I have had the opportunity to live in big cities like London, Barcelona, Moscow and other special places in Venezuela, but I retired to a quiet place ignored by many people. Whenever I said I lived in Guacara I received an answer like: What? Where the hell is that place, Are you crazy? Why not in Valencia It is a cosmopolitan city. At the beginning I used to remain mute, but as time passed by I found many reasons for having chosen that place.
This town is located near the north range of mountains that face Venezuela to the Caribbean Sea, and at 438m above sea level near the Valencia lake. I live at 10 kms from the sea, and wherever I look I can see the mountains. When we are in winter they look green covered with white clouds. People that go on excursions say that if you cross the mountains you end up arriving to a beach named Patanemo. People that have gone through this passage to the beach say that you find things that are strange and unusual such as big formation of rocks, enormous fungus and any kind of plants you don't find in other places.
Guacara is a valley and its history says that it used to be an aboriginal settlement since 4500 years ago, and it suffered earthquakes that may be destroyed some of these settlements. The risen and descend of the sea waters made these aborigines move a lot and consequently they formed many towns as Guacara. Nowdays Guacara receive the name of San Agustin De Guacara and it had a small chapel made of wattle where the people were baptized and of course they carried a book of their names.
Guacara is rich in petroglyphs and menhirs done by the aborigines which represents many of their beliefs. The place named Tronconero in Vigirima near the Vigirima river offers you a silent tribute to these antique cultures which disappear many years ago, but that you can still feel the wish to know why they are not here any more. There are excavations, places where scientists have found rest of dinosaurs which are protected by government entities. I hope one day the world will get to know more about this place because it is worthy. The Vigirima river is a place of gathering for the Guacareñas family who come to share here special moments in the company of the spirits of ancestors that may be surround us.
This place was used for the spanish people as a center of indoctrination because every time the spanish conquerors came to an aboriginal place they wanted to teach their religion and baptize the aborigines and give them spanish names they could pronounce. Francisco Berroterán declared Guacara as a city on Feb 20, 1694, but as a borough it was declared on Oct 8, 1803. So, Guacara has a long history of formation of towns, culture, folklore and all social and politics changes through many centuries that deserve to be studied. Today Guacara is a well formed town full of banks, urbanizations, shops, schools, medical centers and a population of about 250.000 people coming from different parts of the country and many chinese, arabs and turks.
Since early hours in the morning you see people gathering in the center square. It a very popular place and with some history magic. The square was constructed on the land of the family Wallis where they used to practice a kind of sport that came to be our initial Venezuelan baseball. There are food shops near where people eats their filled pies and arepas before going to work. It is a very familiar place where you can see many events during the year. The town center houses and shop are painted with brilliant colors that emanate joy and make you feel full of energy to start the day.
There are places where you can buy the most delicious sweets, pizzas and breads of the entire town. To these places come the executives and people that can pay the prices of the food they sell. They are famous for the peasant bread, doughnuts and sweets. I enjoy to eat in this place my breakfast when I come to the laboratory where I do my blood tests because it is near and the bread filled with ham, raisins and olives is really good.
There are many things that now I can say about this town where my children grew, studied and are still living in this place. I love the peace this place offer to the world and above all the historical background which give to it a mystical environment. Now I don't feel shamed of this peaceful refugee. When I wake up early in the morning I can listen the birds singing around and when I look up to the sky I see many birds coming from the near sea moving to dryer places where to stay. The flower, trees, green mountains, the people and their serenity inherited from their ancestors makes this town a special place where to live. When I go to other places in the country I long my town because of the peace it offers to people.
All the photos were taken by my Redmi 7
