Colonia Tovar, Venezuela

This week has been pretty busy, or at least it's felt like that. I haven't spent that much time at home... One of the best things about this week has been that yesterday I could talk to my parents in Finland via messenger; it actually worked and we could talk instead of typing! Hurrah!

Mail-wise this week has been pretty good. Below is one of my favourite postcards received this week, from Gaby in Venezuela.



I have to confess I've become quite interested in Venezuela in the past few months, but that has been mostly thanks to Viva Vegan, an amazing Latin cookbook. I would pretty much love to cook through the whole book. :P Anyway, food aside, Venezuela looks like a beautiful country, even if apparently the political situation in the country isn't the best possible at the moment, I don't really know.

Colonia Tovar (Tovar Colony) is a city located in the Tovar Municipality of the state of Aragua in Venezuela, 60 km west of Caracas. The town was named after Martín Tovar y Ponte who donated the land over 150 years ago, and was founded by Agostino Codazzi. The city is mainly known for its Germanic characteristics, culture, and a dessert called "golfeado", which is very similar to a cinnamon bun. Founded in 1843 by German settlers, the city remained isolated from the rest of the world until 1960, a factor that stunted any technological advances and permitted the inhabitants to keep their culture and traditions. The majority of its residents are descendants of Germans and have a Northern European appearance.



The stamps are from a set of 10 stamps, issued in 2009 to celebrate the launch of the satellite Venesat-1, also called Simon Bolivar (and the first Venezuelan telecommunications satellite), a year before.