Up the Orinoco WITH a paddle!

Hi everyone
Having problems uploading photos at the moment, so here’s the first part of our adventure and just watch this space for the link to all the exciting photographs.

We have returned from what is probably our biggest sailing adventure – so far! After a few delays due to mechanical issues and the like, we finally headed out from Scotland Bay and the howler monkeys on the NW tip of Trinidad and sailed for Columbus Bay on the SW tip. A wonderful sail down to meet up with our sailing buddies “Keesje II” (Brits Peter and Wendy) and “Good Time Charlie” (Yankee Bob who would become known as The Bobster by the end of the trip). The sun was shining and we had 15kn of wind on the beam. Perfect. We threaded our way through the oil fields in the Gulf of Paria. One of them was burning off gas. Quite a sight.

Columbus Bay was beautiful – perfect beach and palm trees, but it was a very rolly anchorage for the night with a swell coming in. But it was not a long trip to the entrance of the Orinoco Delta – just a 20 mile hop across to Venezuela from Trinidad next day. We were staying inshore to try and minimise the current against us and saw lots of local fishermen and pots out. We found a counter current as we motor sailed through The Serpents Mouth, which gave us a lift to the East. There was a clear line in the water. On one side was dark clear water from the Atlantic and the other was light brown silty water that was from the Orinoco. We were definitely getting nearer to our destination!

Bob who has been to the Orinoco Delta a number of times before made the call and we headed for our first GPS waypoint outside the Punta Bombeador headland which is the start of the Rio Macareo – just one of the many tributaries that join the Orinoco and form part of the delta. As we got nearer to the shallow water and the bar we would have to get over to enter the river, a squall blew in so we all got our headsails away and also got our mains down as we needed to do some very accurate steerage to get us from waypoint to waypoint without hitting the bottom. We had the fun of 30 knots of wind, gusting 40kn whilst trying to play follow my leader behind Bob. We got down to 8 feet of water (we draw 7’ 6”) a few times so we had our hearts in our mouths. Little did we know this would be nothing compared to trying to get back out of the river 3 weeks later (more on that later). The best pilotage notes available can be got from either Jesse James, maxi taxi driver in Chaguaramus, Trinidad or from the YSATT office there. These very useful notes and sketches give you all the waypoint co-ordinates.

Once we made it across the bar, the seas calmed a bit and we started to get some protection from the wind. We followed Bob and all tested the waters to find the deep channel. This river used to be dredged until 1955, but now the river bed and delta will have changed beyond recognition and there is no point trying to use the very out of date charts. So this was our first experience of unsurveyed and uncharted waters – our depth sounder was soon to become our best friend. As we followed the channel next to the mangrove swamps, we saw a few scarlet ibis and hundreds and hundreds of islands of floating hibiscus plants all drifting down the river out to sea.

Our first stop was Pelican Island where we would anchor for the night. Having expected to find the river deserted apart from a few Warao native Indians in dugout canoes, we got a real shock when four of Hugo Chavez’ Navy gunboats came out of the Macareo and past us!! We hoped they were not going to stop and give us an inspection, and luckily they passed on by. Not long after that a big ‘convoy’ of Indian dugout canoes were towed past us in the other direction by a boat with an outboard.

And after that the first canoe came alongside to do some trading with us. They were shouting “cambio, cambio” whilst holding up handmade beads and baskets. Another canoe came along and were happy to trade for some of the fish they caught. So I ended up with an unknown fish with big pointy teeth for our supper. I did wonder if it might be a piranha. I then had one of those surreal moments when I was on the aft deck working away with the filleting knife when I looked up and could not believe I was in the Orinoco delta, watching the sun setting, the ibis and pelicans flying overhead and gutting a fish so far from home! So the river was going to be busier than we expected – not just jungle. There is about 3kn of outflow from the river, so this current holds you in the same spot in the river. The holding is very good here and you can’t even feel the boat moving, so we had a great nights sleep, surrounded by red silted and fast flowing water and miles of mangroves.

Next day we headed further up the river to a village in which the famous Anthony Collins lives with his large family. He is the only English speaker on the Macareo and is a great person for yachties to get advice from. He will happily take you on tours, hunt for caiman, show you how the Warao live etc. He and the other villages are very keen to see more cruisers coming up the river. We were greeted by lots of dugout canoes as we approached the village.

It is amazing to see children – who looked too young to walk yet – paddling the canoes expertly against the current to make it over to Quintessence. More trading for beads, baskets and the like. We anchored up opposite the village huts, close to Collins hut. He popped over to see us but was off doing some work up river and would catch up with us next day. Most of the Warao speak Spanish, and even though we didn’t, sign language and smiles got us through fine. Richard went with the others on a Caiman hunt with Collins. They came back with a big fat caiman which is caught in the style of lamping in the uk. I am glad to say there are a lot of caimans on the Macareo and they are eaten not caught just for sport.

The next day we awoke to find a giant raft of floating Hibiscus plants attached firmly to our anchor chain. It was the size of a small island and looked very thick. Richard went out in the dinghy with a machete which we had bought exactly for this purpose. After hacking away for about an hour at both the hibiscus – (and one of his feet by accident!), the bottom of the dinghy was covered in blood and the hibiscus raft was no smaller. Hmmm. What to do what to do? The villagers were all looking on at our predicament, but did not look too keen to help. So I waved my arms at the ones who were staring and they scuttled off! Richard found some more energy and had another hack for a while. But it was like trying to nail jelly to a wall as the raft was so big and went down 5 feet into the water. It was also being held on very firmly against the anchor chain by the strong current. Then Collins arrived carrying a chainsaw! Just what we needed. Even with that, it took a long time and much hacking with a big knife as well as the chain saw. The raft of hibiscus was so large that Collins was able to step on it and walk around while he wielded the chainsaw. Eventually the raft floated away and having given Collins some US dollars towards his fund to buy an SSB radio, we were on our way. Needless to say, by the time we left the Macareo, we were experts on how to remove the hibiscus from the anchor chain without further bloodshed from Richard!

The further up the river you go the more varied and full of wildlife it gets. Exploring all the side canos in either the yacht if the water is deep enough or the dinghies if not was just amazing. The mangroves slowly turn into full on jungle with many plants and trees and tropical birds. We started to see different types of macaws, toucans, birds of prey, kingfishers. The best way to see them is to just float by on the current with your engines off so you see more wildlife without disturbing it. This we found thanks to one of our buddy boats “Keesje II” works just as well in a 55’ yacht as it does in the dinghy. Saves on diesel costs too! The faster current in the middle keeps you away from the slower flowing water at the shallower banks, so only once in many hours did we have to fire up the old Perkins to steer gently away from the bank. Sometimes we were floating down the river backwards which was a bit odd to start with but then became simply relaxing.

Trading with and meeting the Warao Indians was great fun.

They are lovely people, very open and down to earth. They live in very small villages, sometimes only one or two huts at various points along the river. They are semi nomadic and sometimes new huts spring up and old ones are left abandoned for a season or just used as fishing stops. They were mostly all keen to trade and everyone enjoyed it, but it was nice to see them sometimes rejecting a trade, very politely, as they were not desperate for items we had. The kids especially are great fun, always happy and smiling. They love balloons to play with which they call ‘bombas’. And of course sweets. As we did not want to encourage them relying on cruisers for charity, we always asked to trade and it was rare that they simply asked for free stuff rather than having something to trade. If the kids had nothing, we would suggest mangos and they would happily row off and pick some and come back to swop for useful items. The women’s most requested items were 3 yard lengths of colourful material for making clothes. No one was very keen on Western clothes! They also were keen to trade for shampoo, batteries, toothbrushes and toothpaste. With the exception of the men who were keen on trousers, good t shirts, watches and torches. Everyone young and old were very excited to receive magazines with lots of pictures in. So collect some before you head off down the Macareo. They Warao just love all the pictures of the wider world they don’t get to see.

We were very sad to hear that some of the Warao were dying on the Macareo from disease. Collins the English speaker said it was due to disease passed on from bites from the vampire bats. So we handed over all our mosquito netting and bed covers to help keep them away from their open huts. Since we have been back, I read a short article in the New York Times about this. The Venezuela Minister for Health made a statement that the deaths were not being caused by vampire bat bites, but from issues with unclean potable water supplies. But the Minister declined to say what the ‘disease’ if any was causing the deaths. So I hope they get some help soon to put a stop to this as their way of life seems very simple and wonderful to me – but also very fragile.

One of the great fun days we had was to go ashore to a larger village where they had a school. We landed the dinghies and were greeted by lots of kids. We went to see the chief and were taken along to the school hut. School was on Summer recess, but that did not stop all the village kids from piling in to meet us. The school teacher was also around, so it was great to meet him. Luckily we had Peter from Keesje II there to translate from Spanish into English. Although Warao is their first language, most Warao speak Spanish too. We found out more about how they live and work. We had all brought some supplies of notepads, pens and pencils for the school and the teacher was very happy to receive it. We asked him what were the top items they needed in the future so we could let future cruisers know and he said we got it right with notepads, pens and pencils – keep ‘em comin’!! Richard decided to make a paper plane and when it flew across the hut straight out into the pigpen, it was clear they had never seen one before, so he was soon persuaded to start a production line for the 50 kids so they could all play. He must have spent nearly an hour producing paper planes for the kids and also showing the village Chief how to make them, so maybe a new pastime has been created for the Warao?

We did more exploring up the river and in the side canos, seeing more and more wildlife as we got better at spotting it in the jungle. We have never been bird watchers, but by the end of this trip we were becoming real twitchers. “Oh wow, do you see that, do you see that! Its so pretty. What is it, what is it??!! It’s a hoatzin! Fantastic!” So take at least one set of good binoculars and if you can afford it a very good camera with a telephoto lens or at least a 10x optical zoom at minimum. A comprehensive bird book is also essential or you will have no clue what the amazing birds are.

We went as far up the Macareo as the Lao Lao Lagoon, a fine a destination as any. There is a floating hotel there, very small and remote, which seems to specialise in bird watchers. We happened to turn up when they were about to take some guests back to Tucipita the town about 30k away (by fast speedboat). Raphael (the hotel guide) said no problem, we could come along for the ride and get some provisions at the supermarket in Tucipita. This was an unexpected bonus as we expected to have to be totally self sufficient for 3 to 4 weeks in the Delta. We certainly had plenty of food left but the fresh stuff such as salad and green veg was almost gone. Only room for two people meant that Wendy and I got to go as at least we knew what food was needed, even if we didn’t speak Spanish. The trip was great, seeing more of the Delta and the wildlife. Once we got into a 4x4 to make the hour trip to town it was fascinating to see the countryside, homes and animals, and not be on the water. After exchanging money on the black market in a clothes shop (normal here and WAY cheaper than going to a bank) we started some serious food shopping. The fresh produce was great and very varied. We got passion fruit, paw paw and plantain and lots more. The beer stocks were low so made sure we had plenty more! On the way back we got stopped by the police who were all carrying guns. Just a routine stop we were told. Wendy and I realised that we did not have our passports with us and in fact had not had an opportunity so far to ‘check in’ to the country as we had been in the remote delta where customs offices are in short supply to say the least. So we were effectively illegal immigrants! Oops. Luckily Raphael who was running the trip made it clear that we were just tourists and he was responsible for us. They did not ask for our passports or any other information. Phew. But I think Wendy and I would have been happy to have been searched by the lovely policeman in his crisp uniform. On the way back I saw a capybara in the wild! I was very excited and amazed at just how big it is in the flesh. I knew it was the biggest rodent in the world but you might have mistaken it for a llama it was that big. It was happily chomping some leaves as we drove past it.
The next few days were for chilling out and exploring the magnificent Lau Lau Lagoon. The bird life did not disappoint, we saw so many varieties. We also got our closest encounter with capuchin monkeys. A small troop were in a tree and a few of them came down to water level to check us out. They were maybe 30’ from us calling and jumping up and down. They were so inquisitive, and you could tell they wanted to come closer and inspect us more, but were afraid to. Our boat buddies saw the giant river otters here, but we missed out. There were also many dophins each day, both of the grey variety and the odd looking pink ones. At one point they came up under our boat and bounced along the hull. Whether they were being playful or nosey I’m not sure. They certainly weren’t aggressive at all. Exploring every day in the dinghy was a joy, we saw so many beautiful things.

We managed to arrange another trip to Tucipita, paid for this time and with all of our group able to go. It was particularly fun for Bob who has been down the Macareo many times but never to Tucipita. We explored the town, the waterfront and the bars and shops. It is so culturally different to anything I have experienced before and I was fascinated. I have never been to South America before so it was a lot to take in. We had a lovely lunch on the riverfront, with lots of local food that was cheap and delicious.

We eventually had to say goodbye to the lagoon and head back down the river.
The return half of our trip will be posted to the blog site very soon! This includes the hair raising experience we had when we tried to leave the Marareo River and cross over the shallow sandbar back into deep water. Suffice to say that with a 30 ton boat and a powerful enough Perkins Diesel engine, you can plough through anything (eventually).

Lots of love
Sarah and Richard
p.s. at the end of this post is an underlined link “Comments” with a number in front of it. Click on this to post your message. We would love to hear from anyone who is interested in our trip.