Lazy days in the Jungle
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2010
1
11
129
Trip End
Feb 04, 2012
Where I stayed
Tucupita, Orinoco Delta, Venezuela
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The jungle walk was fun. We took a canoe along a narrow branch of the river, then pulled over to the side and got out into six-inch deep mud. The first thing I saw was a huge spider on a tree. I was like six feet away from it and could see it perfectly clearly, to give you an idea of how big it was. I seriously stopped to reconsider why I thought a hike through the jungle would be a good idea. Luckily that was the only encounter with a creepy crawler. We trudged through the mud, balanced on fallen branches to cross little streams and deep mud, and stopped every so often so our guide, Clemente, could cut open various plants for us to sample.
The Indian village was interesting. There were probably 40 houses arranged in two rows on stilts above the river, with a plank walkway between them. The floors and roofs are built from logs and dried palm fronds. They were all open, some with cooking fires burning on wooden platforms built into the house. There were a ton of kids, jumping off the walkway into the river, climbing on giant styrofoam chunks in the river, and holding necklaces and baskets to sell. Since it had just rained, a couple of kids were racing pushing little planks along the slick deck. A couple of small boats had just come in from the ocean an hour away, full of big fish to sell. Some houses had pieces of corrugated tin arranged to catch rain water from the roof and collect it in a big plastic barrel. We didn't stay long, because we had to get to the still place in the river in time to catch the sunset. While we were waiting, a family in two dug-out canoes came over to sell their baskets and wooden jewelery, and another canoe of kids paddled all the way out from the shore to do the same. The edges of the canoes are barely six inches above the water, and the people carry little buckets to scoop out the water that gets in through cracks in the wood.
Other than that day, I spend my time reading, checking my email on my iPod, writing in my journal, staring at the river, taking pictures of tarantulas and lizards, washing a few glasses here and there, and willing the mangoes to ripen so I can pick them. I was planning on leaving soon, but since I said I'd be here two weeks, I'll be staying until Monday. I'm looking at another workaway host in Bolivia, or going sailing with Adam. We'll see.
