Los Medanos de Coro National Park

The Los Médanos de Coro National Park is a national park located in the Falcón state that encompasses the jurisdiction of the Miranda, Colina and Falcón municipalities, in northwestern Venezuela. Its most important area is circumscribed around the isthmus, on the road to the Paraguaná Peninsula on the north side of the city of Santa Ana de Coro. The isthmus comprises a strip 30 km long by 5 km wide. It has an average height of 20 m s. no. m. (meters above sea level). Its sandy accumulations move in a changing way due to the action of the trade winds that blow from east to west. Los Médanos de Coro was declared a national park on February 6, 1974, covering an area of 80,866 hectares.

Los Médanos de Coro are sand formations characteristic of the relief of the Falcon state, being part of the Lara-Falcón system due to its dunes that exceed 8 m s. no. m. This national park preserves the closest protected area to the Gulf of Venezuela. In addition, it preserves a very vulnerable coastal desert, being the most important desert in Venezuela.

Formation of the Médanos

The soft and dry sands of this national park are the result of wind erosion on the rocks that over time are broken into very small pieces, turning them into sand and this, when displaced by the continuous action of the wind, accumulates in piles, gradually becoming dunes that continually change shape as they are in continuous movement. For this reason, the dunes have also received the name of nomadic sands.

Similar dune formations in other places in Venezuela

Similar formations also exist in other parts of the country: on the road to Castilletes, on the island of Zapara (Zulia state), at Cabo San Román, around Puerto Cumarebo (Falcón state), and on the plains Venezuelans, in the surroundings of the Santos Luzardo National Park (Apure State) and the Aguaro Guariquito National Park (Guárico State).

In the dunes of Tocópero and Puerto Cumarebo, outside the park limits you can see 'fossil dunes', hills of sandy substrate formed by the compaction of the dunes and covered by permanent vegetation. These are of different sizes and show different levels of vegetation development, so they probably represent different stages of formation, prior to the current Médanos de Coro.

However, they are not that big nor are they preservatives of the Médanos de Coro concept.

Declaration as a national park

Los Médanos de Coro was declared a national park due to its natural beauty and for maintaining the concept of a desert biome, in addition to being the only desert on the Caribbean coast that is always in motion and that each dune exceeds 8 m s. no. m.. A marine trench with mangroves is also protected.

Landscape

This national park is part of the lara-falcon mountain system

The Park is constituted in its greatest extension by the isthmus that unites the rest of the State with the Paraguaná Peninsula, in which there are dominant elements of the landscape: Los Médanos (formation of dunes), the mangrove shrub communities, the land with herbaceous vegetation and thorns. The landscape of this Venezuelan desert is made up of dunes approximately 20 meters high above sea level, sand dunes and salt marshes.

Flora and fauna

Flora

Being the largest desert in Venezuela, the vegetation is adapted to survive excessive heat and lack of water, large trees are scarce, among the flora stand out mainly shrubs such as the Cují (Prosopis juliflora), the yabo, the divide, the guayacán, the olive tree, the Acacia berlandieri, the huizache (Vachellia farnesiana), the cariaquito (Lantana), the guaritoto or Pringamosa (Urera baccifera) and Silk Cotton (Calotropis gigantea) which serves as food for Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus); Among the different species of cacti, the cardón lefaria (Stenocereus griseus), the cardón de breva (Cereus repandus), the orange pitahaya (acanthocereus tetragonus), the crop (Melocactus curvispinus) and also various prickly pears such as the guajira prickly pear (Opuntia caracasana) in addition to being the habitat of the hybrid cactus Guasabara or Tuna Chivera of the species Cylindropuntia × vivipara and Cylindropuntia leptocaulis. There are mangrove shrubs on muddy coasts. There are also stinging plants such as pringamosa. Among the vines that can be found in the dunes, the patchita de monte and the cundeamor stand out. There are also some species of Agaves while in firmer and more humid sands close to Cararapa you can find the famous pepa de vulture (Mucuna pruriens).

Wildlife

Despite being a desert, it is one of the places with a fascinating variety of animal species, most of which are adapted to survive the harsh conditions of the dunes, among the mammal species wild rabbits, anteaters, pygmy, the arboreal porcupine (Coendou prehensilis), the desert marmosa (Marmosa xerophila) and the Paraguaná whiskered bat (Pteronotus paraguanensis) among the carnivorous mammals include the fox and the cunaguaro (Leopardus pardalis).

Among the reptiles, different species of snakes stand out, such as the rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus), the true coral and the false mapanare, the Sabanera (mastigodryas pleei), the Cleia mousetrap, the boa constrictor or swallow deer. There are some species of geckos, Aguaceritos (Anolis), visures such as Cnemidophorus lemniscatus and the hinge tortoise (Kinosternon scorpioides), near the mouth of the Coro River you can find Babas or spectacled caimans (Caiman crocodilus).

Birds like the cardinal, the little cardinal, the turpial, the little owl, the hawk, the caricare, the kingfisher and the vulture also stand out. Among the invertebrates, the largest centipede in the world stands out: the giant sandpiper (Scolopendra gigantea), scorpions, butterflies, tarantulas such as the paraguaná blue tarantula (Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens) also stand out. the ghost crab (Ocypode quadrata) and the trunk crab (Calappa calappa).

In the marine waters of the isthmus of Los Medanos there are a great variety of fish, such as sharks, among which the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the tiger shark or blue shark ( Galeocerdo cuvier) and the dogfish (Galeorhinus galeus) as well as different eels such as the green moray eel (Gymnothorax funebris).

Climate

The climate of the park is one of the most arid in Venezuela, and the average temperature is uniform throughout the year, oscillating between 26 °C and 29 °C, with extreme temperatures of 35 °C in shade and minimums below 16 °C. Rainfall is scarce, from 250 to 498 m.m.

Sand dunes.

Tourist attractions

Among the most outstanding attractions is the fact that it is the largest desert in Venezuela, its yellow sands are in contrast with the green and forested background of the Juan Crisostomo Falcón National Park whose hills can be seen from the dunes. The park highlights the presence of old roads, cemeteries and settlements from the Pre-Columbian era that are found among the dunes, the roads to the fishing ports near the town of Tacuato, the Animas de Guasare chapel also stands out. which is dedicated as a tribute and honors hundreds of people who died during a severe famine in 1912 that the Paraguaná peninsula suffered, where they migrated to Coro in search of food and water but died of dehydration in the desert, in said place where you can stop the passerby to pray for these souls or souls of people who died.

There is also the Paseo "Monseñor Francisco José Iturriza" known as the "Monument to The Mother" where different cultural activities are carried out, there are restaurants and there is also the Mobile Serpentarium, the only Serpentarium in the Falcón state that houses a large number of species of snakes native to Venezuela.

Approaching the hill municipality, you can also reach the Dr. León Croizat Xerophyte Botanical Garden, founded in 1970 by the Italian scientist León Croizat and his wife, the Hungarian naturalist Catalina Knshaber, where they both gathered different species of plants from all over the world, mainly xerophyte vegetation.. Also from the dunes you can reach the beach of La vela de choro itself, which has a creamy brown color as a result of the displacement of the sands of the dunes in a marine current.

Pollution and environmental problems

This extensive national park includes constantly moving dunes that tend to cover a large part of the Coro-Punto Fijo highway; As a result, the sand that blocks and obstructs the main highway to Paraguaná must be constantly removed.

The sands removed with various machines, contain sediments and fragments of asphalt from the road, and are thrown on the other side of the highway, filling a large part of the dunes with sediments, which due to the abundance of sediments are dark in color In addition to being used by the population to dispose of solid garbage and glass bottles. To solve the contamination, they have proposed to create a new route to avoid the discharge of sediments.

Access

Entrance to Los Médanos de Coro from the Paseo Monseñor Iturriza.

There are several access roads to Los Médanos, however the most common are: the entrance from Paseo "Monseñor Iturriza", or from the Coro-Punto Fijo highway.