Venezuela · Estado Bolívar · Ciudad Guayana
Puerto Ordaz, Ciudad Guayana — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Puerto Ordaz is a locality of Caroní municipality in Bolívar, Venezuela, founded 9 February 1952 as a mining port where the Caroní meets the Orinoco.
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Where to stay in Puerto Ordaz
Where the beds are, and what that means for the visit.
This is a planned city, not an old one. Puerto Ordaz was laid out as a modern urban development with growth planned on the scale of a large city, which is why the street pattern reads as designed rather than grown and why the sectors carry names like Alta Vista and Vista al Sol. The bridge links the two halves.
It was built over the Caroní in the founding year and joined Puerto Ordaz to San Félix, and the airport here connects the small airstrips of the Bolívar forest to the rest of Venezuela. Business, not sightseeing, fills the hotels.
About Puerto Ordaz
What are the main landmarks in Puerto Ordaz?
The port is the reason the city exists. Dredging lets deep-draught ships reach it on the Orinoco, and the ore that leaves through it comes from the Cerro Bolívar deposits the Orinoco Mining Company bought the land for. Heavy industry followed the port.
Mining, steel and hydroelectric companies have their seats in Puerto Ordaz, which is why the place is the economic centre of the region rather than a stop on anyone's itinerary. The airport does the rest of the work. It links the small airfields scattered through the forested parts of Bolívar state with the rest of the country, and for most arrivals it is the first thing they see of the city.
What is the history of Puerto Ordaz?
The name is four centuries older than the city. Diego de Ordaz came up the Orinoco in 1532 as far as the Atures rapids and then the Imataca range, calling the country the province of Carao, but on his return he spoke of it as Guayana, which is the first use of the name. The province changed hands repeatedly.
Antonio Berrío's expedition annexed the territory to Trinidad in 1585, a royal decree of 1729 put Guayana under Nueva Andalucía, 1762 returned it to Santa Fe, by then a viceroyalty, and in 1766 it became part of the Captaincy General of Caracas. Iron made the modern town. The Cerro Bolívar deposits were found in 1947, the Orinoco Mining Company bought the ground and built its works and a port on the Orinoco, and 9 February 1952 is the official founding date, named for Diego de Ordaz.
The city around it came in stages. On 2 July 1961 the national executive decreed Santo Tomé de Guayana out of Puerto Ordaz, San Félix and Matanzas, and on 2 December 1979 the Bolívar legislative assembly renamed it Ciudad Guayana.
Where is Puerto Ordaz?
Puerto Ordaz stretches along the south bank of the Orinoco at the point where the Caroní joins it, and together with Matanzas, Unare, Toro Muerto, Vista al Sol, Alta Vista and San Félix it makes the urban agglomeration named Ciudad Guayana on 2 July 1961.
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More areas in Ciudad Guayana
Updated September 2026