Crocodile Hunter

After dinner we went out in the dark on the canoe to go find some caimans. Our guide Krishna was in the back by the engine and the driver Caraca was standing up front with a huge flash light. Caraca was sweeping the light along the shore looking for reflections from a caiman´s eyes. sure enough, after a while we could see an evil red dot on the distant shore. The boat headed in that direction and after Krishna cut the engine we coasted to the spot where the light was seen. It´s really difficult to make out anything under the water. In the darkness the trees simply reflected in the inky water and sometimes it was difficulty to even make out where the reflection ended and the real tree begun. Anyway, as we arrived at the spot I think I saw the caiman with only its eyes and snout out of the water, but he disappeared as soon as Caraca tried to catch him.

So it was back out on the river and continuing our search. We´d sight a caiman eye´s reflection every five minutes or so, head for the reptile and inevitably it would disappear before we arrived or as soon as Caraca tried to grab him.

Eventually we turned around heading towards the lodge again, but still seeping the light for caimans. We saw another reflection and when we got close to the spot, I could see to caiman a couple of feet from the canoe. To our surprise, instead of grabbing the caiman from the boat, Carac dove into the pitch black water and almost immediately came back up clutching a thrashing reptile. We greeted him with applause - the caimans here are pretty small and thus not very dangerous, but Caraca could have impaled himself on something in the murky water.

Once out of the water we got to admire the caiman from up close. He (yes, Krishna checked) was about three feet long and maybe a year and three months old. A very cute critter with small but vicious looking teeth. We got to touch him (I have a photo of me holding him) and Krishna explained about the differences between different reptiles and some of the attributes of the caiman. They have two sets of lids, one of which they use under water so that they can see clearly above and below surface.

Eventually we let him back into the water and he shot away into the darkness. This was our closest encounter with a wild animal during our stay, but quite memorable.