Caripe is a town in Caripe Municipality in the mountainous north of the state of Monagas in eastern Venezuela.
The soil of the Caripe Valley is very fertile, and the climate of the area is exceptionally pleasant, a result of its altitude (much of it 1000 m. [3000 ft.] and higher), latitude (about 10� N), and proximity to the Caribbean Sea. The mountains of the Cordillera de Caripe (Caripe Range) are relatively low, compared to the Andes in the west of Venezuela, with Cerro Turumiquire (sometimes spelt and presumably then pronounced as Turimiquire) the highest at 2595 m., followed by Cerro Negro at 2430 m. They are rounded mountains, covered with lush vegetation, like the Appalachian mountains in the United States; the limestone scenery reminded Caripe's most famous visitor, Alexander von Humboldt, of Derbyshire in England which has similar limestone geology. Truck gardens, fruit orchards (particularly citrus and many varieties of bananas) and other farming can be found in the Caripe valley, with coffee plantations and grazing of animals in more mountainous areas. Tourism is also an important source of income to the area.
The name of the town is doubtless originally from the Carib language. It was said that there was a chief named Caripe, whose son, named Caripito ('little Caripe') went down the Caripe river towards its confluence with the R�o San Juan (which empties into theGolfo de Paria near the Orinoco River delta) and founded the town of Caripito in the lowlands. It is not clear how much history lies behind the legend
