Margarita Island, Nueva Esparta, Venezuela

🇻🇪 Margarita Island is the largest island in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the north-eastern coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on the island.

History Christopher Columbus was the first European to arrive on Margarita Island in 1498. The local natives were the Guaiqueries people. The coast of the island was abundant in pearls, which represented almost a third of all New World tribute to the Spanish Crown. Margarita Island was fortified against the increasing threat of pirate attacks, and some fortifications remain today. It was the centre of Spanish colonial Margarita Province, established in 1525.

In 1561, the island was seized by Lope de Aguirre, a notoriously violent and rebellious conquistador who killed the governor Juan Villadrando. Around 1675, the island was captured again, this time by Red Legs Greaves, a pirate known for his humanity and morality. He captured a fleet of Spanish ships off port, before turning the guns on the forts which he stormed and claimed a large booty of pearls and gold. The story of Greaves' capture of the island does not appear in historical Spanish records and may be fictional.

Construction of the Santa Rosa de la Eminencia castle was ordered by the governor, Juan Muñoz de Gadea, after the French buccaneer Marquis de Maintenon attacked the island in early 1676.

Independence era The island gained independence from the Spanish in 1814, after the collapse of the First Republic of Venezuela. It became the first permanently free territory in Venezuela. In the same year, Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi was detained in a dungeon of the Fortress of Santa Rosa on the island in an attempt to put pressure on her husband Juan Bautista Arismendi, who was fighting for independence. Her detention lasted for over three years. In 1815 the general Pablo Morillo with a fleet of 18 warships and 42 cargo ships disembarked in Island Margarita with the mission to pacify the revolts against the Spanish monarchy in the American colonies. Simón Bolívar was confirmed as Commander-in-Chief of the Second Republic of Venezuela on the island in 1816. From there, he started a nine-year campaign to free Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia from the Spanish Crown.

Contemporary history In modern times, Margarita Island has been primarily a tourist destination. The island's status as a duty-free port was established in 1974 to promote commercial and tourism industries, with lower-priced imports driving increased visitors and the development of hotels. The island was the host venue for the Caribbean Series in 2010 and 2014.

Geography Located in the Caribbean Sea between latitudes 10°52'N and 11°11'N and longitudes 63°48'W and 64°23'W, the island, along with the islands of Coche and Cubagua, comprises the state of Nueva Esparta. The island is split into two peninsulas joined by an 18 km (11 mi) long isthmus and covers an area of 1,020 square km (390 sq mi). It is 78 km (48 mi) long and measures roughly 20 km (12 mi) at its widest. The climate is sunny and dry, with average temperatures ranging from 24 °C (75 °F) to 37 °C (99 °F).

Most of the island's 420,000 residents live in the more developed eastern part of the island, which includes the large cities of Porlamar and Pampatar, along with the state capital of La Asunción. The island can be reached by direct flights from Caracas or ferries from Puerto la Cruz, Cumaná, and La Guaira. There are no international flights to the island at present.

The Macanao peninsula to the west has a central mountain range in the east–west direction. The highest altitude is 760 metres (2,493 ft) at Pico de Macanao. Several smaller ranges derive from this axis following a north–south orientation with deep valleys between them. The most notable of these valleys is San Francisco in the north-central part of the peninsula. The Paraguachoa peninsula to the East is formed by a mountain range in the north–south direction from Porlamar to Cabo Negro. The highest peaks are San Juan or Cerro Grande at 920 metres (3,018 ft) and El Copey 890 metres (2,920 ft). The peninsulas are connected by the La Restinga isthmus, on which the La Restinga lagoon is located. There are also two breast-shaped hills known as Tetas de Maria Guevara on the isthmus.

Beaches There are at least 70 beaches on the island, which has a 106 miles (171 km) coastline. Popular beaches include Playa El Yaque, Playa Parguito, Playa Caribe, Playa Punta Arenas, Playa El Agua and Playa Puerto Cruz.

Terrain Macanao peninsula consists of mountainous spine of the central west–east, with several culminations, including Macanao Peak, which is the highest, with an altitude of 760 meters above sea level stands. This axial region several side brackets oriented north–south off, including deep valleys are dissected; the most important is San Francisco in the north central of Margarita. The central massif is surrounded by foothills forming a more or less continuous, narrow strip, which reaches almost to the coast north and south of the peninsula.

Mountains Isla Margarita eastern is formed by a mountain range which runs roughly north–south, from northern Porlamar to Cabo Negro; north from the town of El Espinal, the massif rises steeply to the culminations of San Juan and Copey hills, at heights of 920 and 890 m, respectively. The hills are Matasite and Guayamurí Los Andes foothills. To the north stands the Tragaplata hill.

Among the higher elevations found on the island, are cited: Paraguachoa: • San Juan Hill 920 meters above mean sea level • Copey Hill 890m amsl • Cocheima 810m amsl • Tragaplata Hill 640m amsl • El Cacho Hill 510m amsl; Península de Macanao: • Macanao Hill 750m amsl • Los Cedros Hill 745m amsl • Risco Blanco Hill 680m amsl    • Guaraguao Hill 660m amsl • Soledad Hill 540m amsl • Piedra Lisa Hill 500m amsl • El Castillo Hill 380m amsl

The highest portion of the Serranía de Macanao forms a wide arc as a semicircle or amphitheater open to the north-west, surrounding a protected valley, extremely picturesque, where the town of S. Francisco is settled. From the highest hill, Los Cedars, which occupy a central position, and Towards the north-west, the Serranía loses altitude gradually into a continuum in which alternating downward and small slopes climbs to the Guarataro hill, which from the east it stands out as a small pyramidal stone projection but from the north is projected as an isolated hill whose profile of steep and long slopes offers one of the most striking perspectives of the silhouette of the entire Serranía. Following the Guarataro and going north, there is a wide valley with rounded hills, crossed or separated by ravines or ravines. Partial view of the Serranía. On the right the hill "Guarataro".

Mountains near Laguna de Raya

The road ascends and runs through this wide It is a valley with numerous curves, crossing the mountain through some trenches that have been artificially dug to avoid too steep a slope. To the north, on the right of the road when you go to San Francisco the ground rises again forming a kind of mini mountain range with three or four elongated hills separated from each other by valleys that together form a continuous ridge in a northeasterly direction that occupies the geomorphological overhang that breaks the uniformity of the rectangular perimeter of the peninsula, which, in this area projects as a rocky promontory that falls abruptly to the sea, forming cliffs Slope hills north-west of the Serranía, "the miniserranía", which fall to the sea in the area of "The Maguey". In the foreground, view of the desolate plain to the north-west of it.

Of very steep slopes and in some places practically vertical. From the north-west, This small mountain range stands out clearly as two elongated hills of similar height, separated by a well-defined watercourse. On the eastern slope, the main mountain range loses height sharply, however, until almost Boca del Río it extends in a sequence of rounded hills of little height that in their majority are of reddish sandstones and sparse, xerophilic, or absent, vegetation of aspect, but that at sunset acquires tonalities of surprising serenity and singular beauty. All of them are crossed by more or less deep ravines. To the north, the valley formed by the amphitheater of the high hills opens up to sea, but its lateral slopes also descend in hills of reddish sandstone until Partial view of the slope western part of the Serranía.

The coast leaving between the road and the sea a wide strip of coastline in which cliffs and coves. These last ones, because they are protected from the direct action of the dominant winds, allow the sands to be deposited forming beaches like those of Tunar, La Wall or The Mule. In some cases, already over the sea, there are isolated hills that stand out of the rest of the landscape as in La Pared and La Mula. The main mountain range has a relief of steep slopes and sharp peaks, forming a cut profile of steep slopes extremely characteristic and unmistakable, with a strong personality. From west to east, the names of some of these hills, of evocative and sonorous indigenous names, are: Cerro de Narciso, La Soledad, Risco Blanco, The Congo, Los Cedros (the highest), followed by Sacamanteca on the south side, Although according to the farmers their real name and without a doubt the original is Guainamal, others call it Macanao.

Mamantón, Cerro de L'aguá, Tapacular and Campanario. Between Manglillo and Guayacancito, Near the edge of the road are the hills of Sabio and Pendejo which are of lesser height. La Soledad or Guainamal is the real Cerro Macanao. On the northern sides The hills of Gavilán and Guarataro stand out.

Macanao Peninsula With an extension of 330 km² and a rectangular contour of 23 km in length and 14 km in width, the Peninsula of Macanao, western portion of Margarita Island, is linked to the eastern portion of the island by a sandy cord or restinga which separates the so-called Restinga beach from the lagoon de Arapano, the indigenous name of the body of water, better known today as Laguna de La Restinga, reserving Arapano's for the eastern portion, which is mostly devoid of mangroves.

The sandy cord or beach is about 22 km long and the lagoon has an extension of 23 km². Its western end, which borders the Macanao Peninsula, receives the denomination of El Saco, zone that was habitually visited by the flamingos or tococos that formed a pink stain visible from afar; then, when they lift up their flight they offer a show of incomparable color quality, especially when the sun's rays from the dusk, already oblique, they make stand out, with variety of soft shades, the pink color of the birds and their "jet" plane morphology with the neck stretched out and the wings placed in the centre of the fuselage, long and slender. From the geomorphological and landscape point of view, the Peninsula is characterized by presence of a mountain range (whose highest hill reaches 745 m) that occupies the entire portion of the peninsula, leaving free only, to the south, a coastal strip more or less wide that forms cliffs on the sea, terraces of filling, mouth of ravines or extensive salinetas that were ancient lagoons formed as a result of the interaction between sea currents and the contributions of the rivers whose joint action created a restinga or bar.

Later, the sedimentary contribution dragged by the torrents that descend from the hills filled them, leaving only the sandy elevation of the restinga, which separates them from the sea above the level of the clay substrate of the salineta, for that reason, in the season of big rains they fill up again with water and become slippery plains of clay or mud, impassable. In this coastal strip, which is between the road and the sea, There is an abundance of debris: fragments of metamorphic rocks, stones and earth that have been the hills; and on which grows a poor xerophilic vegetation more or less dense. Among the cliffs there are beaches on which the fishermen's ranches settled around which the towns were formed.

Cities La Asunción is the capital of the Federal State of Nueva Esparta with a population of around 28,500. It is the seat of the regional government. The city is overlooked by the Santa Rosa de la Eminencia castle.

The urban area of Pampatar has a population of around 50,000. A number of the island's larger shopping malls are located in the city, namely Sambil Margarita, Rattan Depot, Centro Comercial La Vela, Centro Comercial Costa Azul, Centro Comercial AB (Avenida Bolivar) and La Redoma. The San Carlos de Borromeo Fortress, constructed in the late 17th century, is located in Pampatar. The city also has several beaches.

The largest city on Margarita Island is Porlamar. The population can reach 125,000 in the high season, while in the low season, the population is about 85,000. Two beaches are located within the city. The island's major airport, Santiago Mariño Caribbean International Airport, is located near Porlamar.

Juan Griego is a city on the northern side of Isla Margarita, and is the most northern port in Venezuela. It has a population of 28,256 inhabitants (as per census of 2001) and is the capital of the Marcano municipality of the Nueva Esparta state. Its Gothic-style church, constructed in 1850 by Fray Nicholas de Igualdad, is still, along with the lovely bay, the symbol of the city. The La Galera fortress, where in the early 1820s a fierce battle for independence was fought, is located near the city centre. In 1973, the island become a free port and the city once again become the second city of commercial importance after Porlamar.