Wildlife in the Orinoco Delta

One of the many amazing things about the Orinoco Delta was the wildlife on display. Of course a lot of it was rather good at hiding from that primary predator called man, but some were more vocal in announcing their presence.

In particular a group of howler monkeys, such as the one above, started a group screeching sometime very early in the morning when it was very dark that got through my ear plugs (though was able to get back to the land of nod).

Having woken us all up they then have a mid morning snooze in the trees, like the chap below. I was very tempted to wake him up to see how he liked it!

There were also lots of birds on display. Alas I am terrible at recognising birds and my guide spent most of her time speaking German for the rest of the tour group so missed their names (any info most welcome).

However even I think that this is some sort of parrot:

One of the interesting thing about them (more below) is that they weave their nests - very clever!

Sorry to say have no idea what this is but looks magnificent!

Ditto for this wierd creature (indeed might be the above on a perch):

We went for a trek through the jungle which was very hot and sticky. There were lots of these termites colonies and we were invite to have a taste. So I wet my finger to make it sticky, put it where there were lots of them crawling around till had a reasonable haul, then put my finger in my mouth.

Hmm... yum, very nice. Their taste? Well, like termites, obviously!

Later went for a swim in the wide muddy waters of the Orinoco River, about where we saw these fresh water dolphins. My friend Anna says you should never bother to take pictures of dolphins as all you ever get are shots of fins like this, but that is better than another piece of water:

Funnily enough when the tour leader asked who from our group wanted to go for a swim there was only one enthusiastic volunteer who clearly was one of those crazy Brits. It might have been something to do with what we had caught fishing just an hour before - piranhas!

When it was dark we went looking for those creatures that come out at night and spotted this snake - honest it is there I promise!

Then there was the curious incident of the frog in the night time.......