Caracas in two days
Caracas will cast its spell as you admire its varied cuisines, plazas, parks, cultural centers, and museums, as well as its bars, cafés, and restaurants, not to mention the lively nightlife and the people.
By: Israel Oliva
Photos: Eduardo Izaguirre
Happy Day 1
06:00 a.m. – Parque del Este
If you were woken by macaws letting you know that morning has broken, you might head out to Parque del Este—a favorite of both neighborhood locals and people from all over the city—and spend a leisurely hour in this green jewel of Caracas, designed by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.
07:00 a.m. – Los Palos Grandes Market
The Los Palos Grandes market operates on Saturdays just outside the park. The smell of cachapa (a corn griddle cake with melted white cheese) will jump start your day in the best way. A food corridor barely a block long spans the various regions of Venezuela. The whole neighborhood comes here to seek out ingredients: fruit, cheeses, arepas (corncakes), turnovers, coffee, and even Chinese food with a local twist. If you prefer a sit-down breakfast, Arepa Factory has been keeping the griddle hot for 25 years, producing the best arepas, particularly the capresa.
08:30 a.m. – El Chacao District
Get the most out of urban life in the walkable Chacao district. Enjoy the plaza and cafés like the classic Arábica, or other specialty coffee shops like Quiero un Café. From there you can head for the Plaza de La Castellana and the Modern Art Cultural Center. Look out for the mural by Carlos Cruz-Diez, a master of kineticism, tucked away in the building’s lobby. You’ll find some treasures in the basement: retrospectives and shows by artists like Jesús Soto and Juvenal Ravelo.
11:00 a.m. – Central University of Venezuela
Carlos Raúl Villanueva, the father of local modern architecture, laid out the seat of the Central University of Venezuela so meticulously that it was declared a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site for its exceptional character. Regardless of which direction you come from, you’ll instinctively head for the covered rector’s plaza, the library, and the auditorium, this latter adorned with Alexander Calder’s Floating Clouds acoustic sculpture. Keep a bag handy to carry the second-hand books you’ll invariably end up buying inside the covered walkways. Don’t miss the famous clock, and if you’re lucky, you can get a refreshing chicha (rice drink) to help you cool off..
01:00 p.m. – Hacienda Trinidad
La Hacienda La Trinidad—some 161,000 square feet of old tobacco drying barns, sugar mills, and warehouses—is now a showcase for the creative economy of the capital region: galleries, handicraft shops, bookstores, cafés, and of course, the Cacao de Origen shop and school, which is the perfect place for learning to appreciate the history and quality of Venezuelan chocolate, touted as the best in the world.
04:00 p.m. – Villa Planchart
If you’re not finished marveling at the beauty of the public spaces, I have another gem for you: the private Villa Planchart, designed by architect Gio Ponti. You can make a reservation to visit the villa with the nieces of the creators of all this beauty. The house embodies luxury on the heights of Los Cerritos: architecture, painting, sculpture, industrial design, landscaping, and above all, the fascinating history behind this wonderful whimsy. Make sure you reserve the garden for a glass of wine at sunset, letting you feel, like Anala Planchart —the mansion’s original owner— that the mountain, El Ávila belongs to you.
08:30 p.m. – Cordeo Restaurant
Rising to the occasion, you can later dine at Cordero, the restaurant that is already putting Venezuelan cuisine on the region’s food map. The award “One to Watch in 2023” from Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, surely recognizes the tartare made from superior Mampote lamb, the complimentary bread with sheep’s milk butter, and the grilled suckling lamb. And make sure to whet your appetite with a cocktail, perhaps vermouth with Ancestral gin, flavored with Amazonian herbs. If you feel like partying, Modo Caracas in Chacao features live shows and a gamut of musical styles
Happy Day 2
08:00 a.m – Casa Bistró
If you’re hoping for an unusually wide variety of old-fashioned home cooking, breakfast at Casa Bistró in Los Palos Grandes serves up fillings of pork leg, beans, grated cheese, and the indispensable reina pepiada, a renowned blend of shredded chicken, mayonnaise, avocado, and cilantro. All these delights are meant to be eaten with arepas, although there are also cachapas, ground corn or wheat turnovers, and hallaquitas (Venezuelan tamales). Now you’re all set for a trip downtown.
09:00 a.m – Simon Bolivar Center Towers
To burn calories, walk up the stairs of Parque Ezequiel Zamora (or El Calvario), the city’s first urban garden, built in the style of French promenades. The park is graced with plazas, the Lourdes chapel, and the Arch of the Federation. My favorite is the gazebo, a shade pavilion for resting on the way uphill, or perhaps the standing statue of Bolívar. The panorama stretches as far as Plaza O’Leary, at the end of the tunnel under the Simón Bolívar Center towers, also known as “Towers of Silence,” which were part of a grand urban expansion project amidst the bustle of downtown.
10:00 a.m. – Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria (Church of Our Lady of Candlemas)
Walk through the basement and emerge at Plaza Bolívar. There you’ll find the statue of Bolívar that Jose Martí came to pay his respects to before even shaking off the road dust when he arrived in the city. Across the way and to the left, very near the liberator’s birth house, you can pick up a golfeado (sweet sticky bun with cheese and raw sugar syrup). On the other corner, duck into a Páramo café for a perfectly roasted Caribe coffee. From there, continue to the Church of Our Lady of Candlemas, the resting place of the beatified José Gregorio Hernández. Murals of the miraculous doctor on walls around the city are part of the local identity.
11:00 a.m. – National Art Gallery
Now it’s time for the cultural circuit. Start with the monumental National Art Gallery, home to Arturo Michelena’s famous Miranda en La Carraca, and temporary exhibits such as an homage to maestro Cruz-Diez on his centenary and an exhibit of the sculptures of Fernando Botero after his death. Then, it’s off to the Museum of Contemporary Art for a look at temporary exhibits featuring local artists. At front, has A flower for the desert, by Alejandro Otero, an urban art sculpture art sculpture that overlooks the Teresa Carreño Carreño Theater, which, in its forties, is still an insignia of the imagination cultural. If no performances are scheduled, see the pieces of Jesús Soto, on walls and ceilings and ceilings, the secret is to say that you are going to to Golfeados San Jacinto.
01:30 p.m. – Hotel Humboldt
The aerial tramway that has always ascended to Ávila Park has been redubbed Warairarepano. The rapid ascent from Maripérez to the summit offers views of the Caribbean and Caracas. You can get off at Galipán, a charming village a few kilometers away, to eat pernil sandwiches, strawberries and cream and drink blackberry wine. handcrafted. You can reach the Humboldt: the hotel whim of the dictator in power, an icon of architecture, remodeled, and the lighthouse of the whole city. You can down by cable car or on foot; the way down is so safe that, as is so safe that, as José Luis, a regular Luis, a regular hiker, says that if you get lost it is because you who gets lost is because he pretends to be Tarzan.
03:45 p.m. – National Center of Social Action for Music
You should have booked in advance at the Centro Nacional de Acción Social por la Música, headquarters of the Sistema Nacional de Orquestas y Coros Juveniles e Infantiles (National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs) .At any of their concerts you will get your hair standing on end at the sight of what can making the music. If you do not have a reservation, you can go to Los Galpones, an alternative cultural center in Sebucán alternative cultural center in Sebucán, which closes at 5:00, to take the pulse of thought and critical and critical arts in the country.
07:00 p.m. -360º Roof Bar
For the farewell, the aperitif would be at 360º Roof Bar, at the Altamira Hotel . Suites, with the best sunset. Take some cocktails with Venezuelan rums and save room for dinner downstairs at Otokam, by renowned chef Makoto Okuwa. Try the salmon truffle, a tiradito and any robata option, charcoal grilled style Japanese, in the company of good sakes. If you prefer to explore the Italian cuisine of Caracas, which is almost local, then go a Aprile, whose menu is crowned with a Fellini’s phrase: “Life is a combination of of magic and pasta”; then, a good linguine alle vongole, Neapolitan style clam pasta or ravioli recipe mushrooms with donkey mushrooms in oil of truffle. That’s because already, at this point, Caracas did its thing with magic.
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