La Guaira
La Guaira is a city in Venezuela. It is traditionally regarded as the "Gate of Venezuela " because it includes one of the most important ports of the country and is only 30 road miles away, north of the capital Caracas. The city has 25,259 inhabitants and is the capital of the state of Vargas.
Geography
The city is located in the north of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, in the east-west direction at the center of the country where the Cordillera reaches the sea. The city lies between zero and 218 m height on a thin strip of land between the sea and the mountain of El Ávila and in the folds of the latter. La Guaira has grown together with the neighboring city of Maiquetia.
The surrounding geographical barrier is the physical limit of the urban growth and implies that La Guiara despite its great economic, political and cultural significance has only a small population.
The city and its port are removed from Caracas 30 km away. The largest Venezuelan airport, Aeropuerto Internacional Simón Bolívar, who is expected to Caracas, but is in Maiquetia, is located less than 5 km from La Guaira.
Although the city is located on the Caribbean Sea, it has no beaches, because the sea is too rough. However, there is significant fishing bases. The climate is tropical, with an annual average temperature of 28 ° C with less than 200 mm of rainfall per year. However, the city suffered in December 1999 under heavy torrential rainfall, which of the mountain range that lies between La Guaira and Caracas, enormous masses of mud were washed down that buried many houses among themselves and with others built on the slopes brought to slipping. Parts of the city were destroyed. The exact number of dead remained uncertain; but you go from up to 7000. Still be seen in some parts of the city traces of destruction.
History
The Arawak left their mark as the first in the area of present-day La Guaira. 500 years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean, they were at least partially displaced by the Caribs.
In the area of present-day state of Vargas then the Tarma - empire that existed between Puerto Maya and the valleys of the Tuy developed. The Tarma spoke Carib.
A Guaiquerí - mestizo from the area of present-day state of Nueva Esparta, Francisco Fajardo, founded in 1555 " La Villa del Rosario ". Trying peacefully to win the local Indians for themselves, failed in 1557 in particular to the encroachments of the Spaniards who accompanied him. The Indians under the leadership of Chief Guaicamacuto decided at a meeting on the territory of today Macuto, Fajardo and distribute his. This meeting is now often taken as a primitive form of democratic decision-making.
La Guaira was officially founded in 1589 by Diego de Osorio. The original Indian settlement Huaira was named " San Pedro de La Guaira ." 1730 operated out of La Guaira from the Spanish Compania Guipuzcoana who held the trade monopoly for the then Spanish province of Caracas. During this time, La Guaira consolidated its position as the most important port in Venezuela. The old town preserved in spite of the damage caused by earthquakes ( as of 1810) and floods ( as of 1999), the legacy of this time.
In the city the Venezuelan freedom fighter José María España and Manuel Gual was born, as well as the president Carlos Soublette and José María Vargas, after the Vargas state is named. Born on Curaçao freedom hero Manuel Piar spent much of his life in La Guaira.
Sports
In La Guiara the popular baseball team the Tiburones de La Guaira has its seat ( Baseball is Venezuela 's national sport ), as well as the basketball team Delfines de La Guaira, today called the Tiburones de Vargas. The Venezuelan baseball player Cristóbal Colón (including Texas Rangers), Óscar Henríquez (including Houston Astros ), Carlos Martínez (including Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians ), Kelvim Escobar (including Toronto Blue Jays ) and Luis Rivas (including Minnesota Twins ) come from here.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Emilio Boggio, painter
- Renata Cedeño Laya, composer
- The Hanseatic merchant family Blohm