Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

Behind the Venezuela Andes. Fiesta Time.


Indigenous Crowned
A young Cospes Indian, distinguished by his lofty crown of feathers, smiles at others across the street.
Pauliteiros in Action
Pauliteiros dance in honor of San Isidro, the patron saint of farmers, on the road that connects Mucusún to San Juan, near Tostes.
San Jose de Acequias
One of the main towns in the Pueblos del Sur de Mérida, lost in a green valley crossed by a river of the same name.
Dances with Locainas de Santa Rita
Locainas (men dressed as ladies) dance ecstatically in a corner of the central square of San José de Acequias. The locainas are just some of the characters in the Pueblos del Sur's busy party calendar.
shopping
A young resident of San José de Acequias visits an old shop in the pueblo, located in a colonial house in the central square.
Sooty Indians
Blackened Cospes Indians continue to resist Hispanic evangelization in Mucusún, a hamlet on the outskirts of San José de Acequias.
Pauliteiros Transaction
Two Pauliteros complete a small occasion business at the end of a long exhibition of their art in honor of San Isidro.
on the sidelines of the party
Carolina holds her son Jean Alejandro in the old courtyard of a colonial house in the heart of San José de Acequias.
Convenient break
Two Cospes Indians rest from their dances in honor of the Virgin of Coromoto, next to a roadside house in Mucusún.
Pauliteiro de Colo
Father holds a small pauliteiro from whom not even the animation of his counterparts together with Mucuambin steals his sleep.
Cospes friends
Young people masked as indigenous people aboard a pick-up truck after the dances in honor of the Virgin of Coromoto.
The Star of the Piece
Young actress from San José de Acequias sings in one of the musical excerpts of the youth play she stars.
Little Pirate and Viajero
Dona Marilin Fernández raises her grandson Jean Alejandro next to the game board she showed him.
Pauliteiro in Burlap
One of the many pauliteiros present at the party, dressed in his own fashion.
Unapproved helmet
Pauliteros head to San José de Acequias,. one of them still wearing his terrifying furry mask, despite the strong sun that was felt in the Andean region of the Pueblos del Sur.
Indian Patience
A native of the Pueblos del Sur dressed as a Cospes Indian waits for companions to proceed to San José de Acequias, where the party is supposed to continue.
In 1619, the authorities of Mérida dictated the settlement of the surrounding territory. The order resulted in 19 remote villages that we found dedicated to commemorations with caretos and local pauliteiros.

as we descend from Merida highlands (1.610 m) down a long canyon road, the sheltered scenery between steep slopes becomes arid. And, soon, stony, dotted with cacti.

Almost half an hour of slope later, we reach Las González.

We find the gateway to the Pueblos del Sur decorated with a panel semi-political that classifies the destination as touristic and, at the same time, promotes the figure of Marcos Diaz Orellana, the governor Bolivarian of State.

The Chama river splutters there, accelerated by the slope that makes it flow even faster into Maracaibo, the great lake from which, when it is in the political and economic conditions for it, Venezuela extracts most of its oil wealth.

We crossed it by an old iron bridge with a field look. On the opposite bank begins the ascent to the mountains and valleys where the final destination end.

The Andean Path To Pueblos del Sur

The asphalt road proves to be worn, winding, increasingly narrow. The undoing of one of its curves and counter-curves reveals to us a motorcyclist-artist in the region. It had stopped by a clayey wall. There he worked on a commemorative sculpture, with a knife raised and a helmet placed with the visor down, to protect himself from the dust caused by his excavation.

Due to the deliberate stop of the bus and the curiosity of the multinational group of passengers, the traffic practically stops flowing.

We are forced to continue on our way. We only stopped when we arrived at a village called Mucusún. There, we are surprised by a band of blackened natives dressed in wicker skirts and crowns of feathers and feathers. They were all solidary pauliteiros.

They danced to the squeaky music of a cellist accompanied by two guitar players and a choreography that favors the release of movements.

Pauliteiro in Burlap

One of the many pauliteiros present at the party, dressed in his own fashion.

The Indigenous-Christian Legend of the Virgin of Coromoto

The exhibition of those who informed us that they were Cospes Indians paid homage to the Virgin of Coromoto. At one time, the Cospes were refugees from the colonization and forced evangelization of the Spaniards. Until the Virgin appeared to them in the Guanare jungle where they took refuge and urged them to be baptized and to convert.

Almost all indigenous people accepted. This was not the case with the chief – named Coromoto – who feared losing his importance. Coromoto fled. The Virgin appeared to him again. Angry, Coromoto tried to grab her but the Virgin disappeared, materialized in a small plant print that would later be found and is venerated by Venezuelans.

As for Coromoto, he was bitten by a poisonous snake. He returned to Guanare dying, where, in a trance, he began to ask for his own baptism. Saved from death by the Virgin and converted, he became an apostle. He begged a group of Indians who were still resisting to convert.

Later, with the Catholic name Ángel Custódio, he died of old age.

The Cospes Indigenous Resume Their Exhibition

The Cospes dance takes place between an elevated plantation and an opposite rural house, covered with aged colonial tiles.

When he finishes, the chief of the “indigenous” inaugurates a speech as pompous as possible in which he praises the arrival of visitors to FITVEN, the Venezuelan international tourism fair that had given rise to the whole stage.

Indigenous Crowned

And, above all, the initiative of the Ministry of Tourism of its Bolivarian homeland to make those remote places a tourist destination.

We confront Coromoto's actor with cameras at the ready. The chief returns to his role as leader of the sooty indigenous people. Take a wooden cupid bow and make yourself even wilder.

Aim your bow and the tiny arrow. At the same time, it hides its face and emits the screams and howls of a panicked creature, interspersed with snorts of fury.

Sooty Indians

Blackened Cospes Indians continue to resist Hispanic evangelization in Mucusún, a hamlet on the outskirts of San José de Acequias.

We followed the act until the Indian Cospe put an end to it. After which we return to the bus blessed by the sound of a maraca that starts playing in our direction.

The Pauliteiros, Locos and Locations Exuberant Mucuambin

We continued into the mountain range pursued by a van pick up loaded with spit Indians who would join the party later on. When we reach the outskirts of Mucuambin, the scene is repeated. This time, in color.

Pauliteiros in Action

Pauliteiros dance in honor of San Isidro, the patron saint of farmers, on the road that connects Mucusún to San Juan, near Tostes.

We went down to the side of the road. There, they'll arrest us with frantic pauliteiros dances, several in gaudy fringed costumes, in the style of caretos from the Americas, in honor of San Isidro, the patron saint of farmers.

Each one displays its irreverent look. Some wear masks that are hideous heads of goats, cows and other domestic animals.

Unapproved helmet

Pauliteros head to San José de Acequias,. one of them still wearing his terrifying furry mask, despite the strong sun that was felt in the Andean region of the Pueblos del Sur.

Fascinating eternalizations of totemic cults and rituals of the peoples chibcha e Arawak with which the Spanish colonists struggled in the XNUMXth century and which they ended up annihilating or assimilating.

Pauliteiro de Colo

Father holds a small pauliteiro from whom not even the animation of his counterparts together with Mucuambin steals his sleep.

Even babies are subject to tradition. We see them fall asleep in their laps, in reduced clothes with the same standards as the elders. Meanwhile, some adults are perfect in their childishness. They ride on wooden horses in the middle of a wheel of tireless sticks.

Also in Mucuambin, the show reaches its end.

Once again, we return to the organization's bus ride. A folkloric band of motorcyclists follows us, driven by the satisfaction of their duty done.

San José, Heart of the Pueblos del Sur

After a few more curves, almost always over abysses, and a huge slope that crosses the valley full of cornfields of the San José River, we enter the central square of the homonymous city, what is considered the nuclear settlement of the Pueblos del Sur.

San Jose de Acequias

One of the main towns in the Pueblos del Sur de Mérida, lost in a green valley crossed by a river of the same name.

Next to the police station, a black mural joins the trio Chávez, Castro and Morales. Validates the municipality's Bolivarianism with the maxim "We are not willing to leave a homeland reduced to rubble by capitalism".

An anxious crowd awaited the arrival of the entourage, under the shade of the trees and lined up in a dizzying diagonal, under the sheds of the centuries-old houses. We barely enter the square, instead of crazy, it is a battalion of locals also with big hair and in long antique dresses in bright colors that assume the prominence.

Dances with Locainas de Santa Rita

Locainas (men dressed as ladies) dance ecstatically in a corner of the central square of San José de Acequias. The locainas are just some of the characters in the Pueblos del Sur's busy party calendar.

Make the inevitable resound sticks on each other. This rhythm, synchronized with that of the drums, keeps the residents used to that animation only at other times of the year, in a kind of trance.

The owner of the best located business in the village, wearing a cowboy hat, doesn't ask for help. Invoices many extra bolivars, sheltered between a weathered wooden counter and untidy shelves.

shopping

A young resident of San José de Acequias visits an old shop in the pueblo, located in a colonial house in the central square.

Also Marilin Fernández, the neighbor next door, gives in to the lure of profit. Take advantage of the availability of your decan glacier and improvise your own wine cellar which it marks with a simple rectangle of paper written in marker over the window.

“Come and see my wood oven!”. She invites us to make up for her youngest daughter's rebellious resistance to socializing with outsiders.

We don't think twice. inside the home, we find spartan and dismal rooms but also with an open-air central patio that would have changed little or nothing since the colonial construction of the house.

In that same patio, Carolina produces herself with great care in the mirror, always keeping an eye on Marilin's grandson, even so, hoping to still catch the best of the pilgrimage.

Little Pirate and Viajero

Dona Marilin Fernández raises her grandson Jean Alejandro next to the game board she showed him.

The End of the Evening Party and the End of the Soggy Afternoon

Outside, the celebration had moved to a small ranch to which authorities at the time kept access restricted, in order to avoid an unwanted flood.

On the farm's lawn, there is a lunch banquet and a wider display of traditional Pueblos del Sur life and festivals.

There is a historic warehouse under self-service. And a wait that some visitors are subject to in order to get glasses of freshly squeezed sugar cane juice. Under nearby sheds, another group of musicians play themes famous among the natives. Sellers show handicrafts and the flavor of the region's main delicacies.

We also joined the enthusiastic audience of a musical, female and youth theater play that addresses the difficulties in finding the right man for marriage.

The Star of the PiecePitch-black clouds had long taken over the valley. As soon as the play ends, it starts to rain down in pots. All of San José takes refuge from the more than guaranteed water.

We stopped between the farm and the central square, next to a group of teenagers who had finished some sporting event and were rewarded with homemade ice cream packed in bags.

One of them hears us talking and asks if we are Portuguese. “Well, it seemed to me that I was recognizing that way of speaking. There are a few more out there. They haven't talked like you for a long time, but I'm sure some understand you better than I do!”.

We wait for the downpour to give way to the lull and we return to the heart of that Pueblo del Sur in ecstasy, attentive to the signs of life of the unexpected descendants of Luso-Venezuelans.

Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

The Pueblos del Sur Locainas, Their Dances and Co.

From the beginning of the XNUMXth century, with Hispanic settlers and, more recently, with Portuguese emigrants, customs and traditions well known in the Iberian Peninsula and, in particular, in northern Portugal, were consolidated in the Pueblos del Sur.
Mérida, Venezuela

Merida to Los Nevados: in the Andean Ends of Venezuela

In the 40s and 50s, Venezuela attracted 400 Portuguese but only half stayed in Caracas. In Mérida, we find places more similar to the origins and the eccentric ice cream parlor of an immigrant portista.
Mérida, Venezuela

The Vertiginous Renovation of the World's Highest Cable Car

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The Divine Purification Festival

The story goes that, once, a plague devastated the population of Cape Coast of today Ghana. Only the prayers of the survivors and the cleansing of evil carried out by the gods will have put an end to the scourge. Since then, the natives have returned the blessing of the 77 deities of the traditional Oguaa region with the frenzied Fetu Afahye festival.
Bacolod, Philippines

A Festival to Laugh at Tragedy

Around 1980, the value of sugar, an important source of wealth on the Philippine island of Negros, plummeted and the ferry “Don Juan” that served it sank and took the lives of more than 176 passengers, most of them from Negrès. The local community decided to react to the depression generated by these dramas. That's how MassKara arose, a party committed to recovering the smiles of the population.
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The Nepalese Masks of Life

The Newar Indigenous People of the Kathmandu Valley attach great importance to the Hindu and Buddhist religiosity that unites them with each other and with the Earth. Accordingly, he blesses their rites of passage with newar dances of men masked as deities. Even if repeated long ago from birth to reincarnation, these ancestral dances do not elude modernity and begin to see an end.
Jaisalmer, India

There's a Feast in the Thar Desert

As soon as the short winter breaks, Jaisalmer indulges in parades, camel races, and turban and mustache competitions. Its walls, alleys and surrounding dunes take on more color than ever. During the three days of the event, natives and outsiders watch, dazzled, as the vast and inhospitable Thar finally shines through.
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Make-believe stars

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Gran Sabana, Venezuela

A Real Jurassic Park

Only the lonely EN-10 road ventures into Venezuela's wild southern tip. From there, we unveil otherworldly scenarios, such as the savanna full of dinosaurs in the Spielberg saga.

Mount Roraima, Venezuela

Time Travel to the Lost World of Mount Roraima

Persist on top of Mte. Roraima extraterrestrial scenarios that have withstood millions of years of erosion. Conan Doyle created, in "The Lost World", a fiction inspired by the place but never set foot on it.
PN Canaima, Venezuela

Kerepakupai, Salto Angel: The River that Falls from Heaven

In 1937, Jimmy Angel landed a light aircraft on a plateau lost in the Venezuelan jungle. The American adventurer did not find gold but he conquered the baptism of the longest waterfall on the face of the Earth
Henri Pittier NP, Venezuela

PN Henri Pittier: between the Caribbean Sea and the Cordillera da Costa

In 1917, botanist Henri Pittier became fond of the jungle of Venezuela's sea mountains. Visitors to the national park that this Swiss created there are, today, more than they ever wanted
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Safari
Savuti, Botswana

Savuti's Elephant-Eating Lions

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Annapurna Circuit: 5th- Ngawal-BragaNepal

Towards the Nepalese Braga

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Seydisfjordur, Iceland

From the Art of Fishing to the Fishing of Art

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Altitude Sickness: the Grievances of Getting Mountain Sick

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Pentecost Naghol: Bungee Jumping for Real Men

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Valdez, Alaska

On the Black Gold Route

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Cocoa Roças, Corallo and the Chocolate Factory

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Culture
Campeche, Mexico

200 Years of Playing with Luck

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Sport
Philippines

When Only Cock Fights Wake Up the Philippines

Banned in much of the First World, cockfighting thrives in the Philippines where they move millions of people and pesos. Despite its eternal problems, it is the sabong that most stimulates the nation.
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Traveling
Great Ocean Road, Australia

Ocean Out, along the Great Australian South

One of the favorite escapes of the Australian state of Victoria, via B100 unveils a sublime coastline that the ocean has shaped. We only needed a few kilometers to understand why it was named The Great Ocean Road.
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Ethnic

Hampi, India

Voyage to the Ancient Kingdom of Bisnaga

In 1565, the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar succumbed to enemy attacks. 45 years before, he had already been the victim of the Portugueseization of his name by two Portuguese adventurers who revealed him to the West.

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History
Maui, Hawaii

divine hawaii

Maui is a former chief and hero of Hawaiian religious and traditional imagery. In the mythology of this archipelago, the demigod lassos the sun, raises the sky and performs a series of other feats on behalf of humans. Its namesake island, which the natives believe they created in the North Pacific, is itself prodigious.
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San Juan, Puerto Rico (Part 2)

To the Rhythm of Reggaeton

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Under the Arctic's Icy Spell

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Literature
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
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Nature
Levada do Caldeirão Verde, Madeira, Portugal

Upstream, Downstream

It is just one of over a hundred prodigious canal systems that Madeirans built to irrigate crops. Its verdant, steep and dramatic scenery makes visitors to the island flow continuously along the Levada of Caldeirão Verde.
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Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Zambia
Natural Parks
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwee

Livingstone's Thundering Gift

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Lagoa Oviedo a Bahia de las Águilas, Dominican Republic

In Search of the Immaculate Dominican Beach

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Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

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Beaches
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To Goa, Quickly and in Strength

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Religion
Majuli Island, India

An Island in Countdown

Majuli is the largest river island in India and would still be one of the largest on Earth were it not for the erosion of the river Bramaputra that has been making it diminish for centuries. If, as feared, it is submerged within twenty years, more than an island, a truly mystical cultural and landscape stronghold of the Subcontinent will disappear.
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San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

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Riders cross the Ponte do Carmo, Pirenópolis, Goiás, Brazil
Society
Pirenópolis, Brazil

A Polis in the South American Pyrenees

Mines of Nossa Senhora do Rosário da Meia Ponte were erected by Portuguese pioneers, in the peak of the Gold Cycle. Out of nostalgia, probably Catalan emigrants called the mountains around the Pyrenees. In 1890, already in an era of independence and countless Hellenizations of its cities, Brazilians named this colonial city Pirenópolis.
Saksun, Faroe Islands, Streymoy, warning
Daily life
Saksun, StreymoyFaroe Islands

The Faroese Village That Doesn't Want to be Disneyland

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Newborn turtle, PN Tortuguero, Costa Rica
Wildlife
PN Tortuguero, Costa Rica

A Night at the Nursery of Tortuguero

The name of the Tortuguero region has an obvious and ancient reason. Turtles from the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea have long flocked to the black sand beaches of its narrow coastline to spawn. On one of the nights we spent in Tortuguero we watched their frenzied births.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
PT EN ES FR DE IT