Colonia Tovar

Colonia Tovar was settled in 1843 by farmers from the Grand Duchy of Baden who were shipped to Venezuela and then walked into the mountains, and the village they built at eighteen hundred metres stayed cut off by the lack of a road for a century. An Alemannic dialect survived that isolation and is still spoken by older residents. Steep half-timbered houses with slate roofs stand along the lanes, bakeries sell black bread and sausage, and the cool cloud-forest air draws Caracas up for the weekend. Strawberries and peaches grow on the terraces. The village was only linked to Caracas by a paved road in 1963.