One of the highlights to undertake at night is to go out on the river to try to see some "caimans" as they are known in South America. These reptiles are known as alligators elsewhere.
Silently you float along the river in a small canoe staying close to the riverbank with the guides spotting the gleam of the caiman''s eyes by torch light. The guide then creeps up and makes a lunge for the baby caiman and holds on to it making sure that its mouth is firmly shut. The poor little one that we caught was so scared. It was meowing like a baby. I really felt so sorry for it. After it''s time of terror it was released unharmed back in to the water and made a hasty escape. But it did make for a bit of excitement.
The size of the one that we caught was only about 50cm long but it was only a little one, these reptiles can grow up to 1.5 -3 metres in length (4 - 8 feet) and weigh up to 58 kilos (23lb).
I am glad that they didn''t decide to wrestle a larger one into the boat as it would have been very interesting then.