Wildlife watching in the Orinoco Delta
Visit an unspoiled region home to a rich ecosystem, indigenous tribes and abundant bird and animal populations.
Teeming with birds and other wildlife, the Orinoco Delta is a vast area of wetlands where the gaping mouth of the Orinoco River fragments into a web of tributaries.
It's a self-contained world where human impact is mainly limited to scatterings of thatched huts, in which indigenous tribespeople lead simple lives in harmony with the natural environment. Their existence is centred around the waterways which provide the delta's only means of transportation, and you'll often see children splashing around in the river or bobbing along in traditional dugout canoes.
Inhabiting this dense jungle that sweeps back from every river bank is a rich variety of fauna, including ocelots, spider monkeys, tapirs, anteaters, howler monkeys, snakes and capybara, while manatees, alligators, piranhas and turtles can all be found in the murky waters. Birds flock in great numbers, from the striking scarlet ibis to the endemic Orinoco goose.
