Viva Venezuela!

El of a trip for TV fave

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GLOBETROTTING TV star Michael Palin is bounding back on to our screens this week in a new travel adventure to Venezuela.

Here, as a curtain raiser to the three-part Channel 5 series, JAMES MOORE reveals 15 facts about the South American nation that you probably never knew...

Palin Falls guy: Page 14-15

1 Venezuela was named in 1499 by Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci. Some of its houses built on stilts reminded him of Venice. British boxer Tyson Fury has a daughter called Venezuela.

2 The coastal nation is the world’s 33rd largest. It has a population of 30million, its capital is Caracas and it has the world’s largest reserves of oil at a whopping 300billion barrels.

3 Venezuelan-born revolutionary Simon Bolivar helped liberate the nation from Spanish colonial rule. It finally achieved full independence in 1830.