Puerto Colombia	Playa Grande	Choroní

Every year at the 24th of June Choroní celebrates San Juan Bautista, an event which attracts a large number of national and international tourists. Typical music and dance are preformed with the traditional drums, as a tribute to San Juan Batista.

Choroní is located at about 50 kilometres (32 miles) away from Maracay, the capital of tha state of Aragua. From Maracay a narrow curvy road leads through the mountains of national park "Henri Pittier" to Choroní. The park was the first Venezuelan national park (1937). It covers over 100.000 acres and has over 550 different bird species. The park has the greatest diversity of birds worldwide. To reach Choroní you have to travel through the park, unless you're coming in by boat. The park has tropical forests, with higher up in the mountains cloud forests, rich with flora and fauna. Along the road there's still a lot of cacao haciendas from the colonial past. These cacao plantations are protected from the sun by large trees with abundant vegetation. With a bit of luck you can see the small Capucin-monkeys, or even the bigger Howler-monkeys.

The road through the national park was constructed around the year 1920 by prisoners as an unpaved road. Only around 1970 a start was made to pave the road.

Puerto Colombia, 3 kilometres (2 miles) away from Choroní, has alwys been the port of Choroní. In the colonial era villages were found at a safe distance from the coast line. The reason for this was the presence of pirates. For pirates it was harder to rob villages inland than directly at the coast. In colonial times Ships from Spain and The Netherlands among others, arrives at the port of Puerto Colombia to ship cacao, coffee and sugar to Europe.

"La Boca", Puerto Colombia	Boats at the port

The fishermen of Choroní fish the sea traditionally from their small boats (peñeros). With these boats you can visit other beaches an villages, only to be reached by sea, like Chuao.

Chuao is famous for its cacao, grown at the hacienda around the village. Cacao from Chuao is seen as the best worldwide, because of its characteristics of flavour and taste.

At about 8 kilometres (5 miles) from Choroní there's an old hydro-electric plant, now converted into a museum: an industrial style building painted in white, with large windows. It's a strange contrast with the surrounding rain forest with thousands of shades of green, and the noise of the nearby waterfalls.

Choroní counts with a pleasant nightlife. The malecón (boulevard) is the place to stroll around after a day at the beach, meet other people, have a drink, look at or buy some of the local arts. There are some small bars in Puerto Colombia, where you can buy a beer or a cocktail. You might find yourself dancing until late.

Choroní and Puerto Colombia are relatively safe compared to other places in Venezuela. There's very little criminality, you're able to walk around without any worries, also at night.