La Esmeralda, Venezuela

La Esmeralda
La Esmeralda is located in Venezuela
La Esmeralda
La Esmeralda
Coordinates: 3°10′26″N 65°32′48″W / 3.17389°N 65.54667°W / 3.17389; -65.54667
Country Venezuela
StateAmazonas State
MunicipalityAlto Orinoco Municipality
Founded1758; 266 years ago (1758)
Elevation
225 m (738 ft)
Population
 (2013)
 • Total20 030
Time zoneUTC−4 (VET)
ClimateAf
Orinoco river crossing La Esmeralda

La Esmeralda (Ye'kuana: Medadanña[1][2] or Kadawanadunña[3]) is a small settlement in and the capital of Alto Orinoco Municipality in Venezuela’s Amazonas State. The name means “the emerald”. It is located on the shore of the Orinoco river, only 9 miles from the Casiquiare canal bifurcation that links it to the Amazon River.

The settlement contains about a hundred homes, a school, an airfield and a military outpost.

  1. ^ Monterrey, Nalúa Rosa Silva (2012) Hombres de curiara y mujeres de conuco. Etnografía de los indigenas Ye’kwana de Venezuela, Ciudad Bolívar: Universidad Nacional Experimental de Guayana, page 8
  2. ^ de Civrieux, Marc (1980), David M. Guss, transl., Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle, San Francisco: North Point Press, page 187
  3. ^ Moreira, Maria Geralda de Almeida (2005) Em busca do território perdido: o reconhecimento daterra indígena Kaxarari no Brasil e da terra Ye'kuana do Alto Orinoco na Venezuela (1970-1002), page 158