A rare, remote Germany

They could not have found better conditions.

As 358 German settlers came to Venezuela, South America, in the year 1843, after an adventurous and troublesome journey across the Atlantic to escape the famine in their native land, they looked for a place they could call home in this new country where they would live then on.

That was Colonia Tovar.

Some 60km from Caracas in Venezuela, in the coastal mountains of the Cordilleras, they found land a lot similar to the place they had left behind in Germany's Black Forest region.

It had a cool climate, pleasant surroundings and fertile soil.

Settling down

The settlers started building houses in the same timber-framework style they were used to back home and began growing vegetables and fruits, and gradually, started settling down.

But the amazing thing is that they remained isolated in the region for some 150 years — nobody took care of them, few people even knew of this German settlement in this remote mountain area.

The Germans managed to maintain their culture, their habits and even their language — referred to as Alemán Coloniero, a dialect that is rarely spoken anywhere else in the world today.

In the 1960s, the government of Venezuela decided to build a road through the mountainous region — the Colonia could now be reached in less than two hours by car rather than travelling almost a day on gravel-and-dirt roads to reach the place.

It was like a cultural clash for the Caracanians when the region opened up to them.

Today, the Colonia Tovar is a weekend-holiday spot for both local and foreign tourists.

They can't help wondering at the strange architectural style of the scattered houses and listen, astonished, at the old villagers speaking in their old German tongue.

Tourists wake up in the morning to the call of the cuckoo or the crowing of the cock.

“I did not even know such a colony exists and couldn't believe it until I came here and saw it,'' says Maria Hermoza, businesswoman from Caracas.

“It is amazing how an old tradition could have been preserved like this.''

In the Colonia's restaurants, special refreshments are sold, much better than the local brands, visitors say.

They are served with typical German dishes, such as sauerkraut and black bread, by waitresses dressed in German style.

And on weekends, the premises teem with Venezuelans, who enjoy food and refreshments, escaping from the coast's relentless heat to Colonia Tovar, which lies 2000 metres up the mountains.

Not all villagers, however, think the “discovery'' of Colonia Tovar has been lucky.

The village historian, Samuel Kanzler, complains about the congested roads on weekends and the youth of Colonia Tovar who do not want to use their forefathers' language and indulge in cross marriages with Venezuelans.

The village centre has transformed into a moneymaking tourist wonderland, Kanzler criticises.

But there are some remote farmhouses, away from tourist spots, where the old traditions remain.

People there do not care about tourists but about farming, baking black bread and making delicious German food.

Women wear old-fashioned long skirts made of heavy fabric and men still wear typical Tyrolean hats, an Alemann-style headdress made of felt.

Tourists in downtown Tovar sometimes buy such hats and bring them to their Caracas homes as a remembrance of good old Germany in the rainforests.