Were I asked which of all the regions of Venezuela I thought the most attractive and interesting to the general traveller, I should have little hesitation in replying, “The Andes.” The three mountain States constitute a territory where, along with an appreciable extent of development, there is a complete absence of the commonplace both in the country and its people. The deep valleys and gorges and snow-clad peaks, with towns and cities perched on mountain-sides and gravel plateaux, might be paralleled elsewhere in South America but not in this republic, and though the inhabitants of the towns have often travelled in America and Europe on modern steamers and trains, to reach their homes they have, like their less aspiring countrymen, to jog on mule-back for many leagues over rough mountain paths which lead them frequently along precipices and through all but unfordable rivers, and are marked by crosses commemorating the violent deaths of previous travellers. It is a region where, a few miles from the towns, are great stretches of unknown uplands and forest-clad slopes, unexplored territory side by side with the habitation of some of the most industrious communities of the republic. The Andes may be reached from the north via the Bolivar Railway and from Maracaibo either by way of La Ceiba, whence the railway brings the traveller into the foothills of Trujillo at the north end, or by Encontrados, when he enters Táchira, the most southerly of the trio of States. There is a fourth route along the disused railway from Santa Barbara, on the Escalante, up the valley of the Chama and so into Mérida, but this is best avoided by those who do not hanker after unnecessary discomforts and the less pleasant type of adventure. Within the Andes proper everything is carried on mules, and on the narrow paths one has continually to pass or be passed by trains of laden beasts, bearing the produce of the hills and valleys or the imported wares of Europe and America.