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.
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Shanty houses on the outskirts of town.
- Krzysztof Dydynski
- Lonely Planet photographer
