One of the things Caite and I did at La Esquina del Lago Jungle River Lodge was the Caiman (reptile similar to an alligator) night tour. We headed out in a boat with no running lights (nobody has running lights down here yet they all move around at night) with Jackson on the front with the headtorch spotting and one of Champa’s sons (aged about 8) driving.
This is what we were searching for, though this one was only a baby. Apparently they can grow up to 5 metres and one of the biggest ones they’ve spotted hangs out near the Lodge itself!
While Caite and I were enjoying the beautiful night sky, Jackson was shouting instructions to his novice driver over the sound of the motor and absolutely determined to catch a caiman for us. Which he eventually succeeded in doing!
Several times in fact, and getting larger and larger each time.
He took great delight in getting us to hold them (I don’t think he thought we’d do it) and I was surprised at how warm and soft their skin was.
They were quite funny actually – after putting up a very brief struggle (one or two wriggles, 3 for the largest one he caught) they reverted to “deer-in-headlights” mode until we released them back into the water.
