The Amazon never sleeps though the cast changes at night. There was a rainstorm at sunset, after which we donned rain ponchos and headed back out into the jungle. We’d been lucky with rain, and continued to be because it brought out the wild creatures in the jungle.
Jessica, Haven, Flavius, Heath, Gwynne, Martin & Heather in rain ponchos
Not only was everything eerily different, the background sounds changed too. The cacophony had changed from birds & monkeys during the day to frogs & insects at night. Our guide, Flavius, told us to scan the tree trunks with flashlights looking for tarantulas but all were too high to capture. Tree frogs were in abundance and a large bullfrog sat unmoving directly in our path.
Bullfrog
Of course, there were mosquitoes aplenty, and bats; we even encountered a coral snake, the second most deadly in the world, in the river near our boat. Flavius tossed it out onto land about 10 feet away where it reared and struck at us. We then boarded the small craft and headed upriver along a narrow tributary in pitch black: Flavius stood on the bow showing the way to the steersman with his headlamp.
The journey went on for at least an hour: occasionally, someone would shine a light at the shore but mostly we sat listening to the motor growling. Once we had to cut away the vegetation and skillfully maneuver the boat through a blockade of tree branches which made us wonder where we were going? Turned out, the goal was an almost imperceptible inlet into a hidden lake. The jungle was invisible past the edge of darkness but under the light of our flashlights the still water appeared to be covered in snow. It was a carpet of light pink waterlilies. There were little iridescence patches on the leaves that soaked up the light from our flashlights and continued to glow for several seconds after we turned them off.
Water lilies
The little engine with its long propeller shaft that the steersman wielded like a sword to guide us, was struggling to push through the mass of vegetation. Eventually, the boat stopped and we silently inspected the sea of white-pinkness looking for the reflective red glow of close-spaced reptilian eyes… There they were! The steersman used a paddle to maneuver the boat closer... closer… Flavius leaned over the bow and slowly extended both his arms into the water; an instant later he snatched up a cayman and handed it to my wife, Gwynne. The little guy was sure anxious to get back in the water.
Gwynne holding cayman
Cayman Hunting
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Martin Hash
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Cayman Hunting
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