Interior: Orinoco River Delta

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

008-46.680 N
062-19.740 W

This position report is a bit of a lie as the boat is still in Margarita, and a plane was used to get here, but hey, you can still find out what's available to do when you're in Venezuela. And I would STRONGLY recommend exploring in interior. Also, the lat/long is a guestimate.

The wait for parts continues. The container is here, but it's still processing through customs. To make matters worse the person for whom the container is coming had to leave the country for a few days due to immigration laws. Thus I think that it'll be mid week before any parts arrive. At this point I've learned to just relax as there's nothing that can done about it. Only worry about those things that you can change. Man, I must be becoming a cruiser!

To combat the tedium of just hanging about it seemed logical to reschedule some of the trips that had been planned when the boat was along the mainland. The original plan was to go into the interior on a 4-5 day trip, but that assumed that the boat was going to be safe in a marina. Since that wasn't the case, a shorter trip seemed to be in order. A local guy, Carlos, who makes his living putting together trips for people and giving Margarita island tours knew of a 2 day trip which went to the Orinoco river delta and to Canaima national park. That seemed ideal.

Bright and early Tuesday morning we left Margarita on a small single engine plane bound for Tucupita. The 2 hour flight passed over mile after mile of unbroken rough land and jungle. I was glad that we didn't have to set down unexpectedly. Tucupita is the capital of the VE state of Amacuro, but only holds 60,000 people. I guess size is relative.

In Tucupita the group of 22, which consisted primarily of Germans (who smoke like fiends), boarded 2 skiffs and headed 60 km down river to the lodge where we would spend the night. The boats, with two 75 HP engines, fly along the water. We would stop regularly to look at various birds, plants, fish, etc. We saw Tucans, fresh water dolphins, howling monkeys and much more.

The Orinoco is a very large navigable river. I was told that it was 12 meters deep. It's also very wide, easily 0.5+ mile wide at most places. Very little river traffic moves up and down it. I think that we only saw 1 barge on it going both ways. It's also tidal with a range of 1.5 meters!

There are quite a few small villages along the river where people live in concrete block houses, but there are also many Indians who still live in their traditional thatched houses and use dugouts as their transportation. Many of them fish for Piranha in the river right along from where kids are swimming! Life has changed very little for them.

The lodge consisted of a main building where meals were served and individual small thatched roof huts with screening material which attempted to keep out the wildlife. Some guests found scorpions and Tarantualas in their rooms. Several friendly 4' otters frequent the lodge and allow you to pet them and try to crawl up onto the tables while you eat.

In the afternoon we took the skiffs deeper into the delta and hacked our way into the jungle. Man there are a lot of creepy crawly things in there, and the canopy makes it dark! It certainly didn't help that dark storm clouds loomed overhead and then proceeded to dump torrents of water on us.

The local Indians collect and eat these large slugs which are about 2" long and the size of a hotdog. They grow in the heart of palm trees. One of the local guides ate one...Yuck!

On the way back to the lodge we stopped at a local Indian communal hut where the local women hang out selling their crafts. It amazed me that these people could even begin to make a living as there are so very few tourists who were going by.

At sunset we sat in the skiffs on the river enjoying cubra libras. The guides decided to go swimming, but since the fish for piranha there, none of the guests decided to join in. Hum, I wonder why?!?

Dinner was great. Some of the guests went out searching for alligators (they found them), but the Pirana fishing was canceled due to inclement weather.

And let me tell you it's noisy at night. I would have loved to have had a recorder as it was intense. Needless to say I don't think that anyone got a lot of sleep.

The next day we headed back to Tucupita where we boarded planes for Canaima, which is a national park. That adventure is covered in another position report.
Log ID: 81