Archive for March 29th, 2010

Mar

Brasil: Day 8 (Part 4)

Just as we were leaving the “magical creature port,” it suddenly began to rain. I was worried that our surprise last stop of the day would be canceled, however like most tropical rain showers it was over before it even really started.

And then the next thing I knew we were on our way, to where I was not sure, but when you are in the Amazon the destination is really of little importance.

This bird followed us for at least a mile or so.

As we got closer to our stop, I saw countless boats with children and their pet sloths. They were so excited to show them off to us. If they only knew that in my head I was thinking how I could manage to steal one of them away from them.

Once we arrived at our stop we were instructed to follow the footbridge until the very end. At the end is where our surprise would be.

What could possibly be at the end???

The first thing I saw when I got to the end was the river again. And in the river were copious amounts of lily pads. What a gorgeous sight! The only thing that would have made this even better would have been if the flowers had been in blossom, but still it was a sight to marvel at.

Our guide stood off to the side and I could tell he was watching us with a look of excitement in his eyes. But why was he watching us? While I was taking photos of the lily pads I noticed something in the water move and as I stared more intently a creature began to take shape.

A giant crocodile! This is what we had come to see.

Apparently, the part of the river we were visiting was home to hundreds of crocodiles. Not just any crocodiles though, ones that weighed hundreds and hundreds of pounds.

Not a bad place to call home, huh?

It began to rain again and for some reason this stirred a lot of the crocodiles to come on to dry land. They really were fascinating creatures to watch (do not worry, I did not put one around my neck)!