Caiman Hunting and the Walk of Wild Pigs

so one of the first things we did on our trip to the Amazon was go Caiman hunting! Caiman aka a little crocodile (?) that lives in the Amazon. There are three different types...but I can only remember two...the black caiman and the spotted caiman. One is bigger than the other, but I can't remember which!

Anyway the one which we are all holding here is the smaller kind of Caiman. Although my forest freak out for today was not actually in the forest but was holding this little guy here. While I was holding him, he coughed, and I got freaked out, thinking I was choking him and I dropped him!

hmm...so dropping a caiman in the bottom of a small boat at night, perhaps not the wisest of ideas....but thankfully our fearless leader was able to scoop him back up.....

we continued our hunt for the caiman's and Ananji picked up this big guy!

Here you can see how lovely his nails or his fingers are.....

look into his deadly eyes....did you know caiman's have two eyelids? One for light and one for water?

oh my what big teeth you have! the better to eat you with my dear!!

Here Ananji is showing us his ear flaps...

Before returning our new buddy back to the water we also sexed the crocodile! Done by yours truly.....it wasn't my first time....basically you have to stick your finger into the crocodile's uh, hoo-hoo to determine it's sex.....I did this once upon a time ago way back in Mexico when I was first getting into marine biology....anyway the opportunity presented itself again and I can confirm, it was a boy!

So the scariest/ most adventurist/most interesting part of the trip for me, was not dropping the caiman in the boat at night, nor was it being surrounded by trees, but was a hike we did, which I like to call the hike of wild pigs. Dean and I went on an extra hike one day in the late afternoon, in hopes of seeing some wildlife. The first thing we saw very early into the walk was a newly shed snake skin, which our guide informed us belonged to a snake about 2 meters long (about 8 feet).....and what kind of snake was it.....um....I don't know.....insert scary snake name here....cobra....python....I don't know all snake names are scary to me....

So the guide starts walking slowly forward, clearly looking for this gi-normous snake and he informs us that is quite dangerous. We are proceeding cautiously along the path for about 5 more minutes....I would say adrenaline is elevated....I mean this snake could sneak up behind us and eat us in one bite! (or atleast in my mind it can.....)....then all of a sudden Ananji stops. Picture Jennie and I almost bumping into each other he stops so abruptly. We all listen intently. Now if you ask me what we heard, was the sound of a jungle cat rising from the sitting position, sniffing the air to find some prey, and making a low growling noise. However if you ask Jennie, she'll just say there was a rustle in the bushes. Next Ananji turns around and says, do you know how to climb trees? Now take a look at this tree....

and tell me if you can guess what my answer was.....

Anyway we listen quietly, not moving for the next few minutes and Ananji says we need to turn around, because he's afriad for our safety if we go any farther because we can't climb trees. Several minutes pass on our hike back to the boat and Ananji stops abruptly again to listen. Finally Jennie and I gather up the courage to ask what's out there. Ananji says wild pigs. There is a pack of 30-40 wild pigs feeding in the area. Jennie and I exchange dubious glances, wild pigs? This is why we can't continue our hike? Seriously? But we're not talking about Wilbur on the farm pack of pigs. We are talking about vicious, will destroy anything in their path, 1 foot long tusks type of wild pigs. Ananji sees our dubious looks and says they are one of the most dangerous animals in the Amazon; people get killed each year by wild pigs. So I found this google article about a new type of wild pig in the Amazon, and while they don't look scary, it does say you have to climb a tree to avoid them....

Anyway at this moment, adrenaline is rushing. We are walking back towards the giant snake skin, we are being hunted by a pack of wild pigs, my tree climbing abilities- I have just found out- appear to be lacking....and all I can think of is hunting pigs in the book Lord of the Flies. Needless to say we got back on the boat, all in one piece, without having to climb a tree. And nothing really happened, but in my mind that was the scariest, wildest adventure of our time in the Amazon!