Caripe

From Freepedia

Caripe is the name of a town and municipality in the mountainous north of the state of Monagas in eastern Venezuela.

The soil of the Caripe valley is very fertile, and the climate of the area is exceptionally pleasant, a result of its altitude (much of it 1000 m. [3000 ft.] and higher), latitude (about 10° N), and proximity to the Caribbean Sea. The mountains of the Cordillera de Caripe (Caripe Range) are relatively low, compared to the Andes in the west of Venezuela, with Cerro Turumiquire the the highest at 2595 m., and they are rounded and covered with lush vegetation, much like the Appalachian mountains in the United States. Truck gardens, fruit (particularly citrus) orchards and other farming can be found in the Caripe valley, with coffee plantations and grazing of animals in more mountainous areas. Tourism is also an important source of income to the area.

The name of the town is doubtless originally from the Carib (Caribe) language. It was said that there was a chief named Caripe, whose son, named Caripito ('little Caripe') went down the Caripe river towards its confluence with the Río San Juan (which empties into the Golfo de Paria near the Orinoco River delta) and founded the town of Caripito in the lowlands. It is not clear how much history lies behind the legend.

The official name of the town is Caripe del Guácharo 'Caripe of the Oilbird'. The name makes reference to a very large cave (over 10 km. long), the Cueva del Guácharo, where a large colony of guácharos or oilbirds live, and where Alexander von Humboldt studied them in 1799, at the beginning of his South American journeyings. The oilbird's scientific name, Steatornis caripensis, means 'fat-bearing bird of Caripe'. The cave is the centerpiece of the Cueva del Guácharo National Park. There is also an "Alejandro de Humboldt" National Monument associated with the Park and the cave.