and means of recreation not to be despised; and the people of this city are known to give extraordinary attention to national holidays and others. In the yearly carnival, for instance, great and small take part, and much money and effort are spent upon it. As for the national holidays, they celebrate them with full respect and with a true knowledge of patriotic duty; and perhaps their government's sound guidance has had an effective part in strengthening their feeling of national pride — proof enough that it has made the raising of flags upon the houses compulsory on national holidays.
Cabimas
After making the acquaintance of Maracaibo, I wished to visit one of the petroleum districts, to which Venezuela owes its progress and its wealth — and how not, when petroleum is among its greatest resources. We made for Cabimas, which is separated from Maracaibo by one of the greatest lakes of South America, whose area exceeds the area of Lebanon. We arrived, and I saw there some of the wells for drawing petroleum and some of the refineries, and I visited some of the dwelling houses, which resemble in their outward appearance the houses of Maracaibo. As for the constant heat of this town, so I was told, it leaves no difference between its summer and its winter.
Caracas
And at last... we traveled by air to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, which stands about nine hundred meters above the level of the sea. How great was my amazement at seeing modern Caracas, which keeps pace in its renaissance with the most advanced cities of America. It is enough to mention what I saw of the ordering and harmony of its streets, the beauty and unity
of its quarters, its numerous clubs, and its luxuriant gardens. Anyone whom the fates led to visit this city a few years ago can scarcely believe the progress and flourishing he now sees in it. Here are its universities with their many branches, which qualify their students to obtain the doctor's degree and open before them the field of specialization in all manner of domains; here the crooked La Guaira–Caracas road — that is, the road of the port and the airport — has been abolished and replaced by a straight road that has defied the rocks and the mountains; here its old buildings, without order or harmony, have been torn down to widen the roads
and to raise modern buildings in their place; and here its underground tunnels have been opened to relieve the crush of traffic in the city — all of them inscribing for the Venezuelan government a new conquest in the history of progress and construction.
I missed the chance to become acquainted with a great deal on this journey of mine, owing to the shortness of the time; yet what circumstances allowed me to see is enough to remind me of Lebanon's many possibilities, which could raise it to the highest degrees of advancement, if only we spent some effort toward strengthening them.
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