18 facts about Venezuela, the country with six Miss World winners and an everlasting lightning storm
Venezuela has been in a mess for some time. Hyperinflation, rising violence, deadly protests and crippling product shortages have all made the headlines recently, putting the country well off the radar of most travellers.
That's a shame, because this is a land of spectacular wildlife and stunning scenery – Christopher Columbus even called it “paradise on Earth”. To mark its annual Flag Day (August 3), the date when the country's tricolor was first flown over Venezuelan soil, here are a few interesting facts. Check out the Foreign Office’s advice before considering a trip.
1. They’ve mustered more Miss World winners than any other nation
South America's fifth most populous country has provided six Miss World winners, putting it ahead of the UK (5), India (5), the US, Jamaica, and Iceland (all 3). Pilín León, winner in 1981, turned on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street that year.
Venezuela clearly loves a beauty pageant, as they’ve also served up seven Miss Universe winners, including Irene Sáez, who ran for the presidency in 1998.
2. It’s heaven for wildlife - and home to the world’s largest rodent
According to Conservation International, just 17 countries are considered "megadiverse". Each possesses a vast number of different species – many found nowhere else. And Venezuela is one.
Some 23 per cent of reptilian and 50 per cent of amphibian species that inhabit the country are endemic to Venezuela, and few regions are better for a wildlife holiday than Los Llanos.
This vast area of savannah, seasonally flooded, is Venezuela’s literal and symbolic heartland. Here, cowboys and humpbacked cebu cattle coexist with teeming birdlife and caiman, capybara (the largest rodent in the world), giant anteater, puma and anaconda.
3. Conservation is pretty important
It’s no good having heaps of wildlife if you don’t look after it, and Venezuela leads the way when it comes to conservation, having designated 53.9 per cent of its territory as protected – more than any other nation. In Britain that figure stands at 28.4 per cent, while the global average is just 14.8 per cent.
4. It’s a dangerous place
Thousands of people have had trouble-free trips to Venezuela, but there are plenty of worrying statistics. It has the second highest number of gun-related deaths in the world (59.13 per 100,000 residents per year), after Honduras, while the capital, Caracas, has a shocking murder rate of 119.87 per 100,000 residents per year – the worst of any major city.
The Foreign Office advises against travel to much of the country. Only the southern and eastern states of Amazonas, Delta Amacuro and Bolívar, as well as the offshore Los Roques Archipelago National Park, are currently safe to visit. It adds: “There’s a high threat from violent crime and kidnapping throughout Venezuela. Take care at all times, including when arriving in the country.
“There have been regular large political demonstrations and protests in Caracas and other cities since early April 2017, which have led to arrests, injuries, and deaths.”
5. And you should think twice before hiring a car
Venezuela is also one of the world’s deadliest places to drive, according to the World Health Organization's figures, with 37.2 road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants per year. Only four countries have a higher death rate: Eritrea, Dominican Republic, Libya and Thailand. The UK is among the 10 safest.
6. Although petrol is incredibly cheap
It’s practically free, in fact. Thanks to a policy of heavy subsidisation, and despite threats by president Nicolas Maduro to hike prices, petrol costs just $0.01 a litre, according to the fuel analyst website globalpetrolprices.com. That's just one per cent of the global average, $0.97. Second on the list is Saudi Arabia, where it costs $0.24 per litre.
7. But Big Macs are rather expensive
Conversely, you can expect to pay $5.25 for the signature McDonald’s hamburger, more than any other nation excluding Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. A Big Mac costs the equivalent of $3.73 in the UK, while four countries (Egypt, Ukraine, Malaysia and South Africa) proffer them for under $2 a pop.
8. Alcohol is banned (sometimes)
They enjoy a drink in Venezuela. The Cuba Libre is favoured, while wine is grown in Carora, in the state of Lara. But watch out if there’s an election, when the sale of alcohol is prohibited for up to 21 hours prior to voting.
9. There’s an everlasting lightning storm
Really. Formed over the mouth of the Catatumbo river, when cold mountain air collides with the heat of Lake Maracaibo, the ‘Catatumbo lightning’ entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2015 as the most likely place on the planet to see lightning. Sometimes there are more than 100,000 lightning strikes a night.
10. It has been independent for 206 years
“Contrary to rumours, Hugo Chávez didn't liberate Venezuela – well, not the first time around,” explains Chris Moss, our South America expert. “The tub-thumping exponent of the revolución bolivariana took his lead from, of course, Simón Bolívar.
In August 1806, Francisco de Miranda, a dashing Venezuelan exile, arrived from Barbados (where he had sought the guidance of the British Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane) with a force of 500 mostly British and American volunteers. Their fight for independence was repulsed by Spanish loyalists but produced a flag.
In 1810, a group of Caracas Creoles including Simón Bolívar created the First Venezuelan Republic. The colonial authorities were deposed on April 19, 1810, and independence was declared on July 5, 1811. Venezuela was the first country in the region to start the struggle against Spanish rule, but fighting continued until 1823.”
11. It has an inspirational mountain
Mount Roraima, in the Canaima National Park, inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, and while there are no Jurassic inhabitants, visitors can expect to see endemic birds, frogs, dragonflies and tarantulas.
“Known locally as a tepui, Roraima is the highest and most famous of a cluster of table-top mountains that furnish the remote highlands of south-eastern Venezuela on the border with Guyana and Brazil,” says Richard Madden.
“Formed by the erosion of sea-bed sediment when Africa and South America drifted apart, they are among the world's oldest geological formations.
More to the point, if anywhere on Earth looks like the home of a long-lost line of dinosaurs, then this is it. Loch Ness, eat your heart out.”
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12. And the world’s highest waterfall
Another highlight of the Canaima National Park is Angel Falls, which is reached by small plane and motorised canoe. The water there plunges 807 metres to the ground, and it has a total height of 979 metres.
13. There’s a lyrical river
No river on Earth has a more evocative named than Orinoco (OK, Mississippi is pretty good too). To learn more about it read the adventure yarn In Trouble Again by Redmond O'Hanlon, about a four-month trip up the Orinoco and into the Amazon basin, on which he encountered electric eels, vipers and anacondas. But no Wombles.
14. And a strange Christmas tradition
In Caracas it is customary to travel to early-morning church services during the festival period on roller skates – roads are even cleared to provide Christmas worshippers with a safe passage.
15. There are three World Heritage Sites – but one is under threat
We’ve explained the beauty of the Canaima National Park (see above) – the others are Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, a modernist building complex in the capital, and the port of Coro. Unfortunately, the latter is deemed at risk by Unesco.
It says: “With its earthen constructions unique to the Caribbean, Coro is the only surviving example of a rich fusion of local traditions with Spanish Mudéjar and Dutch architectural techniques. One of the first colonial towns (founded in 1527), it has some 602 historic buildings.The property is vulnerable to the impact of inappropriate development within it due to the lack of urban controls."
16. The capital has some curious buildings
The Helix, built in the Sixties to serve as a shopping centre, looks sinister – and it is. Construction never finished, and instead of swanky retailers the Venezuelan secret service moved in, turning it into a brutal prison.
Centro Financiero Confinanzas, better known as the Tower of David, is another monument to architectural overambition in Caracas. Building work began in 1990, was halted in 1994 due to the Venezuelan banking crisis, and never restarted.
In 2007 squatters moved in, turning the 190-metre skyscraper into the world's tallest slum. It wasn't until 2014 that they were evicted.
17. It offers great value for Britons
While the pound has struggled in the aftermath of last year’s Brexit referendum, the Venezuelan bolivar has suffered more. In fact, Britons heading to the country this year can expect to get around 20 per cent more for their money than they would have done two years ago.
18. But you can’t fly there direct
Direct links from the UK to South America are surprisingly few and far between. There are just six: Bogota, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Lima. So nothing in Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay or the backpacker favourites of Bolivia and Ecuador.
