Down the Amazon Part 2

Ok, since we were asked to share some of the stories that went with the pictures, we thought that we would do this post over again.

We visited the Ibare River (part of the Amazon) for our fourth annivarsary. We had all kinds of experiences that we would love to share with you.

Our trip began in the plaza of the city Trinidad. There were many trees in this plaza and in the trees were several sloths. One of them had a baby on her chest as you can see below.



We went Caeman hunting which is best done at night. Caemen are easy to find with a flashlight because of the reflection of their eyes. Their eyes are bright red when a flashlight hits them. Here is a picture of a caeman in the water and if you look closely, you will see the red eyes.



Here is another picture of Kevin with a caeman after it had been caught by our guide.



When we returned to the boat we were staying on, the snake below had decided to visit. He was on one of the boat railings. Our guide said that it was a harmless watersnake... so Kevin decided to hold it.



We visited a farm in the area where they allowed us to go horseback riding, except that Kevin chose to ride the mule instead. He discovered just how stubborn they can be. :)



This farm had horses as well as a wild hog, chickens, cows, cats, dogs, other typical farm animals and of course... parrots. The farm had four parrots (two - blue and yellow, two - red) These parrots are wild and come and go on the farm all day long. However, the farmers found the parrots when they were babies and brought them back. Now the parrots always come home for food and rest. We wanted to hold one and the guy gave us the most tranquil parrot they had. Her name was pastora and you can see just how tranquil she was. :) The bird bit at the same moment the camara snapped for the picture. I guess it was perfect timing. Perhaps not for Kevin.



Another highlight was piranha fishing. We were provided sticks with a little bit of fishing line and beef hooked to the end. You slap the water (this makes the piranha think there is a struggle in the water) Then drop in the beef. The piranha would start bighting instantly. The biting made it difficult to tell when the piranha was actually on the line. But, we still managed to catch some. Kevin caught four and Lisa caught one that was too small to keep(but it was the only yellow one)!





One night at dinner we were served piranha. Bon apetite!



After the meal Kevin was trying to pull out some teeth to take home when one of the guys said that he could dry an entire piranha head for us. Now we have a piranha head sitting on our bookshelf in our living room.

We also loved watching the pink dolphins, but... as you can imagine it is nearly impossible to take a picture of a dolphin. Sorry, I will just have to tell you about them. Pink dolphins are actually only pink during mating season. We were lucky that we went during mating season and so in fact saw the pink dolphins. Most of the year they are actually grey like most other dolphins. They were very fun to watch. The people on the boat told us that when dolphins were around you didn't have to fear anything in the water such as: caeman, anacondas, piranhas, stingrays, etc. Supposedly dolphins only swim in safe waters. So, here is Kevin jumping in the water at a time when dolphins were around.





The birds were beautiful, the sunsets as well, the mosquitos were horrible and the memories priceless. It was a wonderful anniversary and now we are back in Santa Cruz where Lisa is about to begin teaching in the Bible Institute and Kevin will start preaching Sunday Mornings at one of our churches. We are excited to see how God will use these opportunities. We are also excited to see how much our Spanish will improve!