amazon - day 2

Waking up in the morning to see the huge Caymen loll its way up towards our bank was a thrill. The few of us who were awake went shutter crazy. A stupid bird with yellow feet played around the huge animal dangerously. a brown furry monkey that marks its territory by barking so loud that it can be heard within an 8 k radius added to the caos. This was the perfect way to wake up in the Amazon.

Sadly this is where man and tourism comes in. The Caymen came to the island every day because they fed it. It was domesticated for the entertainment of the tourists. Wildlife tourism with no responsibility is taking its toll. People want photograohs with the Ananconda they spot when known or unknown to them the DDT on their bodies used to repel the enormous quantities of musquitoes will kill the snake once its skin contacts the deet. But then the tourist is not around to witness the horrible death and the snake is benevolent enough to die is some invisible part of the grassland, so who cares. Sun screen and DDT are poisonous so swimming in the water with all this protection is a ecological disaster but once agian who cares, as long as you have a picture to take back home.

The morning started off with the hunt for the Anaconda. It was a tough crazy walk through head high grass in knee deep slush. Luckily we were fitted with over sized gum boots but most of them had holes so it was a very wet walk. At one point my t shirt was so covered by musquitoes that I could barely see it. But we trudged on. When we all set to give up the adventure, our guide Rosaudo finally spotted a 5 to 6 feet baby Anaconda. It was well worth the painful 3 hours. Honestly, I enjoyed the trek but most of the group hated it. Rosaudo was ethical about not letting anyone touch the snake, maybe because we had made it clear that we were here to see the animals in their natural habitat and not for the photo opportunities but it felt good when we saw the snake slither away into the swamp. Nu thought she spotted one more snake when Yannick lifted his boot out of a puddle but it was too quick for the rest of us to see.

We were back in the camp and ready for the evenng session of Piranha fishing. The piranha actually have jaws and dentures. They are small but their teeth are scarily human like. The bait we used was meat. We were lucky, I caught one, Yannick managed another and Anu was excited as she fed the Piranha the bait instead of catching them. All in all, our boat did well, we had caught 5 or 6 fish while Rosaudo had another 5. We ate the Piranha at dinner. They tasted all right but seeing their jaws you can well imagine what they must do to a carcass in their own territory.