My top 10 places to go in Venezuela (Part 2).

Now let's look at the rest of my top 10 places to go in Venezuela:

5-Mochima National park.

This national park is located in the east part of the coast and contains a lot of really beautiful beaches and some little islands accessible by boat. You are allowed to camp and because it is a national park it is never too crowed or polluted. It is a quiet and safe place far from any big city where you can enjoy the warm waters of the Caribbean sea. You can also eat fresh an delicious seafood. 

4-Merida.

(Picture taken by Jorge Paparoni)

The city of Merida has the same name as it's state and it is located around 1650 mt (5413 ft) above the sea level in Los Andes mountain chain. It is a typically destination for both national and international tourists because this city is surrounded by really high mountains where you can actually see them with snow in the top. This mountains are the only place in Venezuela where you can see snow and since we are a tropical country this is very attractive. You can go climbing if you are and adventurer. Also, the tallest and longest cable car in the world is located in Merida, but right now it's closed for maintenance. It is not a big city but you will find a lot of things to do during the day or night because it is a students city. Even though is a touristic city it is also cheap and people is really friendly.

3-Margarita island.

(Silver's bay)

(La Galera fort)

Margarita island belongs to Nueva Esparta state and is located around 30 minutes by plane west from Simon Bolivar International airport. You can get to the island also by taking a ferry in the cities of Puerto la Cruz and Cumana.  It provides the visitor with a perfect combination of beaches, night clubs, casinos, shopping malls and some historic places such as forts and castles. Most of the population is located in the East side of the island and it gets really crowded during some holidays. In the west side of the island you will find lonely and beautiful beaches. Also you can visit La Restinga National Park which is a mangrove swamp.

2-Los roques.

(Very tentative right?)

(The biggest island of the archipelago)

This delightful archipelago is certainly the best option to go in Venezuela if you are a beach lover. This national park is never too crowded which is strange since it takes only a few minutes to get there by plane from Caracas airport. But because it's a kind of expensive destination for national tourism you will find a lot of beaches with an incredible white sand and all the types of blue colors you can imagine all for yourself. There are different activities you could do such as snorkeling, scuba diving or sailing boats. This is definitely one of the most charming places you would find in the Caribbean sea.

1-La Gran Sabana (The Great Plain).

(Photo by Paolo Costa Baldi. License: GFDL/CC-BY-SA 3.0)

(Photo by Paolo Costa Baldi. License: GFDL/CC-BY-SA 3.0)

(A tepuy, one of the oldest rock formations on earth.

 Photo by Paolo Costa Baldi. License: GFDL/CC-BY-SA 3.0).

La Gran Sabana is located in Bolivar state and is part of the Canaima National Park. It is a vast region of plains with beautiful plateaus called "Tepuyes" which in some cases reach the 2800 mt (9186 ft) high above the sea level and are one of the oldest rock formations in the world. It offers unique views with it's many rivers, lakes, deep jungles, big valleys and a wonderful fauna. You would have the opportunity to meet actual Indigenous living in this area. They are friendly and many of them keep their old customs. This place is for adventurers since you wont find any big populated area just Indigenous and other international tourists. What you will certainly find is a land with spectacular and awesome views.

As you see, most of this places are beaches in the Caribbean sea but there is a lot more to discover and visit in Venezuela. I will go in depth with this and other places to go in my blog. 

Have you visited one of this places? Which place on the list attracts you the most? What is your top 10 of places to go in your country?

My top 10 places to go in Venezuela (Part 1).

Now, let's start discovering this beautiful country and look at some or the many places it offers to international tourists. One of the good thing Venezuela has is the versatility to please any kind of demands. There is a very famous song here called Venezuela and at some point the song says "...soy desierto, selva, nieve y volcán..." which means "...I am desert, jungle, snow and volcano...". Actually, there's not any volcano in Venezuela, but the point is that my country has a very diverse options to visit.

Politically, Venezuela is divided in twenty three federal states and one capital district. Geographically, it is divided in five regions which are: the coast, the islands, the Andes, the plains and the Amazon jungle. The coast is where the most part of the population lives and it's divided in three sub-regions, west, central, and east.

I would give my PERSONAL top 10 list of places to visit in Venezuela. Of course this is very subjective.

So here we go:

10-Cuyagua.

This beach is one of the most popular beaches in Venezuela. It is located in the coast of Aragua state. Cuyagua is famous for being frequently visited by surfers because it has big waves. It is known to have some kind of "rasta" environment where you can hear reggae music and some other Latin rhythms. It is usually empty from Monday to Friday and it gets crowed in the weekends. A lot of people go camping to this beach which also has a river where you can take the salt and sand off from your body. It might be enjoyable for young groups since this beach is visited for a lot of university students during the holidays but if you are looking for relaxation this might not be your place.

9-Coro.

This small city is not a tourist destination itself, but it's location in a strategic point gives you an easy access to other places like Morrocoy National Park. It contains many colonial and colorful buildings. It is famous because the only desert in Venezuela is located near it. This is a small desert called the Coro's dunes and it is also a national park. North of Coro you can go to another city called Punto Fijo, a duty free area where you can go shopping. You can also get to Maracaibo which is the second most important city in Venezuela, located a few hours west of Coro by car.

8-Morrocoy National park.

This national park is located in the west part of the coast of Venezuela and it has the same common name that a type of turtle located in my country and some other south american countries. It is basically composed by a bunch of cays that offers really beautiful beaches. This is a very common destination for national tourism meaning that some cays gets crowded in weekends and during some holidays like Carnival or the Holy Week which is good if you like knowing people and parting. But I think that if you come to Venezuela for the first time you might want to visit a more exclusive place.

7-Choroni.

This small village is also located in the Aragua states's coast and it has a wonderful beach which is one of my favorites. There are a lot of fishermen which mean you can eat really fresh an cheap seafood (I recommend the fried fish). It has many inns and it conserves traditional customs from the slaves brought from Africa in colonial times. At night you can walk to the breakwater area where you can hear  and dance African drums. Maybe the thing I like the most about Choroni is the environment it has. The bad thing is that the road to get there from Maracay is in really bad condition.

6-Paria's peninsula.

This large peninsula is located in the east part of Sucre state. It doesn't have any big city but small villages instead where people are friendly and food is good. It contains many beaches (most of them are barely visited), a few mountains and two national parks. It is a good place to visit for those interested in birds watching. It is not higher on this list only because it is not easy to access because the roads are deteriorated and is far from any big city.

To be continued...

Military parade in Caracas.

Today was held in Caracas a military parade as I wrote in my latest post. It was actually a civic-military parade since some workers and different members from some civil groups like Indigenous. I will share some pictures that I founded on the web about this event.

(Venezuelan flags everywhere)

(Uniforms used during the independence war)

(Cadets)

(This huge avenue was build specially to do this kind of events)

Do you like military parades or you think they are a complete waste of money and time?

April 19th, 1810.

Today is a holiday in all our territory meaning that we have the day off. On this date we commemorate the revolution occurred  203 years ago in Caracas. It was actually an unarmed revolution but it is famous because it meant at that time the starting of the independence war which lasted thirteen years. By that time Venezuela (as most of the Latin countries) was a dependent colony of Spain. This was not the first attempt to to free our country as Francisco de Miranda tried it two times before this year. Even though he failed in his efforts, he left some freedom ideas going across all the country since he participated in both the American and French revolution.

 The General Captaincy of Venezuela and it's provinces in 1810.

Being a colony was uncomfortable for many people also because they were allowed to trade products only with the metropolis by selling cheap and buying expensive so the Venezuelan economy could't develop properly.

It's important to remember that Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain in 1808 and named his brother Jose Bonaparte the new king.

What happened that day...

Taking advantage of the Napoleon's invasion to Spain, the patriot members of the municipal council decided to create popular agitation against the governor Vicente Emparan while he was visiting the Cathedral during the Holy Thursday. Emparan was known for being more a negotiator than a warrior because he successfully stopped some attempts made by the higher class to form a different government and create a constitution by talking person to person to the separatists leaders.

But this time the Spanish Empire was weaker than before and the pressure from the crowed was a lot more intense. He finally opted to ask the people gathered in the Mayor square (today Bolivar square) from the council's window whether or not they recognize him as the authority and people answered a big NO. After this he decided to quit and left Venezuela on that same day. He went to Philadelphia where he wrote to the Spanish government explaining what happened on April 19th.

Painting by Juan Lovera. Vicente Emparan is the guy in the middle with black suit.

Consequences.

After this day the patriots formed a committee which took the following measures: to create similar committees in the other patriot provinces, to liberate the international trade regulations, to forbid slaves trade and to create a math academy among others. They also sent delegations to countries that might be interested in supporting this movement such as England, United States and Nueva Granada (actual Colombia). Three provinces still remained loyal to Spain.

Inspired by what happened that day, many other countries in Latin America did as such. As our national anthem says: "Seguid el ejemplo que Caracas dió" (follow the example given by Caracas).

More than a year later, on July 5th, 1811; the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence was singed definitively breaking with the Spanish Crown and forming a new country based on federal and republican ideas. Obviously the Spain Crown didn't agree with that so the war started.

Today.

Because it's Friday people will take this long weekend to go to the beach (which is the most common activity to do on weekends) or do some other activities. Also, a traditional military parade is going to be held in Caracas.

What are the more common holidays in your country? What do you usually do when you have the day off?

Caracas, Caracas...

Santiego de Leon de Caracas, commonly know just as Caracas, is the capital city of Venezuela. It is located in the central-north of the country and is the most populated city. As most of the big cities in my country, it exhibits a high contrast between poor and rich people. It was founded on July 25th in the year 1567 by the spanish conqueror Diego de Losada. At the very beginning it consisted of only a few houses, a central square and a governmental institution. By the year 1812 a huge earthquake destroyed almost all the city just in the middle of the independence war.

Right know the city looks like this...

  (Picture taken from http://www.culturizando.com/2012/07/la-historia-de-caracas.html)

Also known as the "concrete jungle", Caracas is in the middle of a huge valley around 900 mt (2952 ft) above the sea level. It is the center of all financial, cultural and governmental activities. The main universities and professional institutes of Venezuela are also in this city.  It's divided in 5 municipalities (Libertador, Sucre, Chacao, Baruta and El Hatillo) and the main international airport that serves the city is Simon Bolivar International Airport, which is not actually located inside Caracas. There is a common saying that translated to English would be something like "Caracas is Caracas, everything else is weeds and snakes" meaning that the capital is the most important and biggest city of the country. For those interested in Spanish language the saying is "Caracas es Caracas, todo lo demás es monte y culebra"

What to do?

I think my country is a very good place to visit especially if you are interested in natural wonders, but I don't actually recommend Caracas as a tourist destination basically because it is not very safe, it is polluted, the traffic is terrible and the beaches near it are not the most beautiful beaches in Venezuela. People is not very educated and might try to take advantage from tourists. But it would be your launch platform to other places in Venezuela since most of the transport companies and main highways to other cities are located here.

Still, as every place in the world, it has good and charming places to go. If you are interested in History you might visit the "Center" of Caracas. Notice that I used quotation marks since it is not the geographical center of the city right now but it was some decades ago, still people call this area the Center. You can find museums, cathedrals and churches, coffees, theaters and the Simon Bolivar's birth house which is now a museum.

Other things to do are take a walk in Los Proceres avenue, which is very beautiful and it has a strong presence of security forces. If you would like to have more contact with nature you can go to Miranda park or to Guaraira Repano national park (more commonly known as "el Avila") which is safe and consists in a chain of mountains located in the north of the city. The higher point is 2.765 mt (9071 ft) above the sea level and it will provide you with a splendid view of the entire city for one side and maybe a even better view of the coast on the other side as long as it's not cloudy. You can take the cable car if you are lazy like me or you can go walking. It is also allowed to camp but make sure you have the authorities written permission and respect the national park's rules.

Los proceres avenue... 

(Picture taken from http://twittervenezuela.co/profiles/blogs/paseo-los-proceres-ciudad-y)

Guaraira Repano national park...

("Photo by Paolo Costa Baldi. License: GFDL/CC-BY-SA 3.0")

I will write more about Caracas in some other posts.

What do you think about this city? Would you visit it?

Introduction and some basic information.

Are you thinking about traveling to Venezuela? Did you already traveled but you want to learn more? Or maybe you are just curious about this beautiful and polemic country. Anyways this blog is going to give you any kind of information: news, customs, idiosyncrasy, advice for travelers, history, Spanish tips and much more!

First of all, I am a native Venezuelan boy and I am NOT an expert in English so I apologize in advance for any mistake I could make in my post (there's gonna be a lot :P) and feel free to correct me. I know what many of you are thinking while reading this first post: If you are a native Spanish speaker, why are you doing this blog in English??? Well, I want to orientate this page for people from English speaking countries and people from other latitudes that can understand it since there is not much information in this language regarding to Venezuela. And I also want (why not?) to practice my written English.

Maybe you already know that there's a political crisis in my country right know but since I am just starting this blog I don't want to post about this complex subject yet. I wanna keep it fresh for now.

So let's start!!!

Some elemental facts:

Officially named Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, this country is located in the north of South America. It's population is around 29.000.000 people and the official language is Spanish as many of you may know. The climate is mostly tropical, meaning that we don't have 4 seasons but 2 seasons instead: dry-season and rainy-season (the rainy-season started just yesterday). The economy is heavily based in oil production and the official currency is the Bolivar (Bs).

We will go deeper about this subjects and many more later on, including our "obsession" about this Simon Bolivar guy...

What do you know about Venezuela? Have you ever been here?