On the Water at Night with Caimans

After another hearty gourmet meal, or was time to try to spot some caimans hunting for their dinner. Down a candlelit path, we proceeded to the boat. Our guide, Louis, had a bright spot like for scanning the shore. I seriously have no idea how he found anything out there. The one time I thought I saw the glowing reflection of eyes in the water and we stopped, it was capybara napping on shore. But Louis could spot a tiny half-metre long caiman from easily 100 metres away.

 

It was a beautiful, clear night with a full moon. Perfect for outlining the shore and for star gazing. Orion was totally upside down. That guy needs to pull himself up by his belt and turn himself around. 

After some quiet time to enjoy the sounds and cool jungle air, we slowly headed upstream, carefully scanning the shore for black caiman (the largest), whyte caiman, dwarf caiman, and a very slim chance at the smooth fronted caiman which generally prefers lakes and rivers a little more inland. 

We were pretty lucky right off the bat! The flashlight signalled and the boat raced over to a small embankment where a tiny maybe 70 cm dwarf caiman was lurking in the water. 

 

Again, how you spot that in the dark on a boat 20 metres from shore at night, I have no idea. Next up was a little whyte caiman. He was being difficult and hiding in the leaves of a plant. Not much for the paparazzi. 

Lastly, we found another dwarf caiman just hanging out on shore ready for his close up. 

 

 

While the caimans were jut starting to get active, it was time for the humans to go to bed. Tomorrow we leave the jungle and arrive in Cusco for the next legs of the trip. The hiking legs (aka the sore legs).