Over the last week I haven't really done anything. I recovered from strep throat, and went to the mall with my Mom to prepare for our trip into the Orinoco River delta.

The Orinoco is a river in Venezuela. The Macareo river is one of the rivers in that delta. We will be traveling up the Macareo River.

The Warao Indians live along the river banks. They wear barely any clothes, live in huts, sleep in hammocks and bathe in the brown river. Everywhere you go people come up to you in their handmade canoes, shouting "cambio! cambio!", which means "exchange" in Spanish. Here, on the river delta, "cambio" means "trade".

In their canoes, they have baskets, small wooden carvings, necklaces, hammocks, fish traps, paddles, and beads. Everyone's trading goods look the same. But they drive a hard bargain. They want hats, shirts, pants, fabrics, toothbrushes, toothpaste, fishing hooks and line, shampoo, and towels.