Caracas Travel Guide

On a wall facing the Plaza el Venezolano, Simón Bolívar is quoted as follows: Si se opone la naturaleza lucharemos contra ella y la haremos que nos obedezca (If nature opposes us, we'll struggle against her and make her obey us). Nowhere in Venezuela is the legacy of Bolívar's defiant proclamation more apparent than in Caracas itself. Whether gazing at the city's sprawling skyline from the 17th-story window of a high-rise hotel or strolling in the shadows of looming concrete edifices, one wistfully dreams of what Caracas might have been like had its sudden growth spurt occurred during any other architectural moment than the 1970s.