Official Language:
Spanish
Secondary Language:
English
|
Currency:
Bolivar
|
Population:
Over 3 million people call Caracas home.
|
Weather:
Climate and current weather information for Caracas Venezuela: The best time to visit caracas is December-April, when the weather has average temperatures of 75-81°F/24-27°C degrees.
|
|
|
|
Caracas is the most unique city in Venezuela. As well as being the capital, tremendously wealthy and desperately poor, it mixes its modern society's high-rise buildings with the historical country houses (quintas) along with the coffee and sugar cane plantations (haciendas). These two distinct features combine to form the perfect blend adhering to every personality of its visitors.
The history of the city of Caracas dates back to 1560, when Francisco Fajardo headed south from the Spanish colony on Isla de Margarita, where he discovered the verdant valley that is today completely taken up by the huge metropolis. Fajardo had founded a settlement called San Francisco, however the Toromaima Indians who were living in the valley at the time objected to the Spaniards' incursions. For the next six years the Indians launched several attacks against the settlement, to which the governor of the province responded by ordering the complete conquest of the valley. In July of 1567, the governor's expeditionary troop overcame Indian resistance and re-established the settlement. They then named it Santiago de León de Caracas!
Retreat back to the 16th century by browsing through Old Town and learn about the birth of this delightful town. Learn about the great liberator, Simon Bolivar, who had driven the Spaniards out of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Walk through the home of his birth and witness many of his other tributes.This cosmopolitan city is not only exquisite for its beauty, but it is accessible as well. This is especially beneficial for the tourist, for it provides an inexpensive and time-friendly way to see all of the sights Caracas has to offer. These sights are conveniently situated so you will not have to spend time traveling. Spend your time at the Bellas Artes where you can go museum hopping, go to the theater, or catch a film. Most of the museums want you to understand their home and give you this opportunity to taste Venezuela's history free of charge. Do not forget to bring your wallet or purse, however, because Caracas is a buyer's market. Walk through its little town shops and luxury boutiques all on the same block. Get the best prices on shoes, leather accessories, jewelry, tailored suits, gold, and clothing of the finest materials and designs.Once the night approaches, just because the sun goes to bed does not mean that it is time for you to, as well. Caracas will treat you to the splendor of its many nightclubs, bars and cafés. In fact, most of the clubs don't get started until midnight! This will allow you to eat at one of their fine restaurants, experience the live bands and dance under a blanket of stars, all adding to the variety and pleasure Caracas has to offer.It enjoys a perfect position on the Caribbean coast, and is the gateway to the Andes and the Amazon.
Cruise ships dock in La Guaira. From there, taxis and buses can take you to any destination you desire.Taxis are numerous inside of the city, as well as from the port. It costs approximately $35 USD to travel from La Guaira to Caracas. Once you are inside of the city, navigation is like that of a maze, so taxis are recommended unless you know exactly where you are going. If you do choose to take a taxi, definitely ask the driver the cost of the trip before you leave so it doesn't end up costing you more than what is written on the rate card.Bus transportation is always available from La Guaira and at the best monetary rate. Inside of the city it is a convenient way to travel. However, the subways will still be your best bet.
|
|
Attractions |
 |
 |
The main reason cruise ships come to Venezuela is so that passengers can experience the city of Caracas and South America. Caracas is the most unique city in Venezuela. As well as being the capital, it mixes its modern society's high-rise buildings with the historical country houses (quintas) along with the coffee and sugar cane plantations (haciendas). These two distinct features combine to form the perfect blend adhering to every personality of its visitors.
The Quinta Anauco:
(tel 2/551-8650) is a colonial country house built in 1797. It has been restored and in 1961, made into a museum. You will be transported into colonial times if you opt to take the guided tour. Normally the tour is in Spanish so it is best to call ahead of time and make a reservation specifying English, if you wish. See the bed that Bolivar himself slept in during his last night in Caracas. The property itself is an extraordinary experience for the senses and hushes away the surrounding city. The hundreds of species of plant life here will overwhelm your eyes, including pomegranate trees and orchids.
Capitolio Nacional:
The National Capitol occupies an entire city block, and, with its golden domes and neoclassical pediments, can seem even bigger. The building was commissioned by Guzmán Blanco in the 1870s, and is most famous for its Salón Elíptico, an oval hall with a mural-covered dome and walls lined with portraits of the country's great and good.Visit on Independence Day and you'll catch a glimpse of the original Act of Independence of 1811, installed inside a pedestal topped by a bust of Bolívar and displayed only on this most auspicious of public days. The halls surrounding the salon are daubed with battle scenes commemorating Venezuela's fight for independence.
Casa Natal & Museo Bolívar:
These side-by-side attractions comprise the restored birthplace of Simón Bolívar and a small museum of memorabilia and historic items related to El Libertador -- his life, death, and military and political campaigns. A place of pilgrimage for many Venezuelans, the simple house where Bolívar was born on July 24, 1783, sits in stark contrast to the modern city surrounding it. Skyscrapers may loom overhead, but thankfully there's more than a hint of original colonial flavour in this neatly proportioned reconstruction of the house where Simón Bolívar was born on July 24, 1783. The museum's exhibits include period weapons, banners and uniforms.Much of the original colonial interior has been replaced by monumental paintings of battle scenes, but more personal relics can be seen in the nearby Museo Bolivariano. Pride of place goes to the coffin in which Bolívar's remains were brought from Colombia; his ashes now rest in the National Pantheon.Bolívar's funeral was held 12 years after his death at the Iglesia de San Francisco, just a few blocks west, and it was also here that he was proclaimed 'El Libertador' in 1813. The church dazzles the eye with its richly gilded baroque altarpieces, and still retains much of its original colonial interior, despite being given a modernising once-over by Guzmán Blanco.
Museo de Arte Colonial:
The gardens that surround this museum are almost as enticing as its interior. The museum is housed in a beautiful colonial country mansion known as Quinta de Anauco, which is surrounded by beautiful greenery. Inside the house you'll find meticulously restored rooms, filled with carefully selected works of art, furniture and period household odds and ends.The quinta was well outside the historic town when it was built back in 1797, but today it's an oasis in the inner suburb of San Bernardino. Head there late on a Sunday morning and you might catch a chamber music concert in rooms which were once the house stables.
Panteón Nacional:
Venezuela's most venerated building is five blocks north of Plaza Bolívar, on the northern edge of the old town. Formerly a church, the building was given its new purpose as the final resting place for eminent Venezuelans by Guzmán Blanco in 1874. The entire central nave is dedicated to Bolívar, with the altar's place taken by the hero's bronze sarcophagus, while lesser luminaries are relegated to the aisles. The national pantheon's vault is covered with 1930s paintings depicting scenes from Bolívar's life, and the huge crystal chandelier glittering overhead was installed in 1883 on the centennial of his birth. It's worth hanging around to catch the ceremonial changing of the guard, held several times a day.
Parque Central:
An easy 1.5km (1mi) saunter east of Plaza Bolívar takes you from historic to futuristic Caracas. Rather than a welcome expanse of inner-city greenery, this park is a concrete complex of five high-rise residential slabs of somewhat apocalyptic-appearing architecture, crowned by two 53-storey octagonal towers. Parque Central is Caracas' art and culture hub, loaded with museums, cinemas, the bunker-like Complejo Cultural performing-arts centre and the Ateneo de Caracas, home to the highly esteemed Rajatabla theatre company. And if you don't like the look of the architecture from ground level, take a lift to the Mirador de la Torre Oeste on the 52nd floor of one of those eyesores and get a 360° bird's-eye view of the rest of the city.Parque Central's eastern edge is taken up by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, by far the best contemporary art museum in the country, if not the entire continent. Sixteen halls on five levels tell the story of Venezuelan art, interspersed with a remarkable collection of works by modern greats like Chagall, Matisse, Monet, Léger and Miró. The museum's pride and joy is its collection of more than 100 engravings by Picasso, dating from the 1930s.
Plaza Bolívar:
Caracas was founded on the site of today's historic quarter, but any residual colonial flavour has long been swamped by modern high-rise buildings. It's a lively area, though, and boasts some important sites relating to Simon Bolívar. The focus of the old town is leafy Plaza Bolívar, with the inevitable monument to El Libertador at its heart. The plaza is a favourite playground for all manner of political visionaries and religious messiah-types, who deliver their impassioned speeches to an audience of nonplussed office workers each lunchtime.The collection of notable buildings lining the square includes the city's cathedral, which replaced the original structure destroyed by the violent earthquake of 1641. The Bolívar family chapel can easily be recognized by its modern sculpture of El Libertador. The square's southern side is dominated by the Concejo Municipal building, erected by Caracas' bishops in the 17th century to house a seminary and for a time taken over by the province's first university. The Museo Caracas on the ground floor highlights local history, and has some great models of the city as it appeared in the early 19th century and 1930s. To grasp just how much this city of almost five million has grown, take a look at the map dating from 1578 in the building's central courtyard.
Archipiélago Los Roques:
Los Roques is a beautiful archipelago of small coral islands about 150km (93mi) due north off the central coast. It consists of some 40 islands big enough to name and perhaps 250 other islets, sandbars and cays. The whole archipelago was made a national park in 1972, and unrestricted access is only permitted in the so-called Zona Recreativa that takes in Gran Roque, Madrizquí, Cayo Pirata, Noronquises and Crasquí. With its soft white sandy beaches and extensive coral reefs, Los Roques is swiftly becoming a popular tourist destination. Gran Roque, on the northern edge of the archipelago, is the main island and transport hub. The island has one main village, also named Gran Roque, whose waterfront is packed with fishing boats, tour operators' vessels, visiting yachts and pelicans. Gran Roque's closest neighbour is Madrizquí, about 1km (.5mi) to the southeast. It was the favourite island among affluent caraqueños who discovered Los Roques several decades ago and built their summer beach houses here before the archipelago was made a national park.Most visitors take a one or two-day tour out to the archipelago, if only to sunbathe like lizards for hours on the tranquil and unspoiled beaches - the longest uninterrupted strip of sand is on Crasquí, but there are plenty more to choose from. The archipelago is also one of Venezuela's best areas for snorkelling and scuba diving. The flight to Gran Roque from Maiquetía airport takes about 40 minutes.
Colonia Tovar:
This unusual mountain town sits at an altitude of 1800m (5900ft) amid the rolling forests of the Cordillera de la Costa, about 60km (37mi) west of Caracas. The town was founded in 1843 by a group of 376 German settlers from the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). Effectively isolated from the outer world by the lack of roads and internal rules prohibiting marriage outside the colony, the village followed the mother culture, language and architecture for a century. It wasn't until the 1940s that Spanish was introduced as the official language and the ban on marrying outside the community was abandoned. The real turning point came in 1963, when a sealed road reached Colonia Tovar from Caracas, taking the population from a mere 1300 inhabitants to today's 6500.These days it's a classic example of a tourist town, a little bit of old Germany lost in a Venezuelan cloudforest that draws in masses of caraqueños on weekends but is virtually derelict on weekdays. It's a particularly enjoyable day trip from the capital - take time out to splurge on a German lunch or dinner, and stock up on rye bread and knackwurst. If you decide to make a night of it and stay on for breakfast, take warm clothes as the temperature plummets up in the cordillera after sunset. To get there, take a carrito from Caracas and change at El Junquito (two hours).
El Hatillo:
The tiny old town of El Hatillo is a distant suburb of Caracas nowadays, but before becoming part of the capital's metropolitan sprawl it had happily gone its own independent way for centuries. Like most other Venezuelan towns, it's centred around its own Plaza Bolívar, and has managed to retain some of its colonial architecture. The houses in the town centre have been restored and painted in bright colors, and every second one of them is either a restaurant, cafe, boutique, art gallery or handicraft shop. Hordes of trendy caraqueños descend on the village at weekends, and the resulting explosion of eating outlets has been extraordinary - you'll find most major foreign cuisines represented, from French and Italian to Japanese and Thai. El Hatillo is 15km (9.5mi) southeast of the city centre, and is linked to Caracas by frequent carritos.
Parque Nacional El Ávila:
The El Ávila national park protects a 90km (56mi) swathe of the steep, verdant mountain range that looms over the north of Caracas and separates the city from the sea. El Ávila is Venezuela's best national park for walkers, with around 200km (125mi) of walking trails, most of them well signposted. The park's southern slope, overlooking Caracas, is virtually uninhabited, and is crisscrossed with dozens of walking trails. The northern face runs down to the sea and is dotted with small towns and haciendas, but few tourist trails are on this side. The most scenic route is the two-day hike to Pico Naiguatá, but be sure to take rain gear, warm clothes and water along with you. The park is crossed north to south by a few 4WD tracks and the sadly idle teleférico cable car.
San Francisco de Yare:
This quiet little town, about 70km (43mi) southeast of Caracas, was founded in 1718 and boasts a fine 18th-century church and some preserved colonial architecture. But what's really made the place famous are the colourful celebrations of Diablos Danzantes, celebrated here annually on Corpus Christi since 1742. Up to 1000 devils wearing fantastic horned masks take to the streets to perform a ritual dance to the rhythm of drums. Corpus Christi is obviously the best day to visit the town, but it's still worth coming at other times. The ambience of Diablos Danzantes is omnipresent anytime, particularly in the weeks prior to the festival. The museum at the Casa de los Diablos Danzantes (where the Corpus Christi celebrations begin) has a collection of devil masks and photos from previous festivals. Several workshops manufacture devil masks, offering the opportunity to watch the production process and buy masks at reasonable prices. To get there, take a bus to Ocumare del Tuy or Santa Teresa del Tuy and pick up a shuttle bus.
Catedral:
Anchoring the eastern end of Plaza Bolívar, this is the national cathedral. The present-day church was built between 1665 and 1713, after the original building was destroyedin the 1641 earthquake. It's home to the private Bolívar family chapel and features a painting by Rubens. Adjoining the cathedral is the Museo Sacro de Caracas
Museo Sacro de Caracas:
which has a modest collection of religious art and sculpture, as well as colonial-era dress and relics and a delightful little cafe. Galería de Arte Nacional & Museo de Bellas ArtesMaking up an area popularly known as the Plaza de los Museos, these side-by-side and loosely connected institutions house a broad collection of Venezuelan art, ranging from the fine arts and modern masters to folk art and crafts, dating from the colonial period to the present. One of the nicer features here is the shady sculpture garden, which borders Parque Los Caobos. The Bellas Artes gift shop has a small, but nice, selection of mostly high-end artworks and indigenous crafts.
Iglesia de San Francisco:
Not as large or ornate as La Catedral, this is the church where Bolívar was proclaimed El Libertador in 1813, and the site of his massive funeral in 1842 -- the year his remains were brought back from Colombia, some 12 years after his actual death. Begun in 1575, the church bears the architectural influences of various periods and styles but retains much of its colonial-era charm. The gilded altars and religious paintings are worthy of a 20-minute stroll through the building.
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Sofía Imber :
The 13 salas here form a minimaze covering several floors of the angular concrete architecture of Parque Central. The permanent collection features a good representation of the conceptual works of Venezuelan star Jesús Soto, as well as a small but high quality collection of singular works by such modern masters as Picasso, Red Grooms, Henry Moore, Joan Miró, and Francis Bacon. The museum regularly hosts traveling exhibits of international stature. The small sculpture garden here is nowhere near as lovely as that found at the nearby Bellas Artes, but the elegant museum cafe is one of the nicer casual dining spots on this side of town.
Shopping :
Do not forget to bring your wallet or purse, however, because Caracas is a buyer's market. Walk through its little town shops and luxury boutiques all on the same block. Get the best prices on shoes, leather accessories, jewelry, tailored suits, gold, and clothing of the finest materials and designs.Caracas is home to the largest mall in South America, the Sambil (Avenida Libertador). It not only contains the best stores, but also has an arcade, American-style restaurants, two multi-cinema theaters, and even an aquarium! The mall is a very popular hangout for the students. If you don't feel like such a high-octane place to shop, then go to the Sabana Grande (Plaza Venezuela). There you will find discount stores mixed with the exclusive stores. It is perfect for a relaxing walk to window shop or to stop at a neighboring café. The Moreno Glass Factory is also a great place to tour and to shop. Watch them create beautiful jewelry out of this glass that catches the spectrum of lights. If crafts are your hobby, then definitely look into the weekend Craft Market (Bellas Artes). You will find the best souvenirs here that truly capture the essence of Caracas
The Gold Market is one of the best finds here in Caracas because of the great quality for the best price. Located between Las Monjas and Padre Sierra, these little shops can be found one after another. This is also the reason the prices are so good because the competition is right next door. Visitors come from all over just to spend their money on this precious metal.
|
|
More Information |
|
|
|
Useful Links About Caracas:
Caracas Travel Information
|
|
