Puerto Ayacucho

People have lived beside the Atures rapids for thousands of years: the Atures site is the oldest known archaeological site in the Orinoco basin, and the rocks around the rapids carry some of the largest petroglyphs in the world. In 1684 Jesuits founded a mission on an island where the airport now stands; it was destroyed the same year in an attack led by a Carib chief, rebuilt in 1734 and destroyed again later. Alexander von Humboldt passed the rapids in 1800 and noted that the Atures people who gave them their name had recently died out.

The modern town began with the landing of Puerto Perico, built before 1888 to move goods, above all rubber, past the rapids. Under the government of Juan Vicente Gómez a road was built from 1924 between Caicara del Orinoco and San Fernando de Atabapo, a bridge crossed the Cataniapo in 1927, and in 1928 the capital of the Amazonas territory was moved here from San Fernando de Atabapo. The town was officially founded on 9 December 1928 by the engineer Santiago Aguerrevere and named after the Battle of Ayacucho.

The early years were hard, as the price of rubber collapsed. In the 1930s the missionary Alfredo Bonvecchio built the first concrete buildings, among them the first cathedral, the waterfront promenade and a hospital. In 1940 the town still had only 600 to 700 people. It grew slowly until the 1960s, then quickly from the 1970s with migration from the rest of the territory and neighbouring states, and Amazonas became a state in its own right.

Puerto Ayacucho is where the indigenous peoples of Amazonas meet the rest of Venezuela. The Jivi, also called Guahibo, are the largest group in the city, alongside the Baré, Piaroa, Baniva, Curripaco, Ye'kwana and others, and nearly a quarter of residents identified as indigenous at the 2011 census. The Ethnological Museum of Amazonas tells the story of these peoples and of the missions, and indigenous traders bring their handicrafts to the Plaza de los Indios and the market.

The wider region carries strong spiritual traditions. The Piaroa regard Cerro Autana, far to the south, as the tree of life of their oral tradition, and the Ye'kwana live in communal houses called atta. The Catholic Church has been part of the town's life since its founding, and the cathedral on Plaza Bolívar, with its large altarpiece, is a national monument.

The town looks to the river as much as to the land: its port, its promenade and its viewpoints all face the Orinoco and the Colombian shore, and a large share of the population came from other parts of Amazonas.

Puerto Ayacucho had about 84,000 inhabitants at the 2011 census, more than half the population of Amazonas state, and it is the only town in the state connected by road to another state. Its two urban parishes, Luis Alberto Gómez and Fernando Girón Tovar, are built on rocky granite ground beside the river.

The economy once rested on gathering and growing cacao, rubber and chiquichique palm fibre. It later shifted towards sawmills, weaving and other workshops, commerce and construction, and tourism also supports the city. The army and navy are a strong presence because of the Colombian border, and parts of the wider state have been drawn into illegal gold mining.

Like the rest of the south, the city lives with fuel shortages, power cuts and scarce medicines, which also limit river and air links to the interior. Days start early and slow down in the midday heat. Salesian missionaries run bilingual schools for indigenous pupils, and the city's patron saint is San Juan Nepomuceno.

Cassava is the foundation of indigenous cooking in Amazonas. Casabe, a large, dry flatbread of grated bitter cassava, is made throughout the region, and mañoco, a coarse bitter-cassava product, is made with traditional tools such as the sebucán press and the budare griddle. A regional speciality is catara, a hot sauce made from cassava juice, spices and ants.

The Orinoco and its tributaries supply river fish, eaten fried, grilled or stewed; restaurants in the city serve species such as morocoto, curbina, palometa and pavón, and roasted or fried green plantain is eaten as well as cassava bread. Tropical fruit from the forest and the farms around the city appears in juices and sweets.

In the town itself everyday food follows the national pattern: arepas, griddled maize cakes split and filled; empanadas; and pabellón criollo, the plate of shredded beef, black beans and white rice, often with fried plantain. Strong black coffee is drunk through the day.