South America Day 27

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8th February

After a 7am breakfast we were off in the canoe 10 minutes down river to the savana grasslands in search of the Anaconda - the worlds largest snake. The boat docked in a reed bed to the side of the river & we headed out into the open grasslands walking along a well made path. We were having to look in the bushes and long grass to the sides of the path for signs of the Anaconda. The snake spends most of its time in the water hunting but comes out onto land to warm up being a cold blooded reptile. After 1 hours walking we had spotted a few colourful lizards & water birds but no Anaconda, then our guide was on to something & headed into the long grass. It was an Anaconda and we all made our way in to see (by the way Anaconda are not poisonus). The snake was around 2 metres long, apparently a young snake as it was quite thin & soon he made his retreat back into the water. Unfortunatley that was the only snake we saw that morning (apparently they are harder to spot in the wet season than the dry) and so we headed back to the lodge for lunch & a couple of hours in the hammock.

The afternoons activity was to be more pink dolphin spotting then fishing for Piranah & Catfish in the Yacuma river. We spotted loads more dolphins then headed to a calm pool on the river for fishing. We sat chatting to our guide about the area, plants & animals whilst casting out our lines from the canoe. Not a single fish was pulled in all afternoon by any of us, we had some small bites but noting landed - not our lucky day.

When we returned to the lodge the dining room had been completed with mosquito nets & doors so we enjoyed a plesent evening at dinner & chatting to our guide and scratting the bites from the previous evening.

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