El Hatillo is the old colonial village swallowed up by the southern expansion of Caracas, on the hillside above Baruta. Founded in 1784 and centred on the Plaza Bolívar with the Iglesia de Santa Rosalía at one end, the village still has its grid of low whitewashed houses with red-tile roofs and grilled windows. It feels — and is — at least 200 years older than the modernist Caracas just downhill.
The plaza is ringed by craft shops, restaurants, and the Hannsi folk-art emporium, which is the best single place in the metropolitan area to buy Venezuelan handicrafts: Andean weavings, hammocks, devil masks for Corpus Christi, palm-leaf furniture, religious folk art. A morning here followed by lunch on one of the plaza restaurants is one of the easier and pleasanter Caracas half-days. The village is safer than the rest of the city and busy with caraqueños at weekends.