Parika, Guyana Day 4: Church and Alligator hunting!

Our church was right down the street from the YWAM camp.

The way I play cricket....by smashing softballs with the wooden paddle!

Aboarding the first boat with Roger as motorman.

Clueless of the adventures that were in store for me.

Passing some locals while boating down our first river.

I was fearless with my machete...outside the murky, gator infested waters.

Going to board the hunting boat named "Sea Wolf"...sounds threatening to gators!

Local boy, Jaimee, and myself before getting into the hunting boat.

The local holding a live pirana with his bare hands

The hunter was becoming impatient for alligators....

Have you ever seen such smooth water? All cloud details are reflected!

Holding the lethargic beast...yeah they are both still alive!

the locals will cook these guys on a BB-Q later

Sunday morning we had church within walking distance from our camp. All 12 of us gave a presentation about ship life to the entire church. After service, I went back to have lunch and change into my gator hunting gear. During the down we had between lunch and hunting, I found some fun times wacking a softball to the local boy via cricket bat. When it was time to leave, 9 out of the 12 ship people walked over a half mile to the river where we would board the boat. As we were navigating up the river, we passed a couple docks with locals enjoying the calm waters. One group of people were fishing with sticks and strings. We then arrived at the dam where we would remove the outboard engine and evacuate the boat. The side we arrived on was level controlled for the community, but the other side was 100% uninhabited; marshland as far as the eye can see. I felt like I was in the pages of National Geographic. As we made our way to the next boat, we saw that it was flooded and the locals were scooping out the water. During their laborous discharging process, one guy picked up a Pirana right out of the boat...which made me feel "safe" about our near future voyage. He brought the carnivorous Serrasalmus over to us in a bucket and picked it up with his bare hands and placed a twig in front of its chompers. Immediately, it bit down hard and he was able to let go and allow the fish to hang there a while before falling into the bucket. After throwing it back into our hunting waters, I boarded the boat last because the front is where the action is. The water was like glass the entire rest of the way; an absolute perfect reflection from the cloudy sky. The sun was starting to hide behind the horizon and adrenaline was starting to rise. I asked the local when the hunt begins and he responded with a surprising answer: "When it's dark, with flashlights". Oh, wow... About 15 minutes later, the breeze starting to become chilly and my eyes struggled to see anything beyond 10 feet in front of me. They pulled out flashlights and told us to look for red eyes near the boat; that would be the gators. Noone spoke and the engine was turned down to idle to be as quiet as possible. The man in front motioned with his hands to the guy in the back who was steering the boat. He motioned to the left and the boat coasted into the swamp-grass and he reached down into the water (bare-handed, of course...) and pulled out a small, baby alligator. He mentioned that in this area, they are smaller and less aggressive. He pointed out to the left and said "That's where the big crocs and Anacodas are"..I found myself to be content in the smaller-gator area. A little while later, he pointed to the right and swept his hand into the grass. I couldn't see what or if he picked anything out because the moon didn't supply adequate lighting. When his hand arrived closer to my face, he shined the flashlight on the 2 1/2 foot long reptile. When you hold them right below their head, they are quite still and put up no fight whatsoever. We passed it around the boat and headed back to our starting point. Some friends were in a different boat and they, too caught quite a few big ones (pictured above) but already killed two of them. We walked back home pretty late and the locals took the gators home to eat in the next days. I never did have the opportunity to taste freshly caught gator...not too sure if that is a bad thing.