There are taxi boats and collectivo boats, which are like floating public buses.
The abundant water and fertile soil make it really easy to farm and grow food in El Tigre. The indigenous group called Querendí were some of the first people to live in the area. It is likely that they grew fruit and vegetables, caught fish and hunted mammals that lived in the delta. These days, many houses have vegetable gardens in their yards and people still go fishing in the river.
All of the water makes it easy to catch and grow food, but it makes it difficult to build a house. When the tide in the ocean rises, the level of the river rises, too. The islands are muddy and unstable. To build a house, you must first add a lot of soil on top of the muddy island to make it more stable. These days, people use machines to dig up soil from the bottom of the river, which they add to the top of the islands. All of the houses are built on stilts because sometimes the water level rises several feet in a few hours!
People adapt to El Tigre's environment in many incredible ways. The canal streets, boat travel, and the houses on stilts are all examples of ways that people have learned to live in this unique river delta area.
