Calypso is king of Venezuela's El Callao carnival

The 2012 Carnival has already kicked off in El Callao with beauty contests and calypso competitions but the big processions start Saturday 18 February - Tuesday 21 February, and end on Ash Wednesday with the start of Lent.

El Callao - A Calypso, Caribbean Carnival in the South of Venezuela

Venezuela is a country of countless parties, fiestas and dances, from individual celebrations of local patron saints to the gaitas and parrandas of Zulia state at Christmas, the Dancing Devils of Yare and Chuao during the Feast of Corpus Christi and the African drum dancing in honour of Saint John the Baptist on 24 June.

One small town that beats them all is El Callao, a centre for gold mining in Bolivar State that comes alive every year for four days during carnival to the vibrant sounds of calypso and soca and the copious consumption of rum, beer and aguardiente (fire water).

With over a 150 years of history, the El Callao carnival celebrates cultural traditions brought to Venezuela by French and English-speaking Caribbeans - including many Trinidadians - drawn to El Callao by a gold rush in 1853 that saw the town become the leading gold producer in the world. Gold production peaked by about 1885 and by the end of the century the big seams were played out and the town slipped back into obscurity.

Nowadays, it's hard to imagine this tiny, ramshackle town of tin roofs and small gold shops was once the source of so much wealth, but during carnival the population of 39,000 swells to four times that number and you get a sense of what the glory days were like.

The carnival in El Callao has a colourful cast of characters who accompany the comparsas (floats with a sound system and a themed crowd of dancers).
Las Madamas are women wearing colourful 19th century dresses and turbans from the French Caribbean.
The Medio Pintos are boys and men covered in tar or paint or any other black sludgy stuff they can get their hands on. The idea is that you give them a coin called a "medio" (1 Bolivar Fuerte will do these days) or they paint you with sludge and comes from the phrase "medio o te pinto".
The Diablos are men and boys in spiky devil masks who keep the crowds back from the comparsas along the carnival route by using their short latigos (whips).

This year the Callao carnival is dedicated to Cleotilde Stapleton de Billings (1911-2009), a singer and famous madama, who did so much to popularize the folk culture and calypso traditions of El Callao with her musical group Yuruari.

The El Callao carnival of 2012 will be celebrated from 18-21 February.

Venezuelan beauty Ivian Sarcos wins Miss World 2011

Ivian Lunasol Sarcos Colmenares, a 21-year-old from Guanare in Venezuela's Portuguesa State, beat 120 of the world's most beautiful women to win the coveted Miss World crown in London on Sunday, 6 November 2011.

The glittering ceremony culminated with Miss Philippines, Gwendoline Gaelle Sandrine Ruais, named runner-up, and Miss Puerto Rico, Amanda Victoria Vilanova Perez, in third place.

Sarcos' victory brings Venezuela's total wins in the competition to six, a world record.

Previous winners include Susana Dujim in 1955, Pilin Leon in 1981, Astrid Carolina Herrera in 1984, Ninibeth Leal in 1991, and Jacqueline Aguilera in 1995.

Venezuela also holds six Miss Universe titles, only surpassed by the USA with seven.

In 2009, 18-year-old Stefania Fernandez made Miss Universe history when she was crowned by her compatriot and 2008 winner Dayana Mendoza.

It was the first time any country has had successive victories since the pageant began in 1952.

No wonder Venezuela has a reputation for producing the most beautiful women in the world.

Combining a rare beauty with a fine brain, Ivian Sarcos is a human resources graduate, but her life has certainly not been all glitter and sparkles.

The newly-crowned Miss World was born the youngest of 13 children and was orphaned at the age of eight when both her parents died within nine months: her mother in a domestic accident and her father in a car accident.

At the age of 10 she was taken in by nuns from the Santa María Micaela del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús convent in San Carlos, Cojedes State, and considered becoming a nun before deciding to follow a university career.

She put herself through college by waiting tables in a fast food restaurant and later worked in a store in the Sambil shopping mall in Caracas to pay her way through university. It was there in 2009 that she was spotted by a friend of Osmel Sousa, the head of the Miss Venezuela organization.

Hollywood couldn't come up with a more dramatic fairytale than the story of Ivian Sarcos and the incredible drive, determination and luck that saw her crowned Miss World tonight in front of a global TV audience of 1 billion people.

After the ceremony, an emotional Sarcos spoke about the tragic loss of her parents, saying: "This has taught me that life, although it may be bad, doesn't have to end badly. Although I no longer have my parents it has taught me to be stronger."

Dayana Mendoza - Queen of the Universe

Venezuela has done it again. In front of a TV audience estimated at over one billion people in 180 countries, 22-year-old Dayana Mendoza took the coveted Miss Universe crown in Vietnam on Monday, becoming the fifth Venezuelan to win the prestigious beauty prize.

Maritza Sayalero first won the competition for Venezuela in 1979. She was followed by Irene Saez Conde in 1981, Barbara Palacios in 1986 and Alicia Machado in 1996.

Famously, Machado was almost stripped of the title after she binged on junk food after the contest and ballooned dramatically in weight.

Venezuelan beauties have also won the Miss World crown five times, a record unmatched by any other country.

Monday's final at the Crown Convention Center in Vietnam's beautiful beach resort of Nha Trang turned out to be a close thing although Mendoza was the bookies favourite from the start.

The biggest upset of the evening was when Miss USA, Crystle Stewart, took a tumble after tripping on her long evening gown. The ungainly fall definitely cost her a place in the runners up.

In the end, four Latinas joined Miss Russia in the final five - Miss Venezuela, Miss Mexico, Miss Colombia and Miss Dominican Republic.

But Mendoza had looked like a winner from the start, and after nervously holding hands with Miss Colombia for a few tense minutes, she was declared the most beautiful woman in the universe by hosts Jerry Springer and Melanie B, aka Scary Spice.

Mendoza was crowned Miss Venezuela in 2007, where she represented Amazonas State. Her other, less glamorous claim to fame is being the victim of an "express kidnapping" in Venezuela 18 months ago.

“It’s something that happens in my country. You don’t even have to have money to be kidnapped," she told reporters after her victory, "that’s why I wanted to raise my voice and tell the world that violence is not the answer."

Avoiding the usual cliches of world peace and making children happy, Miss Venezuela said she would use her year in the spotlight to focus on humanitarian issues.

Now she's won the title, Miss Mendoza might also want to brush up on her interview skills. Asked by one of the judges if she thought men or women had it easier in life she said in English:

"Well actually God made us to share and to have difference, but big difference between women and men, doesn't matter whether kind of life they live, is that men think, that they think that the faster way to go to a point is go straight. Women know that the faster way to go to a point is go to the curve and fix in every curves."

But why go for a straight answer when you've got curves?


Report on Miss World 2011 - Venezuelan beauty Ivian Sarcos