We arrived at Manaus this afternoon. We had a trip out planned for the evening; “Caiman
Spotting”, and we decided to take it easy in the heat and humidity and just
take a stroll out. It’s odd how the city
is becoming familiar, or at least the area around the dock is. The market is the same, as are all the shops,
the stalls and the manic traffic. We
did find a little park area that we’ve not come across before. It looks quite new and is very nice.
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| Market stalls lining a Manaus street |
But our highlight was
going to be the Caiman Spotting trip in the evening, which we were really
looking forward to. So after an early
tea, we joined the rest of the passengers on board the river boat that took us
out to Lake January. This lake is sort
of temporary. In the dry season it dries
up, but in the rainy season – January to June – the lake reappears. Our guide explained to us that the lake is
considered of ecological importance, because of the wildlife. It is also the place all the tourists are
brought to show of the wildlife and way of life.
The riverboat moored up at a floating restaurant (which we
know we are going to visit tomorrow), and from there we climbed into smaller,
motorised canoes. Each canoe holds 10
passengers. At the back is the driver,
in charge of the outboard motor, and on the front stands the “caiman hunter”. We managed to get the front seats, just behind
him. The canoes dashed off across the
lake in the darkness, the only light being the torch held by the man stood at
the front of the boat – but in all honesty, it wasn’t that dark and we could
see quite well in the moon light. And there
were also the magical flashes of light from the fireflies amongst the long
grasses. Wonderful.
Our caiman hunter stood on the front of the canoe, scanning
the surrounding grasses with his torch. The idea is that he spots the red
reflection of the torch in the eyes of the caiman, he indicates to the driver
where he wants the canoe to go, then goes flat on his belly and grabs the
caiman out of the water and weeds as the canoe goes past.
What surprised us was how quickly this happened. First in that the young lad caught the first
one within a few minutes of our canoe ride starting, and secondly in the way
one second he was standing on the front of the boat, and the next he was on his
belly in front of us with a caiman in his hand.
The whole experience was amazing. Because we were in the front of the boat,
Peter and I got to hold the caiman first, although everyone else got to see it
as the lad took him along the deck for photographs n stuff. And it got better, because a second was caught, which was handed to me to
hold whilst our hunter stood up to see if he could catch another one. How class is that? I had to it to Peter after a few minutes though,
cos I worried that my hands would tire. Of course, the caiman are returned to the
water once we’d all had a chance to see, and hold, and photograph.
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| The second caiman he caught |
All in all it was brilliant, brilliant experience and I am
so glad we went. Tomorrow we are to go
back to Lake January when we go on the “Amazonian Experience” tour. We’ve been on it before, and liked it so
much, we’re back for more. Awesome.
To read about the other days we've spent in Manaus, click here
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