Venezuela is known for its expanse of oil reserves and today we’ll find out more!

Interesting Facts:

1. The beautiful country has had the highest number of Miss World title holders in the world!

2. The country takes its wildlife conservation very seriously having declared 53% of its area has protected.

3. But unfortunately, it is not the safest. It ranks for the second highest gun related deaths in the world!

4. Additionally, it even has a high number of deaths due to cars with the WHO reporting it to be 37.2 per 100,000 inhabitants!

5. Meanwhile, petrol in Venezuela is staggeringly cheap standing at $0.1 per litre while the global average is $0.97.

6. On Christmas, folks go to the church early in the morning. Um hello, what’s interesting about that? They do so on roller skates! A passageway is officially cleared to make way for this! Little children go to bed with a string tied around their toe and the other hanging outside the window. As Santa’s people skate past in the morning they pull on their strings, signalling the children that it is time for them to wake up, put on their skates and head on to the church. It hasn’t been confirmed but is said to be quite likely that the tradition came as an alternative to the traditional stories of sledding during Christmas time.

7. They even have a national instrument called the cuatro which is similar to a miniature guitar and their national dance is called joropo which is similar to waltz.

8. Francisco De Miranda was an exiled Venezuelan who under the guidance of a British admiral was successful in returning to his home country with about 500 American and British volunteers to revolt against the Spanish rule. While they weren’t successful, they did end up creating the first of the independent flags. And while Venezuela was the first in its region to rise and revolt against Spanish rule, their fight actually continued and they became independent only in 1830.

9. Over the mouth of the Catatumbo River the cold mountain air collides with the heat of Lake Maracaibo. Recognized by the Guinness World Records it is called the “Catatumbo lightning” which sees about 100,000 lightning strikes in a night, earning itself the name of an everlasting lightning.

10. With a height of 979 m Angel Falls in Venezuela are the world’s tallest waterfalls. Interestingly, it was actually unknown till the 1950s. Even their neighbouring tribe of Pomon had maintained their distance on account of fear of malign spirits. A pilot with an adventurous soul named James Crawford Angel (“Jimmie”) discovered the waterfall. He worked as a civil aviator and spent a significant part of his time in Venezuela. Around this time, he became highly intrigued, or even obsessed with Auyántepui, a tepui which was in the shape of a heart. He suspected it to be the home of the lost river of gold. It was then that he spotted the waterfall, leading to them even being named after him, Angel Falls.

If you’d like to know about the 10 tallest waterfalls in the world, check out our blog here:

11. A building named the Helix was being constructed in the capital city but was never completed and instead became a brutal prison!

12. Similarly, the Tower of David in the capital was also not completed with a financial crisis and at a height of 190 metres had become the world’s tallest slum at a point of time! Eventually, the squatters were evicted.

13. It is one of the 17 most megadiverse countries on the planet and is home to rarely sighted species such as the three-toothed sloth, the two toothed sloth, the Orinoco crocodiles, etc.

14. Which is your favourite flower? Roses? Lilies? Sunflowers? Oh, please say orchids! Why? Because Venezuela is home to 25,000 species of orchids! Their national flower is “Flor De Mayo Orchid”.

15. In addition to the official language of Spanish, indigenous languages such as Pemon, Wayuu and Warao are also widely spoken. As many as 30 odd such languages are spoken in different regions of the country.