The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1911-03-31

INl La Guaira in Venezuela 1t
IE<N is not the worst place in the
kYSJl world. yet a gentleman sent
out by department of the
united .tates government 10 collect
information recently arrived just in
time. by running to make connections
with the train for Caracas. and de-
parting went out with the same speed.
In response to the question as to his
object in neglecting commercial con-
ditions of this port, he said he was
told to avoid La Guaira, because no
man could endure it's heat it was pes
tilential" Many people live in La
Guaira all their lives, and / know a
number who are not dead yet The
poetry a former American consul once
dropped into" entitled "Adios TO thee
La Guaira," is yet a famous text of
those who do not really know the
place, and may be 1t was worse when
Consul Bird Topped his wings" about
its GALES" and -pulperias."
II is common among commercial
travellers. especially from the United
States, to rant and rave at La Guaira's
climate and conditions. But the eli
mate OF La Guaira is fully as agree
able as one finds at any port of the
same latitude. They speak from
days experience. / write from over
years continuous residence. and it is
misrcpresented. IL is an enervating
climate for northern man if he stays
too long. but il is delicious at times,
and rarely severe.
With a market Offering a surprising
variety of fruits and vegetables, many
of them not usually found in tropical
ports. with delicious fresh fish daily.
and other commodities not formerly
to be had. life is not altogether I'M
pleasant, as many seem to think.
Situated at the base and on the
Jagged edges of cliffs of high. rugged
mountains which rise almost directly
from the breaking surf of the Carib-
bean Sea TO an elevation of from 4, 900
to 5000 feet. it's location is extremely
picturesque. The town is divided into
three or four villages. of which La
Guaira proper is the center; stretch
ing along the narrow shelf at the base
of the hills for a distance of four or
five miles, encompassing Maiquetia on
the west and the Venezuelan, Baden
Baden, yclept Macuto, on the east.
If it were "Out West it would surely
be nicknamed "Stringtown," but it
gives homes and employment to ten
or twelve thousand souls.
The towns of La Guaira and Mai
quetia differ but little from other
Spanish towns, with cobblestone-
paved streets, opening out at unex-
reeted corners into cool-looking parks
as surprising and welcome as GASES
In desert. The streets are thanked
by brick or adobe succeed houses of
one or two stories: the front rooms
frequently serving as shops, stores. or
''pulperias" for the sale OF fruits,
vegetables, matches, beer, wines.
liquors, and highly colored cottons
and alparagatas the rear rooms and
second stories being the living rooms
of the families.
La Guaira is the principal port of
northern Venezuela, and the port of
ingress and egress for the capital
Caracas. the Paris of South Amer
lea" with which it is connected with
a wonderfully scenic and picturesque
railway. 1t enjoys large import and
export trade. with an average of 20
ships engaged in international COM
merce making it a port of call month
ly, while the eoastwise sailing craft,
many with this as their home port,
are innumerable 1t is a dull day in
deed in La Guaira harbor that finds
less than 10 or 90 small sloops and
schooners loading or unloading cargo
from the coast towns or the adjacent
islands
The approach from the sea is pic
turesque in the extreme. and the sight
as one steams into the harbor tor
out of it, is one not soon to be for
gotten. 1t gives a curious inter-
mingling idea of the villages along the
Italian shores of the Mediterranean
and of the Hppi cliff dwellers
The streets wind and weave up the
Eullies from the seashore, and narrow
trails and stairways zigzag along the
steep hillsides to where little white
washed huts break the monotony of
the red iron stain of the barren
declivities.
The old story OF narrow streets of
medieval Spanish towns repeats it
self here Laid out I'm the centuries
of turmoil and strife. all was with a
view to defense: but in La Guaira the
old story is slightly accentuated
There is one boulevard reaching from
Maiquetia through La Guaira to Ma
cuto, and all the rest are just Gales
or passageways. The wider of these
is about twelve feet across and there
are several too narrow for three peo-
pie to walk abreast without humping
against doorsteps and the omnipres-
har
The cobblestone pavements are the
work of a period when the memory
of man runneth not to the contrary"