A view of the Waraos ethnic huts.

The tours I enjoy the most are those that take me to learn about the culture of the people, especially the indigenous culture of my country.

In the states of Delta Amacuro and Monagas are one of the most fascinating indigenous ethnic groups of eastern Venezuela. They are the Waraos, an ethnic group formed more than 8,000 years ago in the delta region of the Orinoco River. Today they are the second largest and oldest indigenous people in Venezuela.

The term Warao could be translated as: people of the water or of the boats.

The Warao people live on the banks of the tributary rivers that form the Orinoco Delta, mainly in the state of Delta Amacuro. Although they also live in the state of Monagas in the Morichal Largo. They build their houses on the river building Hanokos (ha=chinchorro and noko=place), are shacks built on wooden stilts made with logs of Mangle wood Rhizophora mangle and lack walls, being occasionally protected by a partition of Temiche palm trunks Manicaria saccifera, whose leaves are also made the roof, although today it is common to see houses with side walls of board or palm leaves. The floor and elevated walkways between the dwellings are usually made of trunks of the Manaca palm Euterpe oleracea. The simple furniture consists of hammocks, a kitchen built on a mud base, facing the river, where the supplies come from and where the cleaning is done; the fishing, hunting and clothing utensils, which are placed on the roof truss or on the floor. In the morichales, smaller and simpler temporary single-family dwellings are built, roofed with moriche leaves.

On this occasion I accompanied a friend who built his own Hovercraft for emergency transfers in these communities isolated from the cities. The Waraos have for centuries used canoes and wooden paddles for transportation on the rivers they inhabit, although today it is common to see them using boats with outboard motors. They lack modern means of transportation, so a vehicle as modern as a Hovercraft is unimaginable for them.