Lake El Dorado - wow! You told us to spend extra time here looking for animals. I'm happy to report that the lake named for its beautiful golden sunsets has lived up to its reputation as a great place to see animals in the flooded forest.

Yesterday morning, I woke up to the sound of a single word uttered in my ear at close range: anaconda!

Early in the morning, Warren and the local ranger left to check one of our fishing nets. Imagine their surprise when they realized one of the fish in their catch had a nine-foot-long snake attached to it!

After we released the anaconda, Jesse, Dave, Warren and I decided to spend our day hiking a trail the locals use for hunting wild pigs. Ruben, who is still recovering from Cholera, and Jennifer decided to hang back at the Lake El Dorado ranger station for the day.

As for the rest of us, we didn't see any pigs, but we did see lots of birds ants, and a large troupe of squirrel monkeys.

One potential reason for the absence of pigs was that well over half of the "hike" was through flooded forest! We got some good practice balancing on logs and testing the water with sticks for deep holes.

We returned to the ranger station at sunset and were lucky enough to get another great animal sighting in one day. Just after dusk, a 10-foot-long black caiman emerged from the woods and settled in right next to our canoes to do some fishing for the night. Caimans are very difficult to see in the water, especially at night! But if you shine a flashlight in a caiman's direction, you'll see the telltale sign: a glowing orange eye, seemingly suspended over the surface of the water, staring right at you!

We were sad to leave Lake El Dorado this morning, but we all agreed the time had come to start moving down the Yanayacu River.

As we left the lake and started our long day of paddling, we notched up two more exciting animal encounters. First, we saw a family of giant river otters playing in the river and making all sorts of noise. A little while later, we saw three saki monkeys sunning themselves in a tree. Both sightings were firsts for Project Peru.

Speaking of firsts, today was also the first day we saw only flooded land. This is indeed an interesting development. Imagine life in a small boat--no place to stop to stretch your legs, eat some lunch, or even go to the bathroom!

But there is no doubt that such minor inconveniences are a small price to pay for the joys of passing through this amazing ecosystem.

Adam