Karu Pana Coast

The Karu Pana coast faces the Caribbean off the Carúpano coast of eastern Venezuela, where small settlements linked farming valleys with the islands. By 1647 the neighbouring valleys held several hundred people, including Indigenous families, Africans, mixed-descent residents and farmers who traded between Margarita and the mainland. Bishop Damián López de Haro's visit that year led to a chapel at Carúpano Arriba. Houses spread toward the port, and by 1742 Carúpano had become a separate parish. An earthquake in December 1797 badly damaged the parish church, and a replacement was under construction by 1830.