PARIA, GULF OF

inlet of the Caribbean Sea, lying between the Venezuelan coast (including the mountainous Paria Peninsula) and Trinidad. Extending about 100 miles (160 km) east-west and 40 miles (65 km) north-south, it is linked with the Caribbean to the north by the strait called the Dragons Mouths and with the Atlantic to the south by the Serpents Mouth (both 10 miles wide). It receives the San Juan River and several arms of the Orinoco River delta, including the Cao Mnamo. Ports along the gulf, including San Fernando and Port of Spain (Trinidad) and Giria, Irapa, and Pedernales (Venezuela), handle shipments of petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, lumber, and agricultural products. Christopher Columbus, on his third voyage (1498), probably first sighted South America when he sailed into the Gulf of Paria.