We set off in our little wooden boat on the chocolately brown Beni and within minutes were spotting literally hundreds of alligators, big and small, lining the banks of the river. "Ali" and their friends, the gang-banging turtles, were to be our most familiar sight over the next few days.
Turtle Power!
The trick was to spot and interact with the wildlife, whilst maintaining all your appendages and bodily functions! We have all heard about that parasite lurking in the Amazon that likes to swim up your wee and cause havoc with your internal organs! But after taking on board the sheer volume of beady eyes lining the surface of the water, I thought there would be no chance of braving a cooling swim….I was wrong, About five minutes after Rob fed this alligator a stringy bit of chicken, our guides thought it would be a good idea to take a swim with it!
Lunchtime (his or ours?)
Admittedly, as this picture shows, there wasn’t much swimming going on so much as people looking off fearfully in every possible direction, plus a couple of standard fake “alligators got me” death throes!
Fraidy cats in the water
Our next dice with death was a hunt through a stinking bog in search of the elusive anaconda. As my wellies filled up with putrifying marsh slime and unrelenting bugs dive bombed my face, I thought to myself that this is the moment I will have to remember when I am complaining about being back at home!
Luckily, a beady eyed German caught sight of a sleeping anaconda 10 minutes into our squelchy search and so we all waded over to take a look. Whether by a cunning self-defence system or fortuitous good luck, the snake had positioned itself directly next to hornets nest…….5 minutes into our look-see a screaming Israeli had triggered the burgular alarm system – covered in wasps, he attempted to make his flailing, screaming escape whilst we all looked on in shocked horror!
Unfortunately for the snake, he was already being lined up for his photo shoot but am sure he still chalked that one up as a victory!
At one with nature
Rob handling his, ahem, snake!
When our guide broached the subject of potentially catching a small alligator for a picture opportunity, the PC eco-warriers were drowned out by a resounding “Yeah!” It was night-time and we were given our orders to shine our torches on the banks to catch the eyes of a suitably photogenic specimen. Our guide pulled up the boat and disappeared off into the bush. A scuffle or two later and he emerged triumphant with a metre long ‘gator held firmly by the jaw.
We all shuffled round the boat for our close up with smiler. I am sure this aside with nature wasn’t in the western version of the gamekeepers hand book – but it sure as hell was fun!
Steve Irwin eat your heart out
The start of the next day our task was to find a shadey spot, passing some pink dolphins on the way, to partake in a spot of pirhana fishing. Little lines with bloody chunks of meat were cast over the side and it wasn’t long before they came a chomping!
Jaws
We took the little blighters home and fried them up whole for our dinner.
You gotta eat him, before he eat you!
The next few days passed in blur of Steve Irwin style adventure. From spotting the worlds largest rat, the capybara, to the monkey mahem that ensued when we offered them a banana!
Having second thoughts about feeding the monkeys!
Capybara standing sentry!
Throw in a couple of awesome sunrises, sunsets and more birds than you can shake a stick at and you got yourself an Amazonian pampas tour!
Two-can toucans
The sunsetting on our pampas tour
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