Destinos de latinoamerica: enero 2009

Caracas, 16 Dic. ABN.- Este martes fue inaugurado oficialmente el Sendero Aéreo de Interpretación de la Naturaleza en el Parque Nacional Waraira Repano, El Ávila, el más largo del territorio nacional.
Así lo dio a conocer el viceministro del Conservación Ambiental del Ministerio del Poder Popular para el Ambiente (Minamb), Jesús Alexander Cegarra, durante un acto de reconocimiento a los periodistas y medios de comunicación social, celebrado en el sector Los Venados del mencionado parque.
En ese sentido, Cegarra señaló que el fin es brindar una nueva alternativa a los visitantes.
Este sendero está constituido por un circuito de seis plataformas, tres puentes colgantes y dos tirolinas, que van por la copas de los árboles, con un recorrido total de 250 metros y una altura máxima de 30 metros, e integra la educación ambiental con el deporte de aventura. El Ávila será así el primer Parque Nacional que cuenta con este tipo de sendero en el país.
Por su parte, el presidente del Instituto Nacional de Parques (Inparques), Juan Carlos Velásquez, indicó que en principio este nuevo atractivo estará a cargo de un equipo de escalada profesional, 10 guías-operadores, quienes impartirán información ecológica a los visitantes en las diferentes estaciones del sendero, y contará con seguridad de responsabilidad civil.
Velásquez informó que estará abierto al público a principios del año 2009. “Estamos terminando con unos trámites con respecto al seguro para luego abrirlo al público en general”, dijo.
Asimismo, destacó que este proyecto se extenderá a otros parques que están bajo la custodia de Inparques, como el Parque Nacional Guatopo y el Parque Nacional Henri Pittier.
Con una inversión de 320 mil bolívares fuertes, aproximadamente, el Parque Nacional Waraira Repano suma este nuevo atractivo a este espacio natural como una herramienta de educación ambiental para concienciar a los ciudadanos sobre la importancia de preservar este patrimonio natural.
En los senderos aéreos, deporte extremo también denominado canoping, las personas viajan por el dosel o techo del bosque con un desplazamiento seguro que depende de cables que están entre las ramas de árboles.
fuente:imparques.gob.ve

miércoles, 7 de enero de 2009

FITVEN BARQUISIMETO 2009

La Feria Internacional de Turismo de Venezuela (Fitven 2009), en su segunda edición, es un evento que pretende propiciar un espacio para el encuentro y el acercamiento internacional entre los pueblos, así como impulsar el intercambio de culturas, dar a conocer los atractivos, destinos, servicios, ofertas venezolanas y continuar promoviendo al país como destino turístico. Del 1 al 4 de octubre, Fitven 2009 reunirá a 23 estados venezolanos y el Distrito Capital para exhibir las bondades turísticas, gastronómicas y culturales de las regiones del territorio nacional. En 2009, el estado Lara, ubicado en la región centro occidental del país, considerada la entidad musical y crepuscular, será la entidad anfitriona provista de variados y contrastantes escenarios naturales desde montañas, áridos y depresión llanera

domingo, 4 de enero de 2009

ANGEL FALL CANAIMA NATIONAL PARK

PARQUE NACIONAL CANAIMAUbicado en el extremo sureste de Venezuela en el Escudo Guayanés, en la jurisdicción de los municipios Piar, Sifontes y Gran Sabana del Estado Bolívar. Fue creado el 12 de junio de 1962 con una superficie de 1.000.000 ha, ampliándose a 3.000.000 de ha en 1975, lo que le convierte en uno de los mayores del mundo (sexto). Abarca la totalidad de la cuenca oriental y superior del río Caroní,. fuente hídrica del mayor complejo hidroeléctrico de Venezuela, y las cuencas de los ríos Carrao, Kukenán, Yuruaní, Aponwao y Surukun.El parque ocupa el sector nororiental del escudo Guayanés, que corresponde a un basamento precámbrico con rocas de entre 900 y 3.500 millones de años, sobre las cuales se encuentran las cuarcitas y los conglomerados silíceos de Roraima. Las formas predominantes corresponden a una combinación de tepuy, planicies y valles. Entre los tepuy se encuentran el Auyan-Tepuy (2.400 m), desde donde surge el Salto Ángel, que con su caída de 979 m es el más alto del mundo; el de Roraima (2.810 m); el de Chimata (2.700 m); el de Kukenán (2.600 m) y otros 34 Tepuy más. La vegetación en estos Tepuy varía desde el bosque húmedo tropical, en las bases y laderas, hasta arbustos y herbazales en la cima, con una gran diversidad de especies endémicas; en las áreas de sabanas y valles predominan las gramíneas y los morichales, con presencia de bosques de galería. La fauna es variada, destacando el oso hormiguero, el jaguar, la nutria gigante, el zorro y los monos araguatos; entre las aves, el águila arpía, el halcón palomero, la guacamaya enana y el colibrí. En el parque se han encontrado vestigios de un significativo poblado indígena prehispánico; en la actualidad, viven en este territorio comunidades de la etnia indígena Pemón con subgrupos de kamaracotos, taurepan y arekuna. Su territorio fue reconocido en el siglo XVIII por los misioneros capuchinos catalanes.Fauna: La fauna del parque es muy variada, y está esparcida de acuerdo a múltiples factores ambientales como la altura y el tipo de vegetación. Entre las especies que podemos encontrar están: el oso melero, el Báquira, la ardilla Guayanesa, el puma, venado, la pereza de tres dedos, la comadreja, el zorro granjero, monos cara rayada, monos machín, ratones, oso hormiguero gigante, perro de agua o nutria gigante, jaguar o tigre y cunaguaros, reptiles como el camaleón la iguana, morrocoy selvático, serpientes como la falsa coral, Bejuca, anaconda, falsa mapanare, y venenosas como la coral, mapanare, cuaima piña y cascabel. También numerosas especies de ranas y sapos. en cuanto a las aves podemos citar el Guacamayo rojo, perico cara sucia, rey zamuro, campanero, colibrí, pájaros capuchinos, gallito de las rocas, tucanes etc.
Salto AngelEl San Angel es una de las metas turísticas más ambicionado de Venezuela siendo la catarata más alta del mundo, el nombre de la catarata deriva de un piloto americano, Jimmie aAngel, que atañió sobre la cima del Auyantapui en busca de oro en el 1937, a su regreso el avión quedó deshonrado en el terreno cenagoso impidiendo a Angel y a su familia de riparire,cosi dovettero bajar toda la meseta y, atravesando a pies toda una zona virgen.Después de una odisea de 11 días lograron hacer vuelta a la civilización.El San Angel es altos 979 metros y tiene el salto incesante más alto al mundo 807 metros.El santo Angel se tira del Autepay haciendo precipitar en la parte central de la pared rocosa el agua del Canon Del DIablo "garganta del diablo."El San Angel, encontrándose en una zona salvaje, no es fácilmente alcanzable: puede llegarnos de la aldea de Canaima localizada a acerca de 50Km de la catarata cogiendo un pequeño avión o bien con el barco.

El período mejor para visitar el San Angel es el período de las lluvias cuando la catarata está llena de agua o sea de mayo - junio hasta noviembre-diciembre.
Para visitar el San Angel es indispensable llevar prendas impermiabili y de los bolsos de plástico por la cámara de foto, insecticida y jerseyes a mangas largas para protegerse de las bajas temperaturas y de los insectos además de un sombrero para protegerse del sol.

Canaima national ParkCanaima National Park is located in the south-east of Venezuela in Bolívar State close to the borders with Brazil and Guyana. The park protects the north-western section of the Guayana Shield, an ancient geological formation shared with Brazil, the Guianas and Colombia. The park was established in 1962 with an area of 10,000km², but its size was increased to 30,000km² in 1975 in order to safeguard the watershed functions of its river basins. At that time it became the world's largest national park, its area being equivalent to that of Belgium in Europe, or larger than the State of Maryland.
In recognition of its extraordinary scenery and geological and biological values, the park was conceded World Heritage Status in 1994, forming one of a select list of 126 natural and natural-cultural World Heritage Sites worldwide. Canaima actually fulfilled all four of UNESCO's criteria for qualification as a World Heritage property. Ironically, the name of the park, which derives from the novel "Canaima" by Venezuelan author Rómulo Gallegos, means "spirit of evil" in the language of the Pemón, local inhabitants of the park.
The best-known feature of Canaima National Park are its characteristic flat-topped mountain formations known as tepuis from the local indigenous name. These mountains were popularised in several novels from the early part of this century, many of them inspired by the 19th Century British botanist Everard Im Turn who lectured throughout Europe on his return. The most widely recognised of these novels is The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, which describes the ascent of a South American plateau inhabited by prehistoric plants and dinosaurs.The geological history of the area is only superficially understood. There are three main geological formations. The oldest is an underlying igneous-metamorphic basement formed some 1.2-3.6 billion years ago whilst South America was joined to Africa as the supercontinent Gondwanaland. Between 1.6 and 1 billion years ago, this was overlain with a sedimentary cover. The first of these formations is too deeply buried to be visible within the park, but second (known as the Roraima Group) forms the basis of the area's extraordinary topography (Huber 1995). It consists of quartzite and sandstone strata which were probably laid down in shallow seas or large inland lakes (Briceño et al. 1990) during the Pre-Cambrian period. Lastly, during Palaeozoic and Mesozoic times magma repeatedly penetrated the existing sediments forming intrusive rocks which are typically diabases, and to a lesser extent granites.The tepui formations, not unlike those found in the deserts of northern Arizona, came into being by a process of erosion of the surrounding lands over millions of years. The tepuis are sandstone massifs, and it is thought that what are today mountains once formed harder or less faulted strata which were more resistant to erosion.
There is an impressive array of different soil types. The low mineral content of the parent rocks of the Guayana Shield, the high rates of weathering that occur in tropical climates and the age of the sediments has produced soils which are generally acid and nutrient poor. Only where there are more basic igneous intrusions are the soils capable of supporting luxuriant forests or cultivation.
The traditional inhabitants of the south-east of Venezuela, including Canaima National Park, are the Pemón indigenous people, part of the Carib linguistic group. Their entire population approaches 20,000, with about three quarters of these within the national park.
The date of first occupation of the Gran Sabana is not known, but the Pemón are thought to have immigrated into the region some 200 years ago (Thomas 1980), although there are archeological remains of human settlements which date back 9000 years (Schubert and Huber 1989). Perhaps this 'late colonisation' of the Gran Sabana is a function of its poor soils: there is certainly some evidence to suggest that low productivity is responsible for the relatively low population density of its present day inhabitants in relation to the indigenous inhabitants of, for example, the Amazonian lowlands (Huber and Zent 1995). Despite this short history of settlement, the Pemón have an intimate relationship with their landscape environment. The names of rock formations, waterfalls, rapids, lakes and streams all have their origins described in myth. Some of these names date from the t
ANGEL'S WINGSUp the forest path we pant. Up and down and over and round, slowly climbing as the hill grows steeper. In the dim light, everything remains indistinct, merging into an amorphous mass which connives to trip me up. I can't climb quickly enough. Twenty minutes ago I was still slung in my hammock, dreaming of four-posters, and breakfast in bed brought to my door.
A toucan "eeowooo" stops us in our tracks. It's very close. We wait for its mate to reply. "Eeowoooo, eeowoooo." The metallic cry echoes through the forest, its possible sources seeming to multiply as we listen. We stand there, peering into the forest canopy, our chests heaving, hoping to catch sight of one of the nose-heavy birds. Then my guide Yesé grabs my arm. "Mira," he says, "Look".
I turn towards the mountain, still shielded by the obstinate forest. Through the trees and leaves, a band of ochre stretches across it. As the sun rises over the eastern hills, its first rays bathe the entire vertical flanks of Auyan Tepuy, the Mountain of Evil, in pure golden light.
There's no time to lose now. We hop, skip, jump and scrabble up the rocks along the path, like two over-excited schoolboys. I want to look up to make sure the light's still there, but every time I try, I trip or my ankle feigns a twist. At last we come out into the open, to a rock ledge at the foot of the mountain. There, in full view, glowing like the first gold-leaf letter of a medieval manuscript, the tallest waterfall in the world vaults from the top of the mountain's gothic cathedral façade. We've made it.
Angel Falls is the Eighth Wonder of World. It's Venezuela's most touted tourist attraction, and rightly so. The falls plunge for a near free-fall kilometre, some twenty Niagaras piled atop one another. Millions of dancing droplets swirl as you gaze upon it from the lookout. After the hot walk up, it feels like an angel's wing caressing your face.
The falls cascade from a canyon which prises open the heart-shaped Auyan mountain. Auyan, the largest of the unique mesas of the ancient Guayana Shield, rises 2,510 metres (8,233 ft) at the north-eastern edge of Canaima National Park, the jewel in Venezuela's already shining crown of national parks.
Perhaps it would be more poetic if the name Angel Falls derived from a miraculous saintly figure who once appeared to an Indian, or echoed the shape of their white plume cascading down from the Heavens. The truth, however, is far more entertaining, and, in a land rich in gold and diamonds, far more appropriate.
In 1921, the dour geologist and explorer, J.R. McCracken contracted a maverick bush pilot called Jimmie Angel, a Canadian Air Force pilot of the First World War with a penchant for red-heads, to fly down to the Venezuelan outback. McCracken never showed Jimmie a map, and simply told him where to go. Jimmie did as he was told, eventually landing his plane on top of one of the 'tepuys' ('mountains' in the local Pemon Indian tongue). McCracken then proceeded to pan a river, and fill a sack, so the story goes, full of gold nuggets. So many, in fact, Angel feared they wouldn't be able to take off again with the extra weight in the fast-fading light. As they nosed off the mountain, the plane plunged thousands of feet before Angel managed to level out. They returned to Caracas, and McCracken paid Jimmie the other half of the money he had promised him: $3,000, a tidy sum back then.
So began Angel's obsession with the 'River of Gold', taking his place in the long line of adventurers who have raked the region in search of El Dorado. Over the following years, he persuaded various backers to fund his trips into Venezuela's Gran Sabana in search of 'his' mountain. He never found it.
But in 1933, Angel returned to his favourite bar in Caracas, the American Club, very excited. This time it wasn't the river, the gold, the tepuy or even a red-head that had caught his imagination, but a waterfall. He claimed to have sighted surely the tallest in the world. His altimeter read around 6,000 ft. "A waterfall a mile high" he claimed. Tell us another tall story, retorted the other regulars at the bar. As B. Traven puts it in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, "It was the usual gold-digger's story: true, no doubt, and yet sounding like a fairy story."
On a flight in 1937, Angel attempted to land on the surface of Auyan Tepuy, a mountain the size of Menorca. His small Flamingo plane, the Río Caroní, stuck in a bog. He and his party, which included his wife and the Venezuelan Gustavo Heny — who, fortunately, had explored the area in previous years — were forced to find a way down off the mountain. They eventually made it to the mission of Kamarata, southeast of Auyan, 11 days later, somewhat slimmer. This time though, they had all got a good look at the falls, and Jimmie's story didn't look so tall after all.
In 1949, the gutsy American journalist Ruth Robertson, all five-foot of her, organised and led an overland expedition to measure the falls. No-one, certainly no white person, had ever been up the Churún canyon to the foot of the falls. The local Pemon Indians were in awe of the angular-shouldered mountain that rose sheer above the emerald forests of their lands. The tepuys are the home of their marawiton spirits. To approach them is to incur their wrath.
Failing to persuade National Geographic to fund the expedition (although they later published her article), Robertson fell back on various sponsors, including the bush pilots whom she'd befriended while living in Venezuela. Robertson, however, was fortunate to recruit the Latvian-born Alexander Laime to her cause. Laime was one of the few white men trusted by the Pemon. He knew the region, if not the area, well. He would later become known as "the hermit", living out his days on a remote island in the shadow of Auyan and occasionally spending days roaming its summit in search of dinosaurs.
Following various setbacks, the group's over-laden dugout set out from near Kamarata. They skirted the east of Auyan along the Acanan and the Carrao rivers, until they reached the mouth of the Churún. Here, the Pemon painted their faces and bodies with red vegetable dye, and nervously recited their magical invocations, taren. Having set off at the end of the dry season, the boats soon ran aground in the shallow Churún. They unloaded and set off through the forest, sharing the weight of their photographic and radio equipment, movie cameras, theodolite, generators and camping gear with their ten Pemon porters. Three days of slashing and one near-mutiny later, the expedition emerged at a spot where the falls were clearly visible. Angel's altimeter was off by a few thousand feet, but the falls still weighed in at a colossal 979 m (3,211 ft), with an uninterrupted drop of 807 m (2,647 ft) — without doubt the tallest waterfall in the world.
Or at least that's one version - the most colourful one to be sure - of the Angel Falls story. Another one suggests the existence of the tremendous waterfall was first reported as early as 1910 by a Venezuelan naval officer, and later gold prospector, Ernesto Sánchez La Cruz. La Cruz's claims, however, don't stand up to inspection.
Their true name, given by the Pemon, who probably knew of their existence all along, is Kerepaküpai Merú. Kerepaküpai means 'the deepest place', while merú means 'falls'. After Jimmie's death in 1956, his ashes were scattered over the falls, and in 1970, the Venezuelan Air Force rescued the rusting Río Caroní from the top of Auyan. After restoration, it was ceremoniously placed in front of the airport in Ciudad Bolívar on the banks of the Orinoco, where you can see it today. It's just as well his surname wasn't Smith.
WHEN TO GO: You can only travel by dugout up the Río Churún in the rainy season, which runs from April-May to late November. However, trips might be possible on the fringes of these months as well — though you might have to get out of your boat more often! At other times, the only way to see the falls is by plane. These are usually old DC-3s with adapted windows, or else smaller Cessna-type planes.
HOW TO GET TO CANAIMA:The best flight service to Canaima from Caracas is with Avior (www.avior.com.ve) direct.
Aerotuy ( www.tuy.com ) flies from Porlamar in Margarita, while Rutaca’s (tel: (0285) 632-2195) small planes leave Ciudad Bolívar in the mornings, usually providing flights out in the afternoons. Rutaca’s planes essentially go to wherever there are passengers in the Gran Sabana, and are the best option for getting to Kavak and Kamarata.
ime of the culture heroes; some from other mythological sequences (Thomas 1982).

viernes, 2 de enero de 2009

PARQUES NACIONALES

PARQUES NACIONALES

Parque NacionalHenri Pittier

Parque NacionalSierra Nevada

Parque NacionalGuatopo

Parque NacionalEl Avila

Parque NacionalYurubí

Parque NacionalCanaima

Parque NacionalYacambú

Parque NacionalCueva de La Quebrada del Toro

Parque NacionalArchipiélago de Los Roques

Parque NacionalMacarao

Parque NacionalMochima

Parque NacionalLaguna de la Restinga

Parque NacionalMédanos de Coro

Parque NacionalLaguna de Tacarigua

Parque NacionalCerro Copey Jóvito Villaba

Parque NacionalAguaro Guariquito

Parque NacionalMorrocoy

Parque NacionalEl Guácharo

Parque NacionalTerepaima

Parque NacionalJaua Sarisariñama

Parque NacionalSerranía La Neblina

Parque NacionalCerro Yapacana

Parque NacionalDuida Marahuaca

Parque NacionalPenínsula de Paria

Parque NacionalSierra de Perijá

Parque NacionalEl Tamá

Parque NacionalSan Esteban

Parque NacionalJuan Crisóstomo Falcón(Sierra de San Luís)

Parque NacionalSantos Luzardo(Capanaparo- Cinaruco)

Parque NacionalG. Cruz Carrillo (Guaramacal)

Parque NacionalDinira

Parque NacionalG. Juan Pablo Peñaloza

Parque NacionalChorro El Indio

Parque NacionalSierra de La Culata

Parque NacionalCerro Saroche

Parque NacionalTuruépano

Parque NacionalDelta Del Orinoco (Mariusa)

Parque NacionalCiénagas de Juan Manuel

Parque NacionalParima Tapirapecó

Parque NacionalSan Camilo (Río Viejo)

Parque NacionalGral. Manuel Manrique (Tirgua)

Parque NacionalEl Guache

Parque NacionalTapo-Caparo

jueves, 1 de enero de 2009

PARQUE NACIONAL HENRY PITTIER

TURISMO EN VENEZUELA
Ubicación
Situado en la región central, ocupa los estados Aragua y Carabobo, con una superficie de 107.800 hectáreas.
Creación
El Parque Nacional Henri Pittier fue decretado Parque Nacional el 13 de febrero de 1937.
Datos climáticos
Tiene una temperatura que oscila entre 12º y 28ºC. Las precipitaciones varían, 690mm en la costa, 1880mm en El Portachuelo y puede alcanzar los 4000 mm en las zonas más altas.
Descripción
Es el parque más antiguo del país, creado originalmente en 1937 con el nombre de Rancho Grande y rebautizado en 1953 con el nombre del ilustre geógrafo y botánico suizo Henri Pittier quien llegó a Venezuela en 1917 y clasificó más de 30 mil plantas en el país.
Se encuentra cerca de los poblados de Choroní, Cuyagua, Chuao, Cata, La Ciénaga, Ocumare y Turiamo. A este parque se puede llegar por la carretera que va de Maracay a El Limón, pasando por Rancho Grande y bajando por Ocumare de la Costa, y por la carretera que va de Maracay a Las Delicias y llega a Choroní.
La constitución geológica del parque es básicamente de roca ígnea metamórfica, la mayor altura es de 2.436 m. De igual manera, se encuentran ambientes de litoral rocoso. Su altitud va del nivel del mar hasta los 2.430 m. en el Pico Cenizo. Cuenta con una importante red hidrográfica y por sus características físicas y la diversidad de las zonas, es un escenario excepcional para algunas especies migratorias de la avifauna e ictiofauna marina.
Ecosistemas protegidos y atractivos naturales relevantes
Herbazales y arbustales litorales, bosques deciduos y semi-deciduos estacionales, bosques nublados costeros. Gran diversidad de aves, paso de aves e insectos migratorios en Portachuelo.

Henri Pittier National Park was declared as the first national park in Venezuela in 1937. It is located between Aragua and Carabobo States and is the largest national park of the Cordillera de la Costa (Coastal Mountain Range) region. There are several distinct habitats along the park's elevation gradient, which ranges from sea level to 2,346 meters above sea level (masl).The park’s cloud forests and coastal region are a great attraction for tourists and scientists. The Henri Pittier National Park constitutes an important water source for surrounding towns, and it is also where one of the best cacaos in the world is cultivated.BiodiversityHenry Pittier National Park has a vast biological diversity. It pertains to the so called “hotspot” of the tropical Andes. The most studied plant community is the cloud forest, where up to 150 different species of trees have been reported in an area of 0.25 ha. Of these, the “niño,” or “cucharón” (Gyranthera caribensis), is the most representative species. Also, over 140 species of mammals, 580 birds, 97 reptiles and 38 amphibians have been reported, and the number of insect species is estimated to be over one million.

sntantidad de ambientes y los

TURISMO EN VENEZUELA

venezuela history

In ancient times, Venezuela was paradise for the Indians who lived on its beaches, in its tropical forests, and on the gentle grassland of the llanos. There were three main groups: the Carib, Arawak, and the Chibcha. They lived in small groups and all of them practiced some degree of farming; the land, however, was bountiful enough so that this was not always a necessity. They could easily hunt, fish for, and gather their food. The most advanced of the three were the Chibcha who lived on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Though they never developed large cities, their agricultural skill were formidable: they terraced parts of the Andes and built sophisticated irrigation channels to water their crops.
Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit Venezuela. He came in 1498 during his third voyage to the New World, and landed on the Peninsula de Paria. Following the coast, he explored the Rio Orinoco Delta and concluded that he had found much more than another Caribbean island. More explorers came a year later, and it was Alonso de Ojeda who gave the country its name. Arriving at Lake Maracaibo, he admired the stilted houses that the Indians had build above the lake and called the place Venezuela - "Little Venice." A year after that the Spanish established their first settlement, Nueva Cadiz, which was later destroyed by a tsunami. Early colonization in Venezuela was much less rampant than it was in other parts of South America, and the colony was ruled with a loose hand from Bogota. It was much less important to the Spanish than the mineral-producing colonies of Western South America, but Venezuela would later surprise the world when massive oil reserves would be discovered.
Venezuela may have been a quiet outpost on the edge of the Spanish Empire, but it gave birth to the man who would one day turn that empire on its head: Simon Bolivar. With the help of British mercenaries, Bolivar and his followers campaigned against the Spanish tirelessly, marching across the Andes and liberating Colombia in 1819, Venezuela in 1821, and Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in 1825. Much of his army was composed of native Venezuelans. Independence did not prove easy for the new nation. Civil strife, wars, and dictatorships raged in the country well into the next century. Though some dictators sought real reform, most milked their positions for personal gain. Border disputes with the British colony of Guyana erupted in the 1840s, and although they never boiled over into full-fledged warfare, Venezuela still disputes the border to this day.

Their national mythology hails back to the days when independent and rugged settlers tamed the lawlessness of the llanos, a heritage not unlike that of the American West. Most Venezuelans them come from a mix of European, Indian, and African roots, while a minority are exclusively white, black, or Indian.