Ciudad Bolívar has one municipality: Heres Municipality, Venezuelan law specifies that municipal governments have four main functions: executive, legislative, comptroller, and planning. The executive function is managed by the mayor, who is in charge of representing the municipality's administration. The legislative branch is represented by the Municipal Council, composed of seven councillors, charged with the deliberation of new decrees and local laws. The comptroller tasks are managed by the municipal comptroller's office, which oversees accountancy. Finally, planning is represented by the Local Public Planning Council, which manages development projects for the municipality.
Ciudad Bolívar is located at 43 meters of altitude on the south shore of the Orinoco river, in its narrower part, fluvial port of the east of Venezuela. Its northern limit is the Orinoco river, in the south it borders the Raul Leoní municipality, to the east the municipalities Caroní and Piar, and to the west the Sucre municipality. Ciudad Bolívar is constituted by the parishes Catedral, Agua Salada, Sabanita, Vista Hermosa, Marhuanta, José Antonio Páez, Orinoco, Panapana, and Zea. Geologically, the city presents a great tectonic stability, because the ancient lands, which have survived a series of collapses, also present forms of level earth relief.
Geography
The morichales are found at the shores of the rivers, the chaparral. Species including the carob tree, the sarrapia, and the merecure are prevalent, whereas the fauna is represented by such species as capibara, morrocoy, herons, parrots, lapa, iguanas, and others. A high percentage corresponds to fluvial species, like the fishes: curbinata, dorado, lau- lau, morocoto, palometa, sapoara.
Vegetation
The temperature average varies between 26 and 30 °C. This climatic variety is represented by the periods of rain and drought, presented in high and variable forms, greater rainfall in regard to the high temperatures that cause a strong evaporation, arriving at 1022 mm annual. These high amounts favor the presence of rivers of great volume like the Orinoco, as well as others of minor volume: Orocopiche, Marcela, and La Candelaria, for example.
Climate
Ciudad Bolívar is a region dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry on a small scale. Maize, yucca, mango, yam, and watermelon are characteristic products cultivated in the zone. Cattle activity is represented by the bovine and pig. The fluvial fishing is carried out in a small proportion, the tourism has receiving economic importance, which comes to reinforce the productive sector of the zone, among others economic activities of the city are, the commerce, services, transports, fast food chains, like McDonalds and Wendy's, and distributors of national and international industries, such as: Plumrose, Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, Empresas Polar, Bloque de prensa de Armas, as well as the Supermarket chains Central Madeirense and Koma, among others. Ciudad Bolívar is the seat of the state government of the Bolívar state.
The Angostura Bridge has great importance as a communicational infrastructure, since it unites this locality with the rest of Venezuela. Also important is the freeway that unites Ciudad Bolívar with Ciudad Guayana. Another representative infrastructure is the General José Tomás de Heres airport. The city hosts hotels such as Laja Real, La Cumbre, El Bolívar Gran Hotel, El Salto Angel, Posada Amor Patrio, Posada Angostura, and others. The hospital infrastructure is represented among others by: Thorax Hospital, Ruiz y Páez Hospital, Red Cross.
Centers of education include the universities Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez, Universidad de Oriente, Universidad Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, Universidad Nacional Abierta, etc, and institutes of primary and secondary education. Nevertheless, Ciudad Bolívar lacks the required infrastructure to obtain true economic and social progress, because the competent organizations have not developed a work plan that really responds to the exigency of the city, as capital and seat of the political power of the Bolívar state. Among the services of the locality are drinking water, electricity, telephone, transport, mail, Internet, banks, and malls, among others, that influence the profit of the economic development, and the well-being of the population. The communications are represented by the roads and the media, that facilitate commerce and the relations between the people. Examples of these mass media are television (Bolivar Vision, TV Río), radio, Internet, and newspapers (El Bolivarense, El Expreso, El Progreso, El Luchador), among others. The most important routes of transport are terrestrial, as much extraurban and interurban, covering national routes, and the fluvial, represented mainly by boats that cover the passage from Ciudad Bolívar to Soledad, as well as other small towns.
Economy and services
Ciudad Bolívar's historical zone is a great touristic attraction featuring houses and public buildings that date from the colonial period. The Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art, named after the sculptor and painter Jesús Rafael Soto, features a collection of modern works by Venezuelan and international artists. In musical matters, Ciudad Bolívar is the place of birth of artists like: Cheo Hurtado, Iván Pérez Rossi, Antonio Lauro (guitarist, considered to be one of the foremost South American composers of the 20th century), also is the seat of groupings like Serenata Guayanesa and the Ensemble Orinoco, in events and fairs, the city lodges every year since 1971, the Orinoco Fair, this is a touristic event, that is part of a tribute to the Orinoco River. Between the folkloric musical sorts present in the city, we can mention:
The city is also home to an array of immigrants from but not limited to: Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Middle East, Germany, China, and Latin American countries.
Waltz
Galerón
Aguinaldo
Merengue
Joropo guayanés Culture
One of the traditions of the region´s cuisine are the desserts and preserves made of cashew nuts, which can also be tasted alone or roasted with salt. The cassava bread prepared in the area is also famous as well as several meals made of tortoise such as the Carapacho de Morrocoy Guayanés (baked tortoise in its shell). A culinary delight with alleged aphrodisiac power is the Catara sauce, which is a spicy sauce made of cassava juice or yare, species, and the so called big-butt ant.
Gastronomy
Sites of interest
Like Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor, this seat served at the time of the colonial period as a common center for political concentrations, and public market. The history of the statue of Simón Bolivar goes back to October 26, 1867, when the President of the State, Juan Bautista Dalla Costa, named a committee to erect a statue of El Libertador in the space of the Plaza Mayor. The plan for the new urban space was in charge of Régulo Machado, who the day of Saint Simon, on October 28, 1869, inaugurated the first pedestrian statue of Bolívar, and five stone statues, in representation of the Republics released by El Libertador in the independence wars in South America.
Plaza Bolívar
This construction was the principal house of the Hacienda of Jose Luis Cornieles, who was a member of the first Congress of Angostura, and friend of Simón Bolivar. Bolívar lodged in this house during his stay in the city, and it was the place where he wrote his famous message to the Congress of Angostura in 1819. The house dates from the XVIII century, and conserves a noticeably colonial style. It has a chapel, in which is venerated the image of Isidore the Laborer, that was recovered in 1966. It has two centennial trees, a Kapok and a Tamarind. One says that in the Tamarind, Simón Bolívar used to tie his horse, when he visited the place. It was declared a National Historical Monument on March 21, 1968.
San Isidro Museum
To determine with exactitude the date of construction of this building is very difficult; nevertheless, its proximity with the Plaza Bolívar suggests that it had to be one of the first in the city. Before being Parochial House and office of the General Vicar of the Diocese. In its rooms are kept compilations of religious pieces of great value, between which appear wood statues, and images like the one of Nuestra Señora de Las Nieves, patron saint of the city.
Parochial House
This building, also known like House of Governors, was constructed by orders of Manuel Centurión in 1766, as the seat of a school (Escuela de latín y primeras letra). In addition, it served as residence for the governors of the province. On February 15, 1817, the main hall was witness of the installation of the Congress of Angostura. Also, the last 37 numbers of the newspaper Correo del Orinoco were printed there. One says that Simón Bolívar was present at the execution of Manuel Piar, from a balconie of the house. From 1829, it became an Education center and public library; in 1840 it was the seat of the Guayana School, and in 1883 the president Antonio Guzmán Blanco, classified it as an institute of first category. Nowadays it is a museum and the seat of the Historical Files of Guayana.
House of the Congress of AngosturaThis church of colonial style is located to the northeast of the Plaza Bolívar. It is dedicated to Nuestra Señora de Las Nieves, patron saint of the city, whose celebration is on August 5. The central Nave measures 26 Mts, and the tower 44 Mts, which has in its interior thirteen bells and a giant clock, that each quarter of hour plays the Bolívar state anthem. The original project its from 1771, and its conclusion and inauguration from 1840, was the Monsignor Mariano de Talavera y Garcés, fourth bishop of Guayana, that started up the completion of the cathedral. The original planes of the engineer Bartolomé de Amphoux, that were lost, were found in the 1970s by the architect Graziano Gasparini in the Archivo General de Indias, thanks to which the structure was recovered. On February 15, 1979, under the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez, the building was reinaugurated. In a wall of the Cathedral, near the Plaza Bolívar, was executed Manuel Piar, on October 16, 1817, after a sentence of the court martial, who found him culprit of conspiracy, crime and treason.
Ciudad Bolívar Cathedral
By the location of this construction of the end of the XVIII century, it was created like a dependency of the San Gabriel Fort, which was located opposite to it. It was the residence of several governors and command of the police. In addition, it worked like a public jail until 1951, when the jail of Vista Hermosa was built. This building of colonial lines erected on a small plateau, and constructed like a stone fort, presents a character of defense and force. At the moment, and after its restoration, it lodges the General Archives of Guayana and the Institute of History of the Bolivar State, the writer Rufino Blanco Fombona, and the poet and revolutionary Alfredo Arvelo Larriva were imprisoned there in 1905.
Old prison
This building dates from the XIX century, specifically during the mandate of the Governor Juan Bautista Dalla Costa. Peculiarly, it was constructed in the same terrains, that the Accountant's office of the Real Property occupied in the days of the colony. The building was inaugurated on June 19, 1867, and was originally designed for a single plant, but later, at the beginning of the XX century, was added its high part, structure that conserves at the moment. Nowadays it is the seat of the Bolívar state government.
Government Palace
In front of the Plaza Bolívar of Ciudad Bolívar, is the house that served like prison to Manuel Piar,
Piar house
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