Going on a gator hunt, but I'm not afraid! I got my trusty oar.

So, Dan and I rented a canoe today. We're here in San Ignacio. A small town in the middle of a valley, surrounded by jungle with a river running through it.

We set off, heading up river. As the town's traffic grew more distant, the bird calls and leaves rustling in the forest grew more distinct. We paddled in and out of shady overhangs of big old trees and caverns and half caves. We were hearing things coming from the forest that we couldn't define.

Then it occurred to us that there may be crocodiles and/or alligators! We had our eyes peeled and talked about all sorts of strategies, should one come upon us and attack. We even had the swiss army knife ready (like that really woulda helped). Then we saw one! crossing our paths, head bobbing along slowly in the water. Crossing the river. We backed off, not sure what to do. Watching. Waiting. It got out on the other side and then we realized that it was only a huge iguana. PHEW.

We went up river some more and asked a man that was in his boat if there were alligators in the river and he said, "only ones that are like 3 or 4 feet long". Yikes! Anyways, we think we saw one a little later, hanging out near a tree, either that or a really big lizard.

We did a lot of bird watching and that was fantastic. We saw about 40 eagles flying around us and far overhead. We saw some green and pink humming birds feeding on some flowers. There were 3 vultures feeding on some dead meat, one of which got chased away by the other 2 vultures. There were dozens of other birds that we saw too. We would paddle and park in the shade and watch something that caught our eyes and repeat that as the ride went on. Always on the look out for gators though.