Extremo nororiental de la Peninsula de Macanao e Istmo de La Restinga

The Macanao Peninsula is a geographic peninsula landform, that forms the western end of the

Isla Margarita Margarita Island (, ) is the largest island in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the northeastern coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on the island. History ...

in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, in northern Venezuela. It is also a Venezuelan municipality, the Municipality of Macanao Peninsula (''Municipio Península de Macanao''), in the state of

Nueva Esparta The Nueva Esparta State (in Spanish: ''Estado Nueva Esparta'', ), is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It comprises Margarita Island, Coche, and the largely uninhabited Cubagua. The state has the smallest area, and is located off the nort ...

. The

municipal seat A municipal seat or ''cabecera municipal'' is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a municipality or civil parish with other villes or towns subordinated. The term is used in Brazil, Colombia,Boca de Río.

Geography

The peninsula is connected to the rest of Isla Margarita by a thin strip of land in Laguna de la Restinga National Park. Sixty years ago, it was an island. The peninsula has an area of , rising from sea level to at the peak of Cerro Macanao. A ridge of high land runs along the peninsula from east to west. The main east-west crest is sharp and narrow. The mountains are smaller than in Maragarita, but are much more rugged, with many steep-sided valleys cutting through the mountain sides. The more remote beaches can only be reached via dirt roads. The climate of Margarita as a whole is hot and tropical, with little rainfall. The Macanao peninsula is particularly arid and dry. In the 1950s, the mountains in the central range were forested up to about . Vegetation today is mainly open cactus-chaparral, with deciduous forests in the seasonal riverbeds. The mean average temperature is , and mean annual rainfall is . Trade winds blow from the northeast, so rainfall is highest on the northern side.

Geology

Macanao Peninsula is relatively newly formed. In the northern part of the peninsula,

littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal a ...

deposits from the early

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

form a terrace high made of a sandy marl that contains the bivalves '' Lyropecten arnoldi''. In the south, a littoral terrace high dates to the mid-Pleistocene, and

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an ad ...

clays from the Late Pleistocene form a terrace high. There are many raised beaches from the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

. The highlands of the peninsula contain amphibolite and

eclogite Eclogite () is a metamorphic rock containing garnet (almandine- pyrope) hosted in a matrix of sodium-rich pyroxene (omphacite). Accessory minerals include kyanite, rutile, quartz, lawsonite, coesite, amphibole, phengite, paragonite, ...

mafic A mafic mineral or rock is a silicate mineral or igneous rock rich in magnesium and iron. Most mafic minerals are dark in color, and common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. Common mafic rocks incl ...

rocks which, like

tholeiitic The tholeiitic magma series is one of two main magma series in subalkaline igneous rocks, the other being the calc-alkaline series. A magma series is a chemically distinct range of magma compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic magma ...

metabasalt, are similar to the rocks found both on

island arc Island arcs are long chains of active volcanoes with intense seismic activity found along convergent tectonic plate boundaries. Most island arcs originate on oceanic crust and have resulted from the descent of the lithosphere into the mantle alon ...

s and on

mid-ocean ridge A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about and rises about above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a diver ...

People

Admiral Garcia Álvarez de Figueroa, governor of

Margarita Province Margarita Province (1525 - 1864) was one of the provinces of the Spanish Empire, then one of the provinces of Gran Colombia, and later one of the Provinces of Venezuela. In Gran Colombia it belonged to the Orinoco Department which was created in 1 ...

between 1626 and 1630, was known for his enjoyment of the trade in pearls from Cubagua and the Macanao peninsula. The Guayqueria Indians are indigenous to the island. When

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...

visited in 1799 he was met by eighteen Guayqueria men. He described them as "of very tall stature. They had the appearance of great muscular strength, and the colour of their skins was something between a brown and a copper colour." As of 1964, the population was about 6,500, living in five hamlets. Water was delivered by barge at no charge, but with only a few liters per capita for all uses.

Tourism

The Macanao peninsula is sparsely populated. Tourists may take horseback rides, or visit picturesque beaches with fishing boats, such as Punta Arenas. The ''La Pared'' beach is pleasant and little used. Divers prefer ''Punta Arenas'' beach at the far west, where the water is warmest and where giant starfish may be found. Macanao is also the best part of the island for mountain biking for those prepared to handle the intense sun. The largest town is Boca de Río, which has a marine museum, This includes the skeleton of a whale, displays of boats, fish, corals, pearls and turtles, and a shallow aquarium with

catshark Catsharks are ground sharks of the family Scyliorhinidae. They are the largest family of sharks with around 160 species placed in 17 genera. Although they are generally known as catsharks, some species can also be called dogfish due to previous ...

s and

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhe ...

Environmental concerns

Isla Maragarita is the largest of the Venezuelan Caribbean islands, and the most biologically diverse. The only protected area is a small part of Laguna de La Restinga National Park. The proposed Macanao Wildlife Reserve, containing the Chacaracual Community Conservation Area (CCCA), may provide better protection. Conservation threats include high levels of illegal hunting and trafficking of wildlife and plants, and open cast mining. The peninsula is the only home of the endangered yellow-shouldered amazon parrot, and is also home to the

blue-crowned parakeet The blue-crowned parakeet, blue-crowned conure, or sharp-tailed conure (''Thectocercus acuticaudatus'') is a small green Neotropical parrot with a blue head and pale beak native to large parts of South America, from eastern Colombia in the north ...

. The seasonal watercourses, or ''quebradas'', are the main nesting and feeding grounds for the yellow-shouldered amazon. They are being mined for sand and gravel to be used in construction, and in some areas the parrot is hunted, considered a pest that robs jocote orchards.

Gallery

File:Macanao hill from La Restinga Lagoon.jpg, View west towards La Restinga Lagoon National Park and Macanao Peninsula. File:Naturaleza Macanao.jpg, '' Opuntia'' cactus on the Macanao Peninsula. Transport in La Restinga Lagoon.jpg, Transport in La Restinga Lagoon National Park.

References

Citations

Sources

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