VENEZUELA: Maracaibo and its Lago – Vibrant city, exciting history and largest lake in South America

Maracaibo is a port city on the Lago de Maracaibo in the northwest of Venezuela. It is the capital of the state of Zulia, with more than two million inhabitants after Caracas, the second largest metropolitan area in the country and is one of the largest cities in the Caribbean. Besides the interesting lively city the nature around is also astonishing. Lake Maracaibo is the largest lake in South America and one of the oldest lakes in the world at over 30 million years old.

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VENEZUELA: Mérida – Historic architecture and street life in Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida

Mérida or with its Spanish full name “Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida”, is the capital and commercial center of the state of Mérida with 317,410 inhabitants counted in 2013. The city is as well the tourist and university center of the Venezuelan West and located in the begining of the higher levels of the Andes. There are heaps of canyons, little creeks and the mountain landscape offers numerous outdoor activities of all kind.

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VENEZUELA: Coro and the Médanos Nationalpark

Coro, officially Santa Ana de Coro, is the capital of the Venezuelan state of Falcón with about 258,000 inhabitants and is located on the Caribbean Sea at the north coast of Venezuela. In the north you can reach the Paraguaná peninsula via the isthmus of Médanos. In the northwest, the Gulf of Coro extends as a marginal sea of ​​the Gulf of Venezuela. Off the coast are the Netherlands Antilles: In the north is Aruba and in the northeast there is Curaçao. In the south begins after a few kilometers, the hills of the Sierra de Coro. The closest major cities are in the south Barquisimeto and in the southeast Valencia.

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VENEZUELA: Castillo de San Carlos de la Barra

The castle of San Carlos de la Barra is a construction of colonial Spain, located on the San Carlos Peninsula, in the state Zulia. It was built in 1623 with limestone rocks, brought from Toas Island, at the entrance of the Maracaibo bar. The fortress was intended to protect the passage that connects Lake Maracaibo with the Gulf of Venezuela. At the time when Maracaibo was built it had been attacked and sacked several times by pirates and the construction of the castle was intended to have a true defense of the territory that would prevent pirates from entering the mainland.

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