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Venezuela: The Coastal Zone, The Andes, The Llanos, The Guayana Highlands, Flora and Fauna
 Venezuela lies on the north coast of South America. Its narrow southern foot almost touches the Equator while its broad northern face is washed by the Caribbean sea. It is bounded on the west, south, and east by Colombia, Brazil, and British Guiana. Its 352,150 square miles of territory make it the seventh largest country in Latin America. At one time the land area of present-day Venezuela was a part of the Guayana land mass, the north-western extension of the ancient continent of Gondwana. The mainland probably extended beyond the present Caribbean coast, but after many ages of geological change and disturbance, the only exposed part of the ancient land mass is the Guayana highlands, the mountainous southern half of the republic which slopes northward to the Orinoco, where it is covered by later formations. After the Guayana highlands were shaped and while new formations from the Caribbean were forcing themselves upward, the Andes began to form. The Venezuelan spur of this great young mountain chain bifurcates upon entering the south-western part of the country. Its left branch, the Sierra de Perijá, strikes directly northward to the sea, while its right branch, forming the Venezuelan Andes, runs in a north-westerly direction till it nears the Caribbean, and then travels parallel to the shore. Thus Venezuela, geologically speaking, is simply a broad alluvial basin bounded by two great mountain systems, the most northerly of which slopes sharply down into a narrow coastal plain.
Ever since man first appeared, the physical features of the Venezuelan landscape have exerted determining influence upon the pattern of settlement and economic activity. In the twentieth century, with the discovery and large-scale exploitation of rich natural resources, Venezuela's geological history has taken on a new and important meaning. For in the two synclines between the mountains--between the Sierra de Perijá and the Andes and between the Andes and the Guayana highlands--the multiple layers of sedimentary rock have been oozing forth petroleum in such ever-increasing quantities that Venezuela for the past quarter century has been the leading exporter and second producer of oil in the world. And recently, in the igneous rock structure of the Guayana highlands, high-grade iron-ore deposits, believed to be the largest in the world, have been discovered.
The accidents of geological history have not only made Venezuela a nation of great natural wealth, but have also divided it into four distinct geographical entities--the coastal lowlands, the Andes, the intermontane plains or llanos, and the Guayana highlands--each differing markedly in its physical and cultural characteristics.
THE COASTAL ZONE
The smallest and most northerly of these four major geographical zones is the coastal lowland between the Andes and the Caribbean sea. It includes only 7 per cent. of the republic's area, even counting the seventy adjacent small islands and the Island of Margarita. It is extremely narrow at the centre but broadens appreciably at both ends forming the Orinoco delta at its eastern extremity and the Maracaibo basin in the west.
The whole coastal zone is hot. It has an annual average temperature of over 80° F. High humidity, except in the Paraguaná and Punta de Araya peninsular regions, renders the climate still more oppressive. Yet fully 18 per cent. of the population fives here.
In the narrow central zone lie the ports of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello, which handle the great bulk of the nation's agricultural exports and its manufactured imports and thus serve the central population nucleus in the adjacent mountain region. On this central coastal strip are cacao and banana plantations, fisheries, and beach resorts.
The outlying broad coastal zones are closely tied to foreign industry. Maracaibo ( Venezuela's second city), Amuay, and Punta Cardón in the west are petroleum ports, while in the east Puerto la Cruz on the Caribbean and Puerto Ordaz near the mouth of the Orinoco serve respectively the oil and iron industries of the interior.
From the Maracaibo basin, which roughly coincides with the boundaries of the state of Zulia, comes two-thirds of the nation's oil. Within the great V formed by the Sierra de Perijá and the Venezuelan Andes, the sediments that have been deposited throughout the ages--in some places they are over three miles deep--are effectively sealed on the mountain sides by non-porous rocks and on the Caribbean side by an impervious anticlinal formation. It is these geological conditions that have proved ideal for the accumulation of such vast quantities of petroleum.
In the centre of this basin, and comprising about onefifth of its area, is Lake Maracaibo. This shallow, oblong body of nearly fresh water drains the rivers of the adjacent lowlands and empties into the Caribbean, providing natural transportation for the entire region. At its southern end, heavy rainfall and mountain springs make the vegetation dense, the streams numerous, and the climate humid. Subsistence farming and fishing go on here. The northern shore of the lake is much dryer, mainly because the prevailing north-easterly Caribbean breezes do not pass over surfaces sufficiently high to produce condensation.
This same low altitude factor and the absence of near-by mountains have produced Venezuela's only desert just north-east of the Maracaibo basin on the Paraguaná Peninsula. In this sparsely inhabited area the land is quite useless for agriculture. There is some fishing and goat raising here, but oil refining is the main form of economic activity on the peninsula.
The eastern coastal zone displays roughly the same climatic picture as the west. The broad Orinoco delta region, virtually uninhabited except for scattered primitive Indian groups, is made an area of very high precipitation and tropical jungle vegetation by the clash of contrary winds. Farther north, on the Caribbean coast and the adjacent islands, the coastal lowlands are quite dry. Oil refining and shipping at Puerto la Cruz, salt works at Punta de Araya, pearl fishing and tourist industries on Margarita Island, and commercial fishing off Cumaná and Barcelona are the principal forms of economic activity here.
THE ANDES
The northern mountain region is the core of the nation. In this geographical zone, which comprises only 12 per cent. of the land area, 70 per cent. of the people live. The density of population here is related to the pleasantness of the climate, which is rendered moderate by altitude. The annual mean temperature in the major cities of this region ranges from 61° F. at Mérida to 77° at Barquisimeto and Valencia. In Caracas, the capital, it is 70°.
Here are located the important cities of San Cristóbal, Mérida, Valera, and Trujillo, and here on the mountain sides is cultivated most of Venezuela's coffee, the chief export crop. In the Tierra Fría (above 6,000 ft.) wheat and potatoes are grown.
The Sierra Nevada runs into the coast range, a mountain system of similar length and breadth but lesser elevation, the crest here reaching only 7,000-9,000 feet. In the western half of the coast range coffee and maize are produced, and cattle are raised. At Barquisimeto, the republic's third largest city, there is a growing amount of industrial activity. The central portion of the coast range, the region around Caracas, is the hub of Venezuela. The capital city itself has over a million inhabitants and is the nation's commercial and industrial centre as well as the seat of government. Caracas and important neighbouring cities such as Valencia, the nation's agricultural metropolis, and Maracay, the centre of the cattle industry, are situated in the warm, fertile valleys between the crest of the coast range and an interior ridge to the south. From the Valencia basin the rich soil around Lake Valencia produces the greater part of Venezuela's sugar cane, cotton, rice, and citrus fruit. At Maracay the scrubby cattle from the interior plains are fattened in the surrounding green pastures, then slaughtered, and the meat is then marketed in the major cities of the republic.
The easternmost extension of the Andes forms the highlands behind the coastal cities of Barcelona and Cumaná. The mountains here drop to less than 3,000 feet, so that the climate is more tropical than temperate. Subsistence agriculture is the main economic activity, though some cacao is grown on the mountain sides.
Finally, in the Venezuelan Andes system, there is the Sierra de Perijá at the far western edge of the republic. This range is of little importance in the effective politics, economy, and society of Venezuela, for in this isolated and forested mountain country live the still little-known, warlike Motilón Indians. They have always put up fierce resistance to the encroachments of civilization. Their heavy, black, palm arrows have, in the past, been responsible for the death of many an oil man. Subsistence farming, stockraising, and hunting are their chief activities.
THE LLANOS
Between the Andes and the Orinoco river lies an immense (200 miles wide and 600 miles long), low (maximum elevation 700 ft.), nearly treeless plain called the llanos. This is a zone of great seasonal variation. From April to October heavy rains make the banks of the shallow streams overflow, flood the land, and drive the livestock to seek refuge in higher places to the north. Between November and March, on the other hand, the luxuriant, tall grasses are gradually seared and blackened, the rivers dry up, and the livestock are forced to migrate southward towards the Orinoco again in search of water and food.
The wet-dry extremes, the intense heat--Calabozo, for example, has an annual mean temperature of 88°F.--the hordes of insect pests, and difficult communications in the rainy season, have kept the llanos a sparsely settled region. Only about 10 per cent. of the population lives here although it comprises over a third of the national territory. The exotic fauna of the region have been movingly described by Guillermo Zuloaga as follows:
The llanos are the Venezuelan region which stirs the imagination of sportsmen and hunters. Rivers and lagoons are filled with exotic fish; electric eels, which with their discharge can paralyze a bull or a horse; caribes, a small but ferocious and voracious fish, with jaws that possess the force of pincers, which travels in large schools and can eat an animal in a few seconds, leaving only the skeleton and boiling, blood-tinted water to mark the act; payaras, a fish gifted with terrible fangs; and catfish, of all forms and colors, some of which reach five feet in length and weigh hundreds of pounds.
Curious animals like the ant-eater, the chiguire, a giant rodent, and wild boars, are characteristic of the llanos.
The landscape, beautified by palm trees, is alive with birds. Among the most colorful are the very inquisitive chenchena, with reptilian characteristics; the corocoro, or scarlet ibis, with the color of fire; the herons, from the small egret formerly coveted for its plumage and today happily protected by game laws, to the great soldier heron; ducks of all kinds, from the native Royal duck to the small migratory ones which fly yearly into the llanos from the Arctic.
For centuries, the economy of the llanos has centred in the cattle industry. After a season or two of plains grazing, most of the somewhat scrubby cattle are then driven over the interior range to the richer pastures in the vicinity of Maracay to be fattened for the market. Others are slaughtered in the llanos and the fresh meat is then flown into Caracas.
During the 1930's the economy of the eastern llanos began to undergo a fundamental transformation. This resulted from a rapid series of oil discoveries in the vast, deep sedimentary deposits that cover the entire region. The states of Anzoátegui and Monagas were soon dotted with oilfields, and petroleum became their chief export, as a third of the nation's oil--and most of its better-grade light oil--was produced here.
More recently, the agricultural possibilities of the central llanos have been improved. In 1956 the Government completed the construction of a dam across the Guarico river near Calabozo. The water now dammed up in the wet season to prevent flooding is used in the dry season to irrigate near-by rice and maize fields.
All the rivers of the llanos ultimately drain into the Orinoco. This huge river is some 1,600 miles long and is navigable by shallow-draught vessels all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Colombian border. Far upstream in the Guayana highlands about a third of its water is diverted to the Amazon via the Brazo Casiquiare. Nevertheless the Orinoco often reaches widths of more than half a mile, and in the rainy season the tides sometimes exceed forty feet at the mouth of the river.
THE GUAYANA HIGHLANDS
The fourth major geographical zone is the largest (45 per cent. of the nation's territory) but the least important. Less than 2 per cent. of Venezuela's people make their living in this vast region between the Orinoco river and the Brazilian border. The Guayana highlands are older and lower than the Andes, with maximum elevations of about 9,000 feet. Various igneous rock formations interspersed with semi-deciduous forests make up the landscape. The sparse population consists mainly of clusters of little-known Indians, some of them peaceful, others very savage.
Although this is a difficult area in which to make a living, it is rich in scenic grandeur. Concerning the Gran Sabana region in the extreme south-east, Zuloaga wrote:
Spectacular mountain masses rise up with their flat tops and vertical sides, their silhouettes reminding the viewer of the ruins of medieval castles. These are the 'tepuis' of the Indians, the 'lost world' of H. G. Wells. The Roraima, the Auyantepuí, the Yacapana, the Duida, with their smooth and vertical sides, are impossible to scale without the use of ladders. A region of rare beauty, the Gran Sabana is an unforgettable sight. From these high masses, whose tops pierce the clouds, descend the highest waterfalls in the world: Angel Falls, with an unobstructed drop of more than 3,000 feet, is the best known, but there are many others of equal beauty and breathtaking appearance.
The metal-bearing formations of this rocky region, however, have been the chief lure for white man. In the late nineteenth century rich gold veins were discovered in the north-east. El Callao mine was for a time the chief gold producer in the world. There was also some placer mining, but by the turn of the century the gold boom had come to an end. In 1926 the perennial prospectors in the region discovered diamonds. These are of good quality but have never been very numerous or large.
The big mineral development here at present is the ironore industry. At El Pao and Cerro Bolivar in the northeastern part of the region, on either side of the Caroní river, huge surface deposits of almost pure iron have been discovered. After the Second World War big American corporations ( Bethlehem Steel and United States Steel) began intensive exploitation here.
FLORA AND FAUNA
Venezuela's great diversity in rainfall, elevation, and temperature produces a wide variety of plant and animal life. In the humid tropical zones are found cacao, bananas, coconuts, mangoes, palm and rubber trees, while the characteristic cacti and prickly pears grow in the dry areas. The semi-tropical regions (1,500-3,000 ft.) produce oranges, lemons, avocados, peaches, apricots, tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, and rice, and coffee, maize, beans, and potatoes are the chief crops of the temperate zone (above 3,000 ft.). The animals, except in the high mountains where there are bear and deer, are mostly those characteristic of tropical areas, such as jaguars, monkeys, ant-eaters, tapirs, crocodiles, alligators, boa constrictors, and anacondas. Numerous varieties of tropical to temperate birds, fish, and insects abound.
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Angel Falls Seen from Mirador Laime Lookout, Angel Falls, Venezuela Photographic Print Buy at AllPosters.com |
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