Mérida (state) Facts for Kids

Location within Venezuela

Estado Mérida is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Mérida. Mérida State covers a total surface area of 11,300 km² and, in 2007, had an estimated population of 843,800.

Municipalities and municipal seats
Geography
Images for kids
See also

Municipalities and municipal seats

The countryside in Mérida

Municipality	Seat	Nombre de parish civiles	Parish name	Population (2001)
Alberto Adriani	El Vigía	7	Rómulo Gallegos Presidente Páez Rómulo Betancourt Gagriel Picón Gonzalez Hector Amable Mora José Nucete Sardi Pulido Méndez	106,084
Andrés Bello	La Azulita	1	Capital Andrés Bello	11,652
Antonio Pinto Salinas	Santa Cruz de Mora	3	Mesa de las Palmas Mesa Bolívar Santa Cruz de Mora	23,276
Aricagua	Aricagua	2	Aricagua San Antonio	4,383
Arzobispo Chacón	Canaguá	7	Canaguá Mucutuy Mucuchachí Chacantá El Molino Capurí Guaimaral	14,025
Campo Elías	Ejido	7	Fernandez Peña Matriz Montalbán Acequias Jají La Mesa San José	82,397
Caracciolo Parra Olmedo	Tucaní	2	Capital Caracciolo Parra Olmedo Florencio Ramírez	22,524
Cardenal Quintero	Santo Domingo	2	Capital Cardenal Quintero Las Piedras	7,833
Guaraque	Guaraque	3	Capital Guaraque Mesa de Quintero Río Negro	8,402
Julio César Salas	Arapuey	2	Julio César Salas Palmira	12,207
Justo Briceño	Torondoy	2	Capital Justo Briceño San Cristóbal de Torondoy	5,200
Libertador	Mérida	15	Antonio Spinetti Dini Arias Caracciolo Parra Pérez Domingo Peña El Llano Gonzalo Picón Febres Jacinto Plaza Juan Rodríguez Suárez Lasso de la Vega Mariano Picón Salas Milla Osuna Rodríguez Sagrario El Morro Los Nevados	204,879
Miranda	Timotes	4	Andrés Eloy Blanco La Venta Piñango Timotes	19,760
Obispo Ramos de Lora	Santa Elena de Arenales	3	Capital Obispo Ramos de Lora Eloy Paredes San Rafael de Alcázar	20,873
Padre Noguera	Santa María de Caparo	1	Padre Noguera	2,494
Pueblo Llano	Pueblo Llano	1	Pueblo Llano	9,532
Rangel	Mucuchíes	4	Cacute La Toma Mucurubá San Rafael	15,206
Rivas Dávila	Bailadores	2	Bailadores Gerónimo Maldonado	16,001
Santos Marquina	Tabay	1	Santos Marquina	13,795
Sucre	Lagunillas	5	Chiguará Estánques Pueblo Nuevo San Juan La Trampa	44,418
Tovar	Tovar	4	Tovar El Llano San Francisco El Amparo	32,805
Tulio Febres Cordero	Nueva Bolivia	4	Independencia Santa Apolonia Maria de La Concepción Palacios y Blanco Nueva Bolivia	28,437
Zea	Zea	2	Caño El Tigre Zea	9,085
Total		85		715,268

Geography

Laguna Santo Cristo

Hydrography

Rivers

Hydrography is divided into two basins of the Orinoco River (Atlantic) and Lake Maracaibo (Caribbean Sea): In the Orinoco River basin major rivers are: Santo Domingo, Canaguá, Escagüey, Ticopoto, Bumbúm and Carapo; in the In the Lake Maracaibo basin major rivers are: Chama, Motatán, Mucujepe, Capaz, Torondoy, Mocotíes and Nuestra Señora.

Lagons

In the state there are a lot of gaps between them are: La Mucuy, Los Patos, Negra, Mucubaji, Santo Cristo, El Arco, Los Anteojos, Suero, Encierro, La Sangre, El Gallo, Don Pedro, Laguna Grande, campanario, La Honda, La Negra, Fría y La Carbonera. Other gaps: Laguna Brava, Los Lirios and Urao

National parks

Sierra Nevada - Pico Bolívar

Sierra Nevada National Park
Paramo Batallon – La Negra National Park
Sierra de la Culata National Park
Tapo-Caparo National Park

Natural monuments

Chorrera de La González
Laguna de Urao
Meseta la Galera

Laguna Santo Cristo

Pico Humboldt

Aguas termales de Chiguara.
Aguas termales de Jají.
Aguas termales de Tabay.
Aguas termales Valle de la Quebrada de las Tapias.
El Velo de la Novia.
Parque Natural Cascada De La India Carú
Parque Natural Cascada El Guayabal
Laguna de Mucubají o Laguna Grande.
Laguna Negra.
Kiubofibo "Inside my mind".
Collado del Cóndor (Pico El Águila).
Pico El Gavilán.
Pico Espejo.
Pico Mucuñuque.
Aguas termales de Santa Apolonia
Balneario de Palmarito

Climate and Vegetation

The countryside in Mérida

The climate is cold but in the relatively small area of Mérida state, there are usually several dramatic climatic changes that occur daily. The climate in Mérida city is between 19 °C and 20 °C, temperatures between 5 °C and 9 °C at El Bolivar Peak, or below zero when it snows and 28 °C in the El Vigía area. Its rains almost every late afternoon in January–February that is the coldest months an August–September and in August and September it often rains at night. The vegetation is exuberant and there are many lakes and rivers, a great number of which are well stocked with trout, one of the delicacies of Mérida. The most important river in the state is the "Chama" because a large part of the water resources of Venezuela originates in the Mérida mountains. The state tree is the "Bucare" and the state flower is the "Frailejón" and in the "Coloradito" is found the tree at the highest altitude in the world. In this mountains habitat the "Oso Frontino" bear and the majestic Condor flies through the skies of the páramos and in the lagoons there are many trout.