Impressions of Venezuela [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONThere are propably few countries in the world which combine so great a varietyor landscape and climate, so many contrasts in their social structure, or such diversity inthe composition of their population, as Venezuela.The northern boundary of this vast country lies at the very tip of the South Ame-rican continent, where it confronts the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, forming atriangle with its eastern and western boundaries, which meet in the extreme south. To thenorth and west this triangle is outlined by the northern mountain range, the Cordillera delNorte, and the Venezuelan Andes, two ranges which reach altitudes of 9,000 feet.in thenorth and some 16,000 feet in the west. The eastern side of the triangle coincides withthe immense Orinoco Delta, by which the great river finds its outlet to the Gulf of Pariaand the Atlantic Ocean through a labyrinth of many hundreds of small streams.The Orinoco rises as a rivulet at the foot of a massive cliff 230 feet high, at aspot very near the Brazilian border, discovered in 1951, where the river springs from itssource more than 3,600 feet above sea level. From this point, in the heart of the tropicalforest dank with humidity and unending rain, the rivulets of this initial stretch, some sixtymiles long, join up with the typical upper reaches of a turbulent mountain stream (theUpper Orinoco) which, fed subsequently by hundreds of tributaries, combines to form oneof the world's largest rivers. Flowing first northwards, the Orinoco turns eastward in awide curve, crossing the country from side to side to enter the sea finally through the hun-dreds of narrow channels of its delta, having followed a course of more than 1,300 milesfrom its source.Between the northern coastal range and the tropical forests of the south stretchthe great plains (the Llanos) and the Gran Sabana. One of the attractive features of thisvast savanna, especially to geologists, is its isolated plateaux, mountainous outcrops ofsolid rock known as 'Tepuys' (the Indian name for thefh), which rise to heights of 6,500 oreven 8,200 feet.The Venezuelan climate is characterized by two principal seasons: the rainy sea-son (May to Novemberj and the dry season (December to April). In some regions thesecontrasts alter according to the altitude, for whereas the mean annual temperature at sealevel is above 25 C. (77 F.), it falls in high regions, especially in the Venezuelan Andes, toless than 20 C. (68 F.). The degree of relative humidity varies similarly in relation to altitu-de, reaching nearly 100% in the cloud forests of the south.The fauna of the country is of great interest, especially because of the innume-rable species of birds and the wealth offish in the rivers and in the Caribbean; but it is theVenezuelan flora that is most impressive, for its vivid colouring and for the variety andprofusion of trees, plant life and flowers.Caracas, the capital, situated in the extreme north, has a population of somethree million, which, as with other South American capitals, represents almost 25% ofthe country's total population. The majority of Venezuela's inhabitants live on a strip some125 miles wide, which extends from east to west along the coast-line, round Lake Mara-caibo and, to the south, along the foothills of the Venezuelan Andes.