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Published: August 5th 2007
toucan play at that game
The Toucan, showing off his beak to the girlsDeep in East Venezuela lies the Orinoco Delta, named after one of The Wombles. This is the country of swamps, mangroves, and endless networks of mucky rivers filled with pirhanas, caimans and anacondas (and other creatures which can be scientifically classified as "scaly things that bite"). We stayed at a place imaginatively entitled the "Orinoco Delta Lodge." By lodge standards this was a palace. The main area hada 30 foot high thatched roof, chunky furniture and tropical plants littered throughout. But they really should have called this "Dr Doolittle´s Lodge" because it was a crazy animal-filled menagerie! An assortment of well-kept cats, kittens and dogs were running around, sitting on laps and generally cavorting about the place. There was a parrot flying around, with whom I had various battles. It landed on my shoulder one time, and bit me on the side of the head. The next day it attacked a pair of my drying trousers and was trying to peck out the pockets. We ended up having a tug-of-war over the trousers. However, I had a comrade-in-arms against my arch-enemy, The Parrot. This was a toucan which, whilst not tame, showed no fear of man nor beast. It regularly swooped
and dived through the lodge, brushing people´s shoulders with it´s wings as it flew past. I was most pleased to see regular attacks on The Parrot by my good friend, The Toucan. Although The Parrot could give as good as he got, and the battles were sometimes fast and furious. Another regular visitor was a baby tapir, which would waddle it´s way out of the jungle and investigate the lodge, sniffing around with it´s long bendy nose. I say baby tapir, but it was about the size of a shetland pony!
During the days we cruised the wetlands in a twin-engined speedboat, on the lookout for wildlife. We saw plenty of birds and monkeys, but failed to see the most interesting specimen of all, the acaconda. We also went fishing for pirhanas, using chicken as bait. I caught a small pirhana, two leaves and a twig.
The Orinoco Delta has been removed from the tour itinerary several years back, due to an incident with bandits. Deep in the Delta, the tour group had been ambushed and boarded by a boat of bandits. One of the Dragoman passengers had a shotgun barrel put in his mouth, until everyone else
pecking order
The Parrot has a cheeky nip at my cheek handed over their valuables. The offenders were eventually caught and prosecuted. The area is now deemed safe, and is back on the itinerary, although we don´t venture as far as once they did.
Food at the lodge was excellent, but one morning we awoke to a rather unconventional breakfast. Apparently there is a nationwide egg shortage right now in Venezuela. For a country dedicated to consuming as many eggs as possible for breakfast, this is a problem! I can imagine egg riots in all the major cities, with gangs looting shops in search of the last remaining eggs. In light of this "egg emergency", Chavez has authorised eggs to be imported from other countries to avert a major egg catastrophe. So for breakfast we endured leftover tuna salad, and slices of fried spam from a tin (which was brought out to a tablewide chorus of the Monty Python Spam Song. "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam..."). I have an interesting story about Spam. It is very popular in islands in the South Pacific, such as Fiji and Vanuatu. The reason is historical, because these islands used to practice cannibalism, and apparently Spam is the closest taste to roasted human meat! Unfortunately
I told this story over breakfast without thinking, and put everyone off their Spam.
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