Wildlife Hunting

Caiman
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A fairly relaxed start to the day with a a quick stop at the bakery after the bags where loaded on the truck.  Venezuelans seems to like bakeries and do good cakes.  Got stopped by the military police, who didn`t like the fact that Truman wouldn`t pay a bribe, decided to check all our passports and didn`t like some of them.  After we eventually got away, we were stopped some 200 metres down the road this time they wanted to check the truck documents and all the stamps in our passports.  We were eventually let go and continued on arriving in Barinas, a small town just 1.5 hours for Los Llanos.  As it was the Thursday before Easter everything was shut but managed in basic Spanish to find a supermarket open and after stocking up on water and a visit to the bakery it was time for our meeting with Alan, our guide for the next few days.

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The following day, after a lie-in, we boarded the truck and headed out stopping for lunch at a traditional restaurant where the meat is cooked over an open-fire and then shaved and served with yucca, salad and fried banana and cheese.  We then continued on through the ranches in the area where the lifestyle is that of a cowboy arriving at camp just before 3pm.  After sorting out some of our stuff we headed out on motorised canoes on the Rio Apure to spot wildlife.  The first sighting was the River Dolphin - also called Amazon Dolphins or Pink Dolphins.  These dolphins have very small dorsal fins and have little rotation on their heads and have big noses.  They are also pretty blind, living in the murky waters and are said to be how sea dolphins originally looked.  (http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.yaqupacha.de/inia1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.yaqupacha.de/eninia.htm&h=196&w=300&sz=11&tbnid=S2XuR7LLqwK_6M:&tbnh=72&tbnw=111&hl=es&start=10&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAmazon%2Briver%2Bdolphin%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Des%26lr%3D for picture).  The pinkness has several theories, one that they have relatively little fat therefore the blood vessels are closer to the skin, their diet, the climate, and that`s the way they were originally.  We also saw a lot of birds inclduing grey herons, tigt herons, night hawks, night jars, Amazonian parrots, giant black hawks, scarlet ibis, white egots and Hoatzin (mohawk birds).  We also saw red hower monkeys.  Fish wise we saw a few but the most comical one was a pink-bellied piranha that jumped out of the river and hit Euan (our driver) on the shoulder.  Later on, once it was dark we also saw lots of crocodiles - caiman variety - and I held a few 2-month old ones.  Very cute.  We then headed back with our cuba libres for dinner stopping when our guide managed somehow to see a Brown Tree Boa.  Afterwards it was a early night in the hammocks.

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Following morning we headed out at 5.30am for a drive around the area and to wildlife spot again.  The sightings today we lots of similar birds as yesterday plus maribu storks, orios, swallows, red-headed vultures, whistling ducks, savannah hawks, large billed terns and plovers.  More exciting sighting were the giant anteater (rare animal) and we were lucky enough to see 5 so didn`t seem that rare.  Also saw Capybaras, the largest rodents in the world, and kind of like wombats, and giant river otters as well as white-tailed deer.  It was then back to camp and after lunch headed out on the canoes again seeing much the same as the day before.  However, the most exciting sighting here was the anaconda which we saw much later on.

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Following day we drove back towards Barinas and then out to another camp where we were in cabins.  After lunch the group spilt with resting at the camp and tubing down the river.  This involved getting in helmets, lifejackets, and a large rubber tyre and heading down the rapids in the river.  These were quite strong at times and a lot of people fell out.  I only fell out at the worst one and I could see it happening but couldn`t stop it.  There were other times went I was surfing the hole - which is a little whirlpool after the rocks.  The views around were of the Andes and were stunning.  After this we headed back and had dinner and then I chatted to a few of the group before heading off to bed.