Trujillo, the capital, is a busy town with roads in several directions; it is 19 miles from the railway station at Motatán. Other towns of some importance are Valera, Bocono, and Carache.
The Guayana Highlands have a single State and one territory.
Bolívar, a great State, with an area of 90,000 square miles, twice the size of Pennsylvania, has the Delta on the northeast; north across the Orinoco, it has a bit of Monagas, a long stretch of Anzoátegui, and a smaller extent of Guárico, to the point where the Apure enters the Orinoco and the latter river turns east. There, west of the Orinoco, is the State of Apure down to the entrance of the Meta River, below which Colombia is west for a short space. Amazonas is south of the west part of Bolivar, and west of the southeast part, which last has Brazil on the south and British Guiana east. Bolívar, largely covered with virgin forest, includes a vast extent of unexplored territory, besides a gold region bordering on British Guiana.
Ciudad Bolívar, the capital, perhaps a trifle hotter than the coast ports, has a lower death rate. Two hundred and twenty-five miles from the mouth of the river, which during a great part of its course is two miles wide in the dry season and seven in the wet, the city is located at a point where the river is narrowed to a mile. In consequence of this, the water is liable to rise 50 feet in the wet season, flooding the lower and poorer part of the city.
While the capital is the official port of entry, there is a city farther down stream known as San Felix or Puerto Tablas, just beyond the mouth and falls of the Caroni River. These falls, famed since first seen by Sir Walter Raleigh, are an imposing spectacle: a huge mass of water descending over a wall of black granite to the Orinoco below, obviously a great source of electricity in the future. East of the Caroni, which flows from the southern boundary, are the two most populous districts of the State. This is explained by gold. Cart roads, by which merchandise is carried south and balatá and hides are brought north, extend through Upata, capital of the Piar District, to Guasipati, 125 miles; but as the time of wheel traffic may be ten days and upwards, the traveler usually hires a mule and arrives in a few days. Guasipati has been the centre of the balatá industry, but as the local operators lazily cut down the trees instead of tapping them, the main production is moving south.
The town of El Callao, 3 hours ride farther, is over the famous mine of that name. On the border of Guiana 60 or 70 miles south, a section has been opened accessible by water only. The high cost of transport, and the scarcity, the high price, and the poor quality of labor, greatly interfere with the development of this region. With wide spread indications of gold, there is little reason to doubt the existence here of vast mineral wealth.
Besides the forest clad hills of this section there are great stretches of savannas occupied by or suitable for cattle ranches, while plantations and mills for the production of sugar and rum are also found.
Six hours east of Callao, near the forests, is the town Tumeremo, a centre of the balatá industry, where the wholesale destruction of trees still prevailing will end local production and the town as well. The uplands of the Caroni River are yet unknown, but gold, and the timber and vegetable products of the forest will doubtless one day reward the hardy explorer, as in many other regions of the country.
Above Bolívar, on the Orinoco, there is at one point a narrow gorge where the current is at times so strong as to drive back river steamers. Farther on, the Caura River comes in from the south, through savannas in the lower part and forests higher up. On a western tributary of the Caura, the Nichare, there is said to be plenty of good rubber. 130 miles up the Caura are falls or rapids descending 200 feet, a splendid source of power for future saw mills. Two days higher are more rapids in a narrow gorge. The lower part of these Orinoco tributaries are infested with mosquitoes, sand flies, etc., a torment to explorers, but decreasing upstream. Near the Cuchivero, the next considerable river, are many cattle ranches; its upper valley is rich in forest products.