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Caracas and the District Federal |
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|  Introducing Caracas
Spreading along a high plateau that’s partitioned from the sea by towering green mountains, Venezuela’s capital presents a dense urban fabric, with scores of skyscrapers sticking out of a mass of low-rise buildings like bars on a graph. Fast-paced and cosmopolitan, this progressive city nevertheless has over four centuries of history buried beneath its glass-and-concrete monuments to oil-fueled affluence, while signs of corrosion mar its patina of modernism.
Nowhere else in the country will you find such an array of cultural activity, world-class museums or eclectic cuisine, from the arepa joints of Sabana Grande to the haute cuisine of hubs like Las Mercedes and Los Palos Grandes. Caracas’ nightlife offers clubbers, bar-hoppers and salsa aficionados the opportunity to mingle with the city’s famously die-hard partiers. Commerce makes the city bustle and shopping is a vocation for many caraqueños (inhabitants of Caracas) who prowl glitzy malls and sprawling street markets. Complementing these attractions is an agreeable sunny climate, at 900m often described as ‘eternal summer,’ and a natural exuberance that pleasantly contrasts with the urban fabric. Frangipani blooms outside the metro and tiny frogs cheep from streetside trees. Caracas’ northern edge abuts the steep, wooded slopes of Parque Nacional El Ávila, where miles of walking trails wind through scented forests.
Despite these obvious attractions, Caracas’ grittier side predominates. Traffic is relentless, and trash and noise can be unnerving. Haphazardly built shantytowns creep up the surrounding hillsides, and poor enclaves rub shoulders with some of the ritziest zones. One constantly hears about how Caracas has declined over the past decade, and with all the warnings about crime and decay, a visit to the capital is inevitably tinged with fear. Young caraqueños object to these dismal depictions of their city even as they warn you not to venture into certain areas. A visit to Caracas can be an exhilarating ride, but expect some bumps along the way.
Caracas is the capital of Venezuela,
an enormous Latin-American city with all the conveniences
of the modern life and all the problemantiches of the
third world. This contrast finds one of its maximum
expressions in the same architecture of the city: from
a modern part with the streets, the stations of the
subway and the atrium of the public buildings decorated
by numerous sculptures, bas-reliefs, mosaics and murales;
from the other extremely poor, with the urbanistic expansion
that has produced a vast expanse of slum on the surrounding
hills the districts of the center.
Placed to around 900 ms of altitude, Caracas enjoys
of a mild climate, relatively dry and sunny with a middle
temperature of 22 degrees and the season of the rains
that it has gone since June to October. Unfortunately,
in such a complex city, there was room for negative
aspects: Caracas, in fact, is the most dangerous city
in Venezuela with a rate of crime everything in increase
now.
Short history of Caracas
The official date of the foundation of Caracas
is 1567, even if since the beginning its development
has suffered continuous wisecracks of arrest because
of the raids of the pirates, of the epidemics and of
the natural calamities.
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In the VXIII century was founded
the Real Company Guipuzcoana a merchant society to which
the monopoly of the commercial exchanges was granted between
Spain and Venezuela. In a first time this society contributed
to the development of Caracas, but subsequently, because
of the violence used on the population, the citizens rose
up.
This was seen how the first sign of rebellion towards
Spain.
The character that drove the country I pour the independence
from Spain, gotten the June 14 1821, it was Simon Bolivar.
In the following years, two terrible earthquakes put in
knee the city, destroying big part of the constructions
of colonial age and bringing, in the following years to
a vast program of reconstruction of the city.
Then the boom of the oil and the proceeds it came drawn
by the black gold that were invested in a work of modernization
that turned Caracas into a vast populated urban agglomeration
of skyscrapers and commercial centers.
Pushed by the deceptive dream of wealth, thousand of farmers
flowed on the city, but unfortunately the large majority
of them has not succeeded in doing fortune and they now
lives to the day in the favelases that rise on the hills
around the center. As you can easily be deduced, these
zones are him to consider among the most dangerous of
the city. |
Crime
The historical center is relatively surer, but also here
to practically bring jewels, clocks and camera in beautiful
sight is an invitation to make a steal!
The modern city
Structurally, the city is divided in the five zones: the
center and outskirtses, the parque central, the Sabana
Grande, Altamira and outskirts oriental and southern outskirts.
The zones of the center has almost all lost his identity;
the run to the modernization has in fact brought to the
demolition of many colonial buildings and their substitution
with its futuristic skyscraper with colored glass. Despite
the mix of architectural styles, this zone is very interesting
however to be visited, above all for the tied up monuments
to the figure of Bolivar as Plaza De Bolivar, that it
constitutes the nucleus of the historical center of Caracas,
adorned by the equestrian statue of the national hero.
Situated on the oriental side of the plaza the Catedral
is, that
Close to the cathedral the Sacred museum of Caracas is
found, that contains a modest but meaningful harvest of
religious works.
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On the southern side of the
plaza the Consejo Municipal is, center of the museum Caracas,
where preserved testimonies are related to the history
of the city and the
Capina De Saint Rosa De Lima, where the July 5 1811 the
Venezuelan parliament declares the independence from Spain.
contains the chapel of the family Bolivar.
The zone of the Parque Central is one of the places that
better embody the modern face of Caracas; is drawn of
a residential complex composed by 4 scratch them to us,
to the
than above of which two octagonal towers of 53 plans are
risen, the tallest buildings of the whole Venezuela.
The Parque Central the artistic and cultural heart of
Caracas can be defined, with the Museum De Art Contemporary,
that he/she boasts of jobs of painters as Picasso,
Chagall,Matisse,Mirò, the Museum De Los Ninos,il
Museum De Ciencias Naturales, the Galeria De Art Nacional.
The Sabana Grande is an animated district full of hotels,
restaurants and shops, that it recalls both the tourists
and for his Great Bovievard De Sabana, an a lot of avenue
to the fashion.
In the east zone of Sabana Grande some of the more districts
to the fashion of Cracas are found, particularly Altamina.
Just in this zone the Parque of the East is found, the
greatest park in the city employed to the walks.
Here the Museum de Trasporte is found, also where some
ancient vapor locomotives and the Casona are exposed,
the residence of the Venezuelan Presidents. |
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