese, soups for 3$, pabellon for 5$ and many other things depending on the place where you enter to eat.
In my opinion where we entered the food was not so delicious, but I give it a 7/10.

We went in for a last tour of the hills, we wanted to buy strawberries with cream but we never decided whether to do it or not, and we let it go. We saw a little bit of the handicrafts they sell there, plants, pots, souvenirs and other things.
We took some pictures as a family and decided to go to the river, which was about 15-20 min down by the restaurant la gran parada.

The road to the river if it is complicated must be high vehicles, because there are places where small cars do not pass or suffer a lot, there are many holes and the road is not in perfect condition, there are potholes and many loose rocks. And literally it is to go down from the hill where we were to the foot of this hill, there passes the river, on foot I do not recommend it since the return ascent will be difficult.
Of course you pass through other small villages in the area and the atmosphere is just as nice.

Finally at the river, the view is incredible, the water is crystal clear, there are many wells where you can swim and the water is a little cold but not too much, and with the sun that can make it is ideal. When we arrived there were several people bathing and there are others who came from a waterfall, we did not take bathing shorts, but we took some pictures, and walked in the waters that were not very deep, we were there for 30-40 min.
I was also told that when going to the waterfall there is a stretch where you have to swim, which makes it very interesting and even makes me want to go back just to do this tour.

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It is time to go back home, but first we decided to go to the town of Cubiro, it is really small there are not many tourist sites within it, but we went to the main square and entered the church for a moment, also we took advantage of the stop to finally eat the strawberries with cream, which have a value of $ 2.5 each glass.

So far was our tour of Cubiro, we returned home to be home before 6pm, as we had a family barbecue to say goodbye to my brother.
The town is beautiful, the river is much more beautiful and I would like to return to explore a little more of this place, most likely the trip will be on a motorcycle with my college buddies, so I hope it will be soon.

See you next time.

Pictures taken by me with a Redmi Note 9 Pro.
Videos taken by my brother with an iphone 11, converted to gifs.