The towns and cities of this region are, almost without exception, of sixteenth-century foundation, and include, therefore, the majority of the earliest settlements in Venezuela. Despite the fact that a railway connects Barquisimeto with the coast, communication with much of Lara is only carried out by primitive means. A projected branch line to San Felipe, capital of Yaracuy, will further open up that fertile valley, and the products of northern Falcón are mainly shipped through La Vela and Curaçao. Both upland and lowland plains are very suitable for wheel traffic, and natural carreteras there contrast favourably with the bridle paths of the hills, though little labour has been expended upon them. Barquisimeto was founded in 1552, at the northern edge of the plain, which extends thence to Tocuyo, in appearance like the dry bed of an ancient lake. As the centre for the produce of the northern Andes, as well as Lara, the town has a busy aspect, busier even than Maracaibo. In the recent troublous years the conflicting parties seem to have met in and around Barquisimeto, and as a result one is struck by the heavy iron doors, often pitted with bullet marks, of the big commercial houses, which were thus at times turned into fortresses. The plains and valleys of Lara sent to the markets of Barquisimeto their wheat, coffee, cocoa, beans, sugar, and sugar-spirit, while the aloes of this region furnish not only _cocui_ (a spirit distilled from cocuiza) but also fibre for the manufacture of sacks, bridles, and hammocks, for which the town is celebrated. The British built and owned Bolivar Railway connects Barquisimeto with its port of Tucacas, and a steamer of the Company carries goods and passengers thence to Puerto Cabello, Tucacas being only an internal port without a custom-house. The gauge of the line is only two feet, but a considerable amount of traffic is carried. Leaving the open and dry plains of Barquisimeto, it climbs through scrub (probably excellent cotton land) to Duaca, and then begins the ascent of the humid coastal slope, along a valley full of coffee, sugar, and cacao plantations, but little cultivation has been carried on away from the line, the country on either side being as wild and as unknown as any in Venezuela. Near Tucacas the swampy forest gives place to open sandy plains, as on much of the northern coast of Venezuela. Below Duaca, a well-built and picturesque but apparently sleepy little town, the railway enters the State of Yaracuy, and so continues to beyond the important junction of El Hacha, where the Barquisimeto line joins that from the copper-mines of Aroa. Originally the line was built from Tucacas to Aroa, the El Hacha-Barquisimeto extension being known as the South-Western of Venezuela; now both are united, and El Hacha to Aroa is regarded as a branch line.