VENEZUELA TRAVEL...
Welcome to the "Little" Venice
of the Caribbean

Introduction:

Our first Venezuela travel experience was in the early days of 1977 coming from the West Indies, namely Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago.
Actually, we started that journey in London, via Brussels and Azores.

My wife and I needed to return to Argentina after a couple of years away, but the idea of having an adventure travel to South America instead of flying direct from Heathrow was too enticing to let it go without second thoughts.

In fact, it took us nearly three month to finally reach our destination.

""Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I can remember, and remember more than I have seen."

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

Can't describe in words what we went through - not only us but the rest of the expedition we were part of - about sixteen other travellers from all over the world - but certainly was there where I learnt what a unique South America travel experience looked like.

After seeing the eternal ice at the very bottom of the South America continent - shared by Chile and Argentina alike - this was a mind-blowing experience, where I finally visualized the savage beauty this continent is made of.

Found Caracas to be an impressive city but it was at Ciudad Bolivar - on the South bank of Orinoco river - where I began to feel the great South America wilderness.

Crossing the Gran Sabana and the Guyana region was the perfect introduction to the mighty Amazon rainforest I was about to discover for the first time in my life.

The funniest thing ever happened to us in our Venezuela travel eperience was that we all ended up in jail at some point, including the driver.

We were all tired, dusty and willing to have a real bed and a hot shower the night we arrived to the jungle town of El Dorado.

At the time there wasn't any facility to host us all but the local policeman kindly opened the jail and invited us in, an offer we couldn't refuse, and proved to be the right move as well.

We had a great party that night!
Even when beds weren't precisely the kind we had in mind for the night, dinner was great. It was watered down with a bottle or two of Caribbean rum and plenty of music to get us in the right mood.

I've never been so happy in jail!..(fortunately, I've never returned to check on it again either).

Before moving on, let's have a look at some quick Venezuela facts and figures...

Venezuela Facts Capital: Caracas Language: Spanish (official), plus numerous indigenous dialects Population: 26,023,528 (est. July 2007) Area: 912,050 square kilometers . Currency: Bolivar Fuerte (VEF). It replaced the Bolivar (VEB) in January 2008 Exchange Rate: 1.00 VEF = 0.465116 USD (Nov. 2009) Religion: nominally Roman Catholic 96%, Protestant 2%, other 2% Read more Venezuela facts..

Venezuela Top Destinations:

Venezuela travel is without doubt one of the best South America vacations you could ever have in this part of the world.

Venezuela Map Download this PDF file here. You will need Adobe Reader. You can get Adobe Reader here.

It has an outstanding variety of landscapes ranging from Caribbean beaches and islands (Margarita island and Los Roques as a superb example on this), mountains, forests, jungle, vast plains (Los Llanos), savannah (Gran Sabana), majestic rivers (Orinoco river) and waterfalls (such as the astonishing Angel Falls).

In fact, the country is divided in four distinctive regions...

• Highlands (the Venezuelan Andes, to the West)
• Maracaibo Lowlands
• Los Llanos (the central plain around Orinoco river)
• Gran Sabana ( to the South)

Venezuela's North coast stretches for about 2,800 miles (4.000 km) conforming the largest Caribbean coastline to be found in any other nation.
Needless to say that Venezuela travel is paradisiacal for the adventure and water sports oriented traveller, from swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving to windsurfing, paragliding, fishing and more.

Some of its most famous beaches to the West of Caracas include...

• Macuto
• Marbella
• Naiguata
• Leguna
• Oriaco

Other famous coastal resorts that can be reached via Portechuelo Pass are..

• Cata
• Ocumare de la Costa
• Morrocoy
• Chichiviriche
• Puerto de la Cruz

Venezuela travel in the highlands is best represented by the city of Mérida, in the Sierra Nevada (Venezuelan Andes), distinguished for its Colonial architecture, universities, cultural life and for having the highest cable car in the world: Mirror Peak, at an altitude of 4.270 meters (14,000 feet above sea level) and the highest peak in Venezuela: Mount Bolivar (5,007 meters).

The Llanos region extends to the East of Cordillera de Mérida and to the North of the Orinoco river.
It's Venezuela's cattle country par excellence, with the historic Barquisimeto as its capital.

Full of wildlife, Venezuela travel in Los Llanos is the place for safaris, horseback riding, birdwatching and other options for the outdoor sports enthusiasts.

Your Venezuela travel experience should include a visit to the city of Maracaibo (second largest in the country).
It was founded three times, first time in 1529.

Maracaibo (and the whole Zulia State for that matter) is notorious for its historically independent spirit, great universities and for having huge reserves of crude oil, making Venezuela the fifith oil producing country in the world.
It's there where we find the largest lake in South America: Lake Maracaibo, first only to Titicaca, with an extension of 12,210 square kilometers.

As a mother of fact, Maracaibo is not a lake, but a bay, connect to the Gulf of Venezuela by the Tablazo Strait.
However, in the past used to be a true lake.

On top of all Venezuela tourist attractions to admire and discover, Venezuela's women are not short of beauty either.
In fact, they have given to Venezuela six Miss Universe titles, plus the world record of having it won twice in a row on its latest edition.

Venezuela's World Heritage Sites:

Out of its forty three National Parks there is one that stands out as one of the most striking Venezuela attractions: Canaima National Park (Parque Nacional Canaima).

With an extension of 30,000 square kilometers it's the second largest in the country after Paraima-Tapirapecó and absolutely unique for its profusion of tepuis (table-top mountains) dating back to the ancient times of Gondwanaland (when Africa and South America were part of the super-continent).

Canaima National Park covers almost the entire Gran Sabana region, in Bolivar State, border with Brazil and Guyana.

It's home to the indigenous Pemon Indians, part of the linguistic group of the Carib Indians and their name means "Spirit of Evil".
Actually , the Carib - together with the Arawak - were the original dwellers until the advent of Christopher Columbus in 1498, when it was annexed to the Spanish Crown.

Canaima's most imposing tepuis are Mount Roraima and Auyantepui (Devil's mountain), where we find the world's highest waterfall: Angel falls, known to the Pemon as Kerepakupai merú , meaning "fall from the deepest place".
A very unique Venezuela travel experience indeed.

Angel falls has an impressive height of 979 meters (3,212 feet) and were first known to the Western world in 1933, when discovered by aviator Jimmy Angel, hence its name.
To give you a clear picture, the are sixteen times higher than Niagara Falls.

However, they were discovered earlier - in 1910 - by Venezuelan explorer Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz.

Canaima National Park was listed by UNESCO in 1994.

Venezuela travel has all the ingredients to make your South America vacation a truly unique South America travel experience you will never forget..

Choose Your Language

Español

Home | Site Map | Contact Us | About Us
Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Copyright Notice | Travel Library
Contributions | Advertise with us | Write for USTE | Unique Ecards (free) | Travel Links | Share Your Travels