City Analysis Assignment
5/22/2014

1. Caracas is Venezuela's capital and largest city.  The city is the country's center for commerce, culture, economics, and the base for tourism.  It is listed as the 6th biggest city in South America.  As of 2011, the country has a population of about 2.1 million.  Being a capital city and the 6th largest in South America, Venezuela is a Regional Metropolis.  An attributing factor to this cities size is it's distance to the coast, about 25 miles.  This makes it an ideal city for tourism, shipping, and connectedness to the world.  The largest city in South America is Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Caracas is about 6,779 miles from Sao Paulo.  Sao Paulo is a national metropolis, it has the largest GDP in the southern hemisphere and a strong international influence. The country is the center of commerce in South America and has the second largest stock exchange market in the world, in market value.  La Guaira is port city in Venezuela and is located about 20 miles from Venezuela.  La Guaira is a small coastal city that has a focus on shipping and transporting goods from the ships to large cities like Caracas.

2. Being the 6th largest city in South America, Venezuela offers a lot and has many resources that make it an easy place to live in regards to smaller cities.  The Capital offers many different stores, internationally and locally based that you can't find in smaller cities in Venezuela because the demand and population needed to support the stores is not there.  However, Venezuela does not have some of the international influence that larger countries, such as Sao Paulo have.