Greetings friends of Steemit.

In this opportunity, I'm going to participate in a great contest promoted by my friend @girolamomarotta who is travelling around the world with the name "Welcome To My Country".

It is a pride for me to give you a tour of the most emblematic places of our State Zulia, I would like you to know one of the most important Catholic houses in the country, the Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, the virgin of the Zulians, which began as a small chapel with the name of St. John of God, it was until in 1709, a miraculous event marked the beginning of a Catholic devotion of this society.

_{Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, facade. Plus Code: J9VM+5J. Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela}

One day, a humble lady was washing her clothes on the shore of Lake Maracaibo. In the middle of her work, she saw a small board floating in the water, she took it and unconsciously took it home with her. According to the story, from the little tablet a brightness emerges which called the attention of the humble washerwoman, who noticed the Divine Image. This fact called the attention of the authorities and they decided to take the tablet to the Cathedral of Maracaibo, in the middle of the procession the tablet became heavy and difficult to move exactly where the chapel of San Juan de Dios was, therefore, the authorities and the people who accompanied it, decided to install a small chapel next to the chapel.

From there, the chapels have been the object of great changes until they became what we see today.

The Basilica is located in the center of Maracaibo, and the image of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá is on the main altar, where parishioners can visit, feel her presence and make their requests.

_{Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, Interior.}

Hundreds of believers usually pass by to see Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, every November 18th we commemorate her descent to make the procession through the sectors of the city of Maracaibo

_{Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, altar mayor.}

Inside the Virgin's dwelling, there is a painting that shows the moment of that transcendental event in our region, marking the devotion and love towards that divine figure.

_{Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, Mystery.}

After the visit to our Basilica, we take the road to the East Coast of the Lake, and to do this, we must pass through another structure of great importance to us, this is the Bridge over Lake Maracaibo, called Rafael Urdaneta, During his passage we will enjoy 8.6 kilometers of an exciting view, which opens the way to the Caribbean Sea.

_{Puente Rafael Urdaneta, Plus Code: HCFJ+WC. Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela}

After a long road, let me direct you to a place where you can rest a moment, for this, we must take the road Lara - Zulia until Cabimas, city I saw, there we will stay in the excellent Hotel Buena Vista, located in the sector Los Laureles, I do not have pictures of internal spaces but it is a 3 stars place to enjoy during your stay.

_{Hotel Buena Vista. Plus Code: CH67+MQ, Cabimas, Zulia, Venezuela}

In Cabimas, we can enjoy good gastronomy, in fact, here you can enjoy typical dishes from many parts of the world from Shawarma to pasta, but I would like you to enjoy our particular way of preparing the arepa cabimera, in which, the contours go on top as if decorating the arepa, this way of presenting this dish, has given rise to its name "Arepa Cabimera.

_{Arepas cabimeras.}

In summary, I show you thanks to Google Map, the tour that we have done during this publication, were 58 minutes of travel by car.