CHAPTER VIII
THE STATES OF THE “CENTRO”
La Guaira—Heat—Port works—The Brighton of Venezuela—Sugar plantations—Streets and botiquins—Guarapo—La Guaira-Carácas Railway—A great engineering feat—Carácas—Climate—Population—Streets—Buildings—The Salón Elíptico—El Calvario—El Paraiso—“La India”—Water-supply—Trams and telephones—Lighting—Industries—The Guaire Valley—Coffee—Miranda—Ocumare del Tuy—Petare—Central Railway—Vegetable snow—Carenero Railway—Rio Chico—Los Teques—Great Venezuelan Railway—La Victoria—Sixteen-fold wheatfields—Maracay—Grazing lands—Cheese—President Gomez’s country house—Villa de Cura—An epitome of the State—Lake of Valencia—Cotton—Carabobo—Valencia—Cotton-mills—Montalbán—Deserted vineyards—Wild rubber—Puerto Cabello Railway—The port—Meat syndicate—Club—Ocumare de la Costa—What is bad for man may be good for cocoa—Mineral resources.
For obvious reasons the central region of Venezuela, round about the capital, is that most frequently visited by Europeans, and generally even those travellers who, at the call of science, commerce, or pleasure, penetrate to other parts of the country first come into contact with it at La Guaira, the chief port of the republic.
The first settlement in the neighbourhood was established some eight miles to the westward, and was known as Caraballeda, the present town being founded in 1588, shortly after the seat of government was removed from Coro to Carácas. Standing as it does on a narrow strip of more or less level land, at the foot of the cordillera which here rises from the water’s edge to the height of about 5,000 feet, and extending up the precipitous slopes of the bare mountain, the town is terribly hot at times. In early days the roadstead must have been very unsafe, for the swell running on this coast at all seasons prevents secure anchorage outside the harbour.
The existing port works belong to an English company, and cost £980,000 to complete; and even so, the rise and fall from the swell is merely reduced, not neutralised. The contract for the La Guaira harbour was given to Messrs. Punchard & Co., who decided, in view of the fact that the roadstead was open to the waves to north and east only, that a straight east and west breakwater would prove most effective. The length of this was to be 2,050 feet, and the design allowed for the enclosure of 90 acres of water of an average depth of 30 feet, 3,100 feet of quays, and 18 acres of reclaimed land. There are seldom severe wind-storms, and the strong swell with the resulting huge waves which break upon the coast were the principal difficulties to be met. Unfortunately, as we have said, the movement is not entirely kept back by the breakwater. The work was commenced in December, 1885, but the first breakwater was destroyed by a particularly heavy swell in December, 1887; the second was commenced in July, 1888, and finally completed, more or less as it stands to-day, in July, 1891.
A railway runs through the town from the suburb of Maiquetia, about a mile and a half westwards, to the fashionable watering-place of Macuto, three miles in the opposite direction. Here there is an esplanade, gardens, and sea-baths, and as the coast, in contrast to La Guaira, faces the direction of the prevalent winds, climatic conditions are pleasant. In the season this Brighton of Venezuela is full of visitors.
Through La Guaira passes out the greater part of the produce of the “Centro,” and much from other parts of the country, the principal exports being coffee, cacao, cotton, hides, gold, rubber, pearls, feathers (egrets’), and alpargatas (sandals). There are factories turning out cigars, cigarettes, hats, boots, and other articles for home consumption; and at La Guaira the French cable enters the sea. Near Punta Caraballeda there is the big Juan Diaz sugar-mill of Messrs. Boulton, surrounded by bright green cane plantations; but save coconut-palms, little of value grows along the greater part of this coast near the shore.
The narrow street behind the quay is chiefly occupied by botiquins, some with abundant tropical and temperate fruits of which cooling refrescos can be made, with green milk-coconuts and barrels of diluted guarapo (sugar syrup) at a centimo a tumbler—not the pleasantest to an unaccustomed palate but probably the most effective of Venezuelan thirst-quenchers. After the hot sun on the quay the little tables under the trees look particularly inviting, though it is only fair to say that the unkempt appearance of this small fore street is more likely to strike the new-comer than the more pleasant matters.
Communication with the capital is carried on by rail and road, the former carrying the express freight, though the loaded donkeys and mules leaving Maiquetia before sunrise show that the railway is not without competition. The road is well engineered, and is about twenty-five miles in length; the unmacadamised surface is, however, little used for wheel-traffic. In a straight line Carácas is about eight miles from La Guaira, but stands 3,000 feet above the port, and is separated from it by a mountain range 5,000 feet high, over which climbs the old Spanish paved road.