Not your average Venezuelan town, Colonia Tovar was founded in 1843 by German settlers and is still inhabited by their ancestors. It wasn’t until the 1940s that Spanish was introduced as the official language and the ban on marrying outside the community was lifted.
Today, this Teutonic enclave attracts Venezuelans that come for the Black Forest architecture, German cuisine, locally grown strawberries and the agreeable climate.
You can take a shared car or a bus to get here, but I’d recommend the bus. We had a fun time up in the front with the driver and his girlfriend and it’s a lot cheaper.
This is the entrance to Colonia Tovar:
Homes in the Black Forest style (I can promise you that you don’t see this style elsewhere in Venezuela):
Here is a look out over the valley Colonia Tovar rests in:
The residents may speak Spanish now, but they still look German:
Some Colonia Tovar street scenes:
The town cemetery… Although Colonia Tovar might look like the type of place that would have attracted Nazi war criminals fleeing justice in South America after World War II, to my knowledge none made it up here and, thus, none are buried in this cemetery:
A hipster from Caracas that crossed over the mountain to get a taste of Germany:
The Velvet Rocket 
It was so weird to pass from the warm Venezuelan beaches to the cold”er” mountainous German town.
I visited Colonia Tovar in 1975. The vegetables there are 2-3 times the size of what we see in American stores or markets … probably due to the rich minerals in the soil. All grown goods were brought to town bundled on the backs of burrows. A fantastic restaurant was visited where I first experienced delightful deep orange pumpkin soup! Have two items from Gotek pottery I still cherish 36 years later. The drive thought the National forest seeing orchids growing wild, scary bus ride on narrow rough road through the cliffs, seeing cars made from pieces of many makes of vehicles… kind of duct-taped together…but running! are some of my memories!
Thank you for sharing your memories, Karen. It sounds like you visited Colonia Tovar at a great time.
Ouch… This just made me cry my heart loud! I LOVE ♥ this place, this country !!!
I just broke my wife’s piece of pottery from this region. Know anyone I could get a replacement from? Thank you-