VenezuelaBryan NavarroBSTM 3Y1-6Mrs. Velasco

Venezuela is a country on the northern coast of South America with diverse natural attractions. Along its Caribbean coast are tropical resort islands including Isla de Margarita and the Los Roques archipelago. To the northwest are the Andes Mountains and the colonial town of Mérida, a base for hiking Sierra Nevada National Park. Caracas, the capital, is to the north.

Spanish Language - Spanish is one of the official languages in Venezuela

Indigenous languagesWayuu WaraoPemonMapoyoPanarePuinave

Language

PémonoSapéSikianaYabaranaYaruro

Venezuelan bolívar

Currency

History The bolívar was adopted by the monetary law of 1879, replacing the short-lived venezolano at a rate of five bolívares to one venezolano. Initially, the bolívar was defined on the silver standard, equal to 4.5g fine silver, following the principles of the Latin Monetary Union. The monetary law of 1887 made the gold bolívar unlimited legal tender, and the gold standard came into full operation in 1910.

Exchange ratesVenezuelan Bolivar 1.00 VEF inv. 1.00 VEF

US Dollar 0.158718 6.300500Euro 0.139443 7.171379British Pound 0.104048 9.610980Indian Rupee 10.332478 0.096782Australian Dollar 0.220077 4.543861Canadian Dollar 0.206662 4.838822Singapore Dollar 0.222756 4.489208Swiss France 0.152029 6.577680Malaysian Ringgit 0.663400 1.507387Japanese Yen 19.007726 0.052610Philippine Peso 7.314499 0.136715

CaracasCapital

Caracas officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital, the center of the Greater Caracas Area, and the largest city of Venezuela. Caracas is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range Terrain suitable for building lies between 760 and 910 m (2,490 and 2,990 ft) above sea level. The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2,200 m (7,200 ft) high mountain range, Cerro El Ávila; to the south there are more hills and mountains.The Metropolitan District of Caracas is made up of five municipalities: Libertador Municipality which is the only administrative division of the Venezuelan Capital District, and four other municipalities, which are within in Miranda State: Chacao,Baruta, Sucre, and El Hatillo. Libertador holds many of the government buildings and is the Capital District The Distrito Capital had a population of 2,013,366 as of 2011, while the Metropolitan District of Caracas was estimated at 3,273,863 as of (2013). The Metropolitan Region of Caracas have an estimated population of 5,243,301.

Venezuela Flag

FlagsVenezuela's flag is a yellow, blue, and red horizontal tricolor with eight white stars in a semicircle in the center and the coat of arms on the yellow stripe on the hoist side. The Venezuelan independence leader Francisco de Miranda designed the basic tricolor flag in 1806.

19th-century changes

1810–1812 1813-1814 1817–1819 1830–1836

1836–1859 1859 1859–1863 1863–1905

Venezuela is a federal presidential republic. The chief executive is President of Venezuela who is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembly.

Government

Venezuela is home to the world's highest waterfall, Angel Falls and the second longest river in South America, the Orinoco. It also has the longest coastline on the Caribbean sea. Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and also has vast untapped reserves of natural gas. Ecologically, Venezuela is considered among the 20 Megadiverse countries of the planet; more than 40% of its national territory is covered by protected areas.

Venezuela trivia

By air The main international airport is Simon Bolivar International Airport

located in the Vargas state. It is approximately a 30-minute ride from Caracas. Buses are available during the day, departing from Parque Central next to Calle del Sur. Buses run from 7AM-6PM, and cost 18BsF per passenger. A taxi ride from the airport will cost Bs. 150,000/ US$70 and during the day, or Bs. 200,000 / US$93 and US$37) at night. There are international flights to Maracaibo and Valencia from cities such as Miami, but the choices are very limited.

You can travel non stop from the US and most major European cities. United Airlines links Caracas to Houston and Newark (Seasonal)

weekly. American Airlines offers daily flights from Miami, San Juan, Dallas and New York JFK. Delta Airlines offers a daily flight from Atlanta. Air Canada offers a direct flight from Toronto four times a week. Santa Barbara offers daily service to Miami.

Venezuela access routes

By Land Venezuela has road links with Colombia and Brazil. The road crossing to

Brazil, not far from the frontier town of Santa Elena de Uairén, is a long way from most tourist destinations in Venezuela and so not a common point of entry. Border controls are tight and all travelers arriving from Boa Vista are expected to have visas. The Venezuelan consulate in Boa Vista is on Av Benjamin Constant.

Venezuela's main connection with Colombia is from Cúcuta to Venezuela's frontier town of SanAntonio del Táchira, which itself is about 50 km from the busy Andean city of San Cristóbal. For a day visit to Cúcuta no visa documents are required but border controls are otherwise very tight with frequent searches. The border area can be dangerous and visitors are advised to pass through quickly. JUL 2012: the border controls are now very relaxed and nobody even stopped me on my way from Venezuela to Colombia nor searched my luggage. It is possible to take a local bus directly from San Cristobal to Cucuta for 25 BSF, but note that locals do not need to stamp their passports, and the bus will not wait for you while you are undertaking the migration procedures. If you are leaving Venezuela by land from San Antonio to Cucuta, you are obliged to pay the annoying BSF 90 departure tax, so do not change all your bolivares in Venezuela. Actually, you will get better rates in Cucuta. You may also leave Venezuela by way of the Paraguachón-Maicao land border, located about 120 km from Maracaibo on the NW border. Another point of entry is from Puerto Carreño in Colombia's Llanos region where boats cross the Orinoco river to El burro and onward connection to Puerto Ayacucho exist.

Los llanos

Venezuela most visited tourist

Los Llanos, or The Plains, is a vast grassland that straddles Venezuela and Columbia. The Orinoco River that runs through it forms the border between the two countries, and is the main river in Venezuela.

Los Roques Los Roques Archipelago National Park was created in 1972 by the Venezuelan government to protect a marine ecosystem of exceptional beauty and ecological . It is the largest marine park in the Caribbean Sea. The almost untouched coral reefs host some of the most beautiful underwater fauna and flora of the Caribbean.

Angles FallsAngel Falls is one the most popular tourist attractions in Venezuela as it is the highest uninterrupted waterfalls in the world. It is 978 meters (3,208 feet) tall, and drops off the side of Auyantepui Mountain in Canaima National Park in Bolivar State.

Choroni

Choroni is generally known as one of Venezuela’s best Caribbean beaches, though the town itself actually sits slightly inland, boasting some fine colonial houses around a quiet central plaza.

Isla MargaritaIsla Margarita, the largest island off the northeastern coast of Venezuela, is a great place to do some beachcombing. With 50 beaches strung out over the coastline, popular activities include wind- and kite-surfing, especially at Playa el Yaque.

Mochima National Park

ochima National Park is located on the northeastern coast and is designed to protect the marine environment as well as the forests of the Turimiquire mountains.

Mount RoraimaMount Roraima is a tabletop mountain (or tepuy) than sits at an elevation of 2,810 meters (9,220 feet). While most of Roraima lies in Venezuela, it also marks the point where Brazil and Guyana join that country. The only way visitors can climb to the plateau however is from the Venezuelan side.

Unique Culture People Venezuela has a rich cultural heritage. From the

original Venezuelan natives to the Spanish and Africans who arrived after the Spanish conquest, the 17th century waves of immigration brought many Italians, Portuguese, Arabs, Germans, Moroccan Jews, and others from the bordering countries of South America. About 93% of Venezuelans live in urban areas in the northern part of the country. Even though almost half of the land area is south of the Orinoco River, only 5% of the population live in that area. More than 96% of the population call themselves Catholic. The rest belong to other churches, mainly the Protestant church.

Distinct cultural attributes

Since the 1920s the Venezuelan

state has invested in developing and maintaining a national culture through the arts. The two areas that have most benefited from this support have been literature and music. Caracas features a publicly financed symphony orchestra that plays not only classical genres but also the more nationalistic genre of joropos. The state also supports several museums that house some of the national artistic production. The three prime ones are: the Museum of Fine Arts, which was founded in 1938; the Museum of Colonial Art, which is located in an eighteenth century house; and the Museum of Natural Sciences, which was founded in 1940 and houses over fifteen thousand exhibits. All three are located in Caracas.

Art

Music music of Venezuela is exemplified by the groups Un Solo Pueblo and Serenata Guayanesa. The national musical instrument is the cuatro. Typical musical styles and pieces mainly emerged in and around thellanos region, including Alma Llanera (by Pedro Elías Gutiérrez and Rafael Bolíva Coronado), Florentino y el Diablo (by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba), Concierto en la Llanura (by Juan Vicente Torrealba), and Caballo ViejoThe Zulian gaita is also a popular style, generally performed during Christmas. The national dance is the joropo. Teresa Carreño was a world-famous 19th-century piano virtuoso. In the last years, classical music has had great performances. The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra has realized excellent presentations in many European concert halls, notably at the 2007 Proms, and has received.

Venezuelan literature can be traced to pre-Hispanic times with the myths and ora literature that formed the cosmogonic view of the world that indigenous people had. Some of these stories are still known in Venezuela. Like many Latin American countries, the Spanish conquerors have had the greatest effect on both the culture and the literature. The first written documents by the Spanish colonizers are considered to be the origin of Venezuela's written literature. This has included chronicles, letters, acts, etc.

Venezuela's first major writer was Andrés Bello. Venezuelan literature developed in the 19th century with the formation of Venezuela as a nation state and the political conflicts of the time between conservatives and liberals. Notable works include Venezuela Heroica (1881), by Eduardo Blanco, on the Venezuelan War of Independence.

Literature

Venezuela, like most South American nations, is a predominantly Catholic nation. The influence of the Catholic Church was introduced in its colonization by Spain. According to the 2011 census, 88 percent of the population is Christian, primarily Roman Catholic (71%), and the remaining 17 percent Protestant. The Venezuelans without religion are 8% (atheist 2% and agnostic or indifferent 6%), almost 3% of the population follow other religion (1% of them are of Santeria).

There are small but influential Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish communities. The Muslim community of more than 100,000 is concentrated among persons of Lebanese and Syrian descent living in Nueva Esparta State, Punto Fijo and the Caracas area. Buddhism in Venezuela is practiced by over 52,000 people. The Buddhist community is made up mainly of Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. There are Buddhist centers in Caracas, Maracay, Mérida, Puerto Ordáz, San Felipe, and Valencia. The Jewish community numbers approximately 13,000 and is mainly concentrated in Caracas.

Religion

Los Tambores de Barlovento 

Los Tambores de Barlovento is held to mark the official start of the wet season.

 Held on 24 June, the Feast of John the Baptist is one of the Venezuela’s most significant events with the city of Caracas perhaps featuring the most enthusiastic celebrations. The festival sees locals take to the streets for an uninhibited display of dancing as African drums are pounded and mantras are chanted. The festival lasts the entire day and is an unusual mix of traditional catholic rites with ancient pagan rituals

Feast of John the Baptist

 The feast of San Benito is celebrated with enthusiasm by the people of Lake Maracaibo on account of San Benito being the patron saint of the region. Celebrations are conducted during Christmas week and last up until New Year’s Day.

San Benito el Moro

Arepa is a flatbread made of ground maize dough or cooked flour prominent in the cuisine of Colombia and Venezuela. It is eaten daily in those countries and can be served with various accompaniments such as cheese (cuajada), avocado, or (especially in Venezuela) split and used to make sandwiches. Various sizes, maize types, and added ingredients are used to vary its preparation. It is similar in shape to the Mexican gordita and the Salvadoran pupusa. Arepas can also be found in Panama,Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and the Canary Islands.

Venezuela cuisineArepa

An empanada also called pastel in Portuguese and patein Haitian Creole) is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried in many countries in Latin Europe, Latin America, the Southwestern United States, and parts of Southeast Asia. The name comes from the Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread.

Empanada

An hallaca  is a dish of beef, pork, chicken, fish or other seafood's, mixed with raisins, capers, and olives and wrapped in cornmeal dough, all folded within plantain leaves, tied with strings, and boiled or steamed afterwards. It is typically served during the Christmas holiday. In the Dominican Republic it is known as tamal or guanimos and is made of corn flour and stuffed with ground meat

Hallaca

Originally inhabited by Carib and Arawak Indians, Venezuela was claimed as a Spanish territory by Christopher Columbus in 1498. Spanish rule was administered from a distance, leaving the various regions to develop separately from the capital, Caracas. In the 18th century, an attempt to inject a measure of unification by the Spanish was met with widespread resistance and uprisings led by Simón Bolívar, national hero and revered independence ‘Liberator’. Bolívar’s dream mega-territory – Gran Colombia – composed of present-day Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, collapsed through violent in-fighting. Instead, in 1830, Venezuela became a sovereign state, led by José Paéz. The precise territorial limits were not, however, well defined, and Venezuela's borders have since been the subject of periodic disputes with its neighbors.

The exploitation of the country's substantial oilfields began in 1918. The huge deposits triggered an oil boom, similar to the cacao and coffee booms of the 17th and 19th century respectively. In each case, the wealth was largely export driven, making a small elite spectacularly rich but failing to develop the country’s wider economy, leaving the majority poor and exploited. Widespread political corruption and cronyism was the norm. Strong-arm military leaders ran the country throughout most of the first half of the 20th century, until democracy was introduced in 1958.

In the 1980s, successive governments struggled to stabilize the country and the economy in the face of persistent social and labor unrest. In 1992, a number of army units launched a completely unexpected military coup. It was suppressed by loyal army units but the Perez government was fatally undermined and it was little surprise when Perez was removed from office by Congress the following year, before completing his term. Elections at the end of 1993 resulted in Rafael Caldera, who had served as President in the mid-1970s, assuming the post once again.

History of Venezuela