Los Llanos- Day 2


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South America » Venezuela » Llanos » San Fernando
June 4th 2008
Published: June 4th 2008
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Following a night of sleeping in hammocks, we all woke up at 6:30, stuffed ourselves with amazing food, and headed out on another safari. We rode in the jeeps for about fifteen minutes until we reached the river. We hopped into a huge canoe, and our guide began to paddle away. Once it was deep enough, one of the local boys started the motor- but we still had to maintain our balance so as not to fall into the piranha-filled water. The ride was amazing- we saw howler monkeys, iguanas, caiman, birds, piranhas, turtles, poisonous snakes, pink freshwater dolphins, and capybara (the world’s largest rodent- basically a four-foot rat without the tail). Our guide even jumped off the side of the canoe into the water-yes, the water filled with piranhas-to catch a turtle for us! He brought it back onto the canoe and let us all see it up-close. I think we would have been a lot more interested if we hadn’t been so afraid of falling into the water ourselves!
After the boat ride, we met back at camp and ate another delicious meal. I think the thing that was so appealing to us was the fact the we got to choose what we ate; the food was set out in the middle and we ate what we wanted without feeling guilty for not taking something we thought looked a little ‘interesting.’ We are pretty accustomed to eating arrepas and cheese, so anything other than that seems like heaven to us.
We let our stomachs settle for a while and then divided our group in half. Half of us hopped on horses and went for a ride. The rest of us took a jeep, and we all met up at the same place we had gone earlier in the day to catch the boat. But this time instead of being afraid of falling into the piranha-filled waters, we decided to take the piranhas out of the water. I was the second to catch a piranha- but everyone that wanted to go fishing was successful by the time we left. After fishing, the groups switched transportation forms and headed back to camp.
I’m proud to say I took my first Latin American siesta of the entire trip in a hammock in the middle of nowhere! Before coming here, I thought siestas were a daily thing, but I had yet to get a chance to lie down in the middle of the day until last Saturday. We were all out before we knew it, and woke up just in time to head out on the safari we were most excited for: ANACONDA HUNTING! Not hunting in the sense of killing, just hunting in the sense of searching for and posing with.
It was a long jaunt to get to the place our guide knew was home to many anacondas. We had to cross a long, skinny road composed of pink clay to get there, and about half-way it started to downpour. Needless to say, the three of us that were riding on the roof of the jeep thought it was a pretty good idea to get down. Once we arrived, our guide and drivers, along with a local we picked up on the way, a seven year old from our camp, and one of the kids in our group, quickly went to a marshy area to begin their search. In less than a minute, they had all disappeared. It took the rest of us a while to figure out that they had gone under the road we were on to wait for the rain to calm down. But after a few minutes, they got impatient and emerged with their poking sticks in hand. Everyone again disappeared except for our guide and one of the drivers. We all sat in the jeeps with our faces pressed to the windows and our cameras ready for the big moment. All of a sudden, without saying a word, our guide dropped his stick and got down. He had found one! All the guys quickly rushed to him and helped him pull the anaconda out of the marsh. It was absolutely amazing- the snake just kept coming! When they had finally pulled the whole snake out, they all dropped it on higher ground and our guide yelled for us to come into the rain and get pictures. It was then that we noticed our guide was bleeding.
He brushed it off like it was no big deal and went back to the car as we all posed for pictures. The picture taking was pretty low-key; everyone was too excited to be scared. As I posed for a picture, I put my hand on the snake and looked to my left to smile for the camera. Instantly, harsh voices started yelling at me to move. I looked, and the snake’s head was coming at me. Luckily they do not move too fast so I wasn’t in instant danger, but I did learn that it was more important to keep my eye on the anaconda than on the camera. After a while, she stopped moving and we again started to take pictures. One of the other students soon had another scary encounter with the snake, so we decided to go back in the jeeps and change locations to search for another anaconda.
We all piled back in the jeeps, and the student sitting next to our guide helped with his wound. He had been bitten in the hand when he went to grab the anaconda. He assured us it wasn’t too bad because anacondas are not poisonous, so we started to drive away. After driving for a minute or so, I yelled up to our guide to see how he was doing with his bite. The girl sitting next to him looked at him and panicked: his eyes were rolled back in his head and he was out cold. The driver immediately stopped the car, and the girl hopped in the back of the jeep while I tried to open the back door so I could run to the cab to help him. I have no idea how I handled myself, but I immediately took his pulse and could barely feel it. After about 15 seconds, I had only felt his heart beat 3 or 4 times. Thankfully, he soon started to make noises. It was not a pleasant noise, but at least it meant something was happening. I just help him upright and kept feeling his pulse. I checked back in with myself once in the middle of it and realized my hands and my legs were shaking so bad that I don’t know how I kept standing. I quickly let it leave my mind, and focused on him once again. He started to move with sudden jerks, and then had a small seizure. After this he woke up, muttered a few words, and tried to lie down across the car seat. I was yelling in English so I don’t know how our driver understood me, but together we got him to sit back up straight and we helped him stay upright as he continued the transition into consciousness.
The transition was pretty quick, considering the terrifying events that had just occurred. I decided to sit in the front of the jeep with him and he directed the driver to start driving again. As soon as he was fully conscious and I gave him a quick summary of what had just happened, he decided he wanted to go look for another anaconda he thought we had driven by. Thankfully, the anaconda he thought he saw didn’t exist and we kept going. He explained to everyone in our van that although anacondas do not have poisonous bites, they do have a lot of powerful bacteria in their mouths that are used to break down their preys’ bodies immediately. He estimated that somewhere between four and seven teeth had broken off in his hand, bringing the powerful bacteria with them. Since there was no way to get the teeth out, the bacteria quickly went to work and immediately shocked his system, causing the reaction he experienced. The bite marks were fairly small in comparison to the size of the snake, but the teeth could be felt inside his hand. At first, he said he would not go to the doctor for such a small thing, but later decided it may potentially need to be looked at since the bite was in his dominant hand. We are going to go on another trip with him this coming weekend, so we’ll check up with him. But before we left, he told us he really wanted to make sure that when we tell the story we stress that he did not get bit nor have the reaction because he was weak. It was simply because the bacteria were extremely potent. So just for the record, I’m telling everyone that he is not weak. But in all honesty, who would think a guy that caught an anaconda, got bit, and kept going just so 11 Americans could take pictures with it would be a wimp? Maybe that’s how you classify a weak person in Los Llanos, but not in America, and especially not if you’re a person who is absolutely terrified of something as small as a bee (Me? No….)

So that was my weekend. The previous weekend when we visited the hot springs, I remember talking to another student. When we got to the top of the mountain, she stopped and said, “Seriously, how can you beat this?” and I looked at her and said, “Oh, we will. Don’t worry.”
I definitely proved myself right this weekend. I had the most exciting, scary, exhilarating, perfect 21st birthday I could have imagined (minus all the people I love- but you were definitely in my thoughts and dreams)
I hope to share more ideas and adventures soon.
Much Love!

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