River Transport on the Rio Orinoco
Delta Amacuro, Venezuela

A dugout canoe serves as a taxi, bicycle, truck, station wagon and all along the major highways of the Orinoco Delta in Delta Amacuro, Venezuela. The Amazonas Territory of Venezuela is one of my favorite places to go exploring since good friends have made "once in a lifetime" experiences available every other month. The most recent exploration was of the Orinoco and its delta at the Atlantic, which I explored by river into the small protected Indian settlements of fishermen along San Francisco mission. I studied the linguistic pattern of the Guarao Indians with respect to color recognition, which was mixed with bird watching in this unique eco-system, resulting in a report "Flashes of Color in the Flooded Forest." We also went on from the Orinoco to the mountain caves that had been explored by Alexander von Humboldt, particularly the Guacharo Caves. There the Guacharo Birds pour out of the caves at dusk to go feeding by night on wild avocados, which gives the birds such a high lipid content they were called "oil birds" by the natives who once used them as torches.

For multiple other experiences in Amazonas of the remote Venezuelan interior, see White Water Sports of my exploring the unknown tepuys and riverine habitats of Venezuela with my Venezuelan Hermano, Luis Arturo Ayala.