(Originally posted June 3th, 2011…it gives you little taste of the adventure Max and I are about to embark on!)

————————-

If you ask the boys what their favorite excursion was, they would all say cayman hunting. Hands down.

Now, when I envisioned cayman hunting, I figured that the creature would be about 4 or 5 feet and would have to be caught with a net or some kind of loop on the end of a stick.

I was completely wrong.

We started in our canoe around 8:30 in the pitch blackness of the night. The sky was lit with thousands of stars as we drove our canoe down the river. Our boat driver had a flashlight that he would shine in the marshy areas, looking for a set of eyes peering above the water. We had to keep silent, which the boys did surprisingly well. The anticipation, energy and a bit of trepidation kept all of us on high alert.

Finally, after about 30 minutes of searching, our boat quieted to a stop.  Did they finally find one?  How was he going to capture it?  We watched with anticipation. And then it happened:  our boat driver, Oilson, dove into the water.

We all about shat in our pants.

Was he going to have to wrestle it with his bare hands?  Would it bite him?  How was he going to pull the beast back in the boat?

Then it all became quite clear:  the 18″ cayman resembled an overgrown lizard. How Oilson even managed to spot the little thing was amazing, let alone dive in with such precision that he managed to grab the little guy.

We drove back the the hotel dock in order to properly examine HER (which I know because they specifically showed us).  I found the photo below quite amusing.  What is the matter with my disturbing imagination?

Finally, Thomas got a chance to hold this ferocious beast, risking life and limb for an unparalleld experience…