[See image gallery at lukeawaynow.com]
During the three hour boat ride to our riverside lodgings, we’d all been blown away by the amount of wildlife surrounding us – especially the cayman alligators lurking on every bank. There were literally hundreds of them; green ones, black ones, small ones and massive man eating ones – either lying sinisterly motionless on the banks, or floating along with just their eyes popping out the water like a pre-historic u-boat waiting to strike. It was thrilling to be so close to these ancient beasts and the planned night trip to see some more of the monsters was an exciting prospect.
After a really nice dinner and an hour or two to familiarize ourselves with the camp, it was time. We set off at just after 10pm with our torches and headlamps at the ready (well, those of us who’d remembered to bring them). It was pitch black out on the water apart from our artificial light and there was an eerie calm only broken by the chugging sound of our engine. It reminded me a little bit of the calmness in the scenes that proceed a shark attack in Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws movies. Although that might have been me trying to hard to add to the tension. Whatever, it was a rush.
An alligator attack never materialised, but we did see plenty of the mean looking animals – appearing even more menacing with their eyes flashing red when caught under the torchlight. We spent about 40 minutes out on the water and probably saw 20 or so caymen in that time. There’s certainly no danger involved and the alligators we saw mostly just turned the other way once we’d disturbed them – but it was really cool just being out on the water after dark, it’s a very different place when the lights go out.
The camera I’m now using is in no way capable of capturing wildlife at night, so here’s one picture of me and Kari on the boat and then some daytime photos of some of the millions of scaly beasts that lurk around Las Pampas…
Check out the rest of the photos from Las Pampas here.
[See image gallery at lukeawaynow.com]
[See image gallery at lukeawaynow.com]
[See image gallery at lukeawaynow.com]
[See image gallery at lukeawaynow.com]
[See image gallery at lukeawaynow.com]
[See image gallery at lukeawaynow.com]
Check out the rest of the photos from Las Pampas here.
Some of the other things I got up to in Las Pampas:
• The amazing wildlife of Las Pampas
• Anaconda hunting
• (Nearly) swimming with pink dolphins
• Piranha fishing – eat them before they eat you