0845 VENEZUELA (Nueva Esparta) - The fortress La Galera, in Juan Griego

Juan Griego, the most northern port in Venezuela, located on the northern side of Margarita Island, in the Caribbean Sea, was named after Juan the Greek, a navigator born in Seville in the early 16th century, who developed a prosperous business of transporting captive Indians from the island to Santo Domingo. The city began to receive importance in 1811, during the Venezuelan War of Independence, and in 1816 it was used by Simon Bolivar for returning from Haiti. In 1904, the government moved the capital of the island from Juan Griego to Pampatar, but nevertheless the cultural activities continued to bloom in the city.

0832 VENEZUELA (Nueva Esparta) - The Basílica of Our Lady of the Valley

Located on the Margarita Island (Isla de Margarita - situated off the northeastern coast of Venezuela, in the Caribbean Sea), at halfway between the cities of Porlamar and La Asunción, El Valle del Espíritu Santo was founded as the capital of the island in 1529. In the village there is one of the most visited temples of the island and from whole Venezuela, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Valley, built in the late 19th century, and decreed Basilica Menor by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

0426 VENEZUELA (Amazonas) – Autana, the island in the sky

Because the stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded Amerigo Vespucci of the city of Venice, he named the region Veneziola ("little Venice" in Tuscan), which became in Spanish Venezuela. Colonized by Spain in 1522, it became full independent in 1830. Since then, like most countries of Latin America, it experienced political turmoil and dictatorships, interrupted only by brief democratic periods after the WWII. Since 1999 it is lead by Hugo Chávez (re-elected for the fourth time on October 2012), rather a character from the novels of Marquez, than a president in flesh and bones. Federal republic consisting of 23 states, Venezuela has an extremely high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the Andes mountains to the Amazon Basin, via extensive llanos plains, Caribbean coast and the Orinoco River Delta. It is also among the most urbanized countries in Latin Americ, and has some of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world.