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Kevin Barnett, Regis Opferman & I just returned from an awesome trip in the jungle of Peru. We went down with Dick Bartlett & Margirita Tours & stayed about 100 miles down the Amazon from Iguitos. What a freaking blast. Snake hunting day & night, fishing, kayaking, swimming in the river & everything else you could imagine. There were about 14 of us looking for reptiles full time & the only boas found were a couple ATB's & one beautiful little Rainbow. Contrary to popular belief, boas are very few & far between even in pristene jungle. Devon & Co. have 16 or more trips between them all a minimum of 2 weeks & have only found 2 B.c.c. We did give it our best though & found plenty of other species most commonly Fer-De-Lance. I'll post a few pics tonight & if anyone would like to see more, feel free to look through my photo album at www.picturetrail.com. Under visit an album at the top right, type in LeeBarrie with no spaces & go to the 04/05 peru trip album. More pics will be added in the following weeks. Also, Kevin should be adding his pics soon to the ectothermics web page.

If any of you ever get a chance, try Peru out it really was a serious blast.

Lee

P.S. We bought this little boa in a market in Iquitos & released him downriver.

The garden phase ATB's were unreal down there.

Fresh out of the jungle. I was seriously thinking about having this little guy accidently slip into my pocket for the flight home.

>>Fresh out of the jungle. I was seriously thinking about having this little guy accidently slip into my pocket for the flight home.
>>

For being so young, he really had some great color. He couldn't have been more than a few months old.

asd

Just kidding, the beers were tasting pretty darn good at that point though.

>>Just kidding, the beers were tasting pretty darn good at that point though.
>>

This was the prettiest species that we found.

I captured this little nipper at night from a boat using the eye-shine method.

that looks somewhat similar in color to the "2003 daytona short bus" . did ya wrangle that thing, like steve irwin and then smack it up side kevs head?... i bet there were tons of BUGS prolly something similar to south florida heheh

An adult Smooth Front. He was a bit frisky. And yes, I look pretty rough. It was mighty warm there & the humidity was a killer.

n/p
Baker's Boas

One of the pretier ones. About 4 1/2' long. Kevin was in sandels & I was barefoot when we grabbed the bag & got him out for pics. Everyone did there normal head shaking watching us. The little guy was pretty darn cooperative though.

Beady eyed little guys.

Everyone seems to like monkeys so I was forced to take a pic of one. I am NOT a monkey fan. Nasty filthy little critters.

great photos. is that the fauna society trip. how much did it cost. my trying to get my cuz to go with me for my b day to go on a herp trip they told me about it is sounds amazing hope she says yes. great photos did you take any of the animals for like the nigh and just like get info on them like size and more photos checked out your pictrail more great photos.

keep them coming
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1.1 bearded dragons iggy and harry
1. black rough neck monitor nemo
.1 ball python angel

Thanks. The trip was through Margarita tours. You can do a Google search & find them. Total cost was right at $3000. As for the animals, they were captured & brought to camp for pics & relaesed after a day or two.

great photos. is that the fauna society trip. how much did it cost. my trying to get my cuz to go with me for my b day to go on a herp trip they told me about it is sounds amazing hope she says yes. great photos did you take any of the animals for like the nigh and just like get info on them like size and more photos checked out your pictrail more great photos.

I think it is really cool that you released the boa you picked up in the market! Thank you for sharing all those pics, it makes me want to head for the jungle myself!

Denny

They will just replace that little guy with another one for the tourists. The rainforest around Iquitos is pretty much pristene in that area of the Amazon. Only next to Iquitos was there any cutting, also right along the rivers. Other than that it's mile upon mile of tractless jungle. The boa population is pretty darn safe down there. Nothing like the horror stories you always hear about. It does get fairly bad in Brazil though.

I think it is really cool that you released the boa you picked up in the market! Thank you for sharing all those pics, it makes me want to head for the jungle myself!

Love the pics. Wish you could have seen more bcc, I'd like to know more what they look like in the wild. Question - what were the laws about bringing anything back?

Though we did get to see several more boas from there. I just didn't have my camera due to the rain. The Zoo had a few & a collector had some. They do very a good bit. Nice tails but nothing approaching a Suriname. Some had small peaks but most had none. No real yellow ones just light & dark animals & some were quite stunning. As far as bringing some back legally, that would be completely impossible. The government is very strick about that, otherwise I'd of had that little rainbow with me right now. There is one breeder with paperwork for export of captive bred boas & that's it.

Love the pics. Wish you could have seen more bcc, I'd like to know more what they look like in the wild. Question - what were the laws about bringing anything back?

To buy the boa on the market and release it to the wild was a very generous and kind act of you.

Maybe you have spared the boa a lot of suffering in bad housing conditions.

You did the right thing and I hope fate will reward you for this!
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>>Kevin Barnett, Regis Opferman & I just returned from an awesome trip in the jungle of Peru. We went down with Dick Bartlett & Margirita Tours & stayed about 100 miles down the Amazon from Iguitos. What a freaking blast. Snake hunting day & night, fishing, kayaking, swimming in the river & everything else you could imagine. There were about 14 of us looking for reptiles full time & the only boas found were a couple ATB's & one beautiful little Rainbow. Contrary to popular belief, boas are very few & far between even in pristene jungle. Devon & Co. have 16 or more trips between them all a minimum of 2 weeks & have only found 2 B.c.c. We did give it our best though & found plenty of other species most commonly Fer-De-Lance. I'll post a few pics tonight & if anyone would like to see more, feel free to look through my photo album at www.picturetrail.com. Under visit an album at the top right, type in LeeBarrie with no spaces & go to the 04/05 peru trip album. More pics will be added in the following weeks. Also, Kevin should be adding his pics soon to the ectothermics web page.
>>
>>If any of you ever get a chance, try Peru out it really was a serious blast.
>>
>>Lee
>>
>>P.S. We bought this little boa in a market in Iquitos & released him downriver.
>>

Looks like a interesting trip, more fun than humans should be allowed. Hope to go this year myself. Keep herpin!

The pictures are a treat for all of us.....THANKS

Wow you are so lucky to have found so many snakes. I just returned from costa rica, and my grand total for snake sightings is 0. I wanted to spot an eyelash palm viper, blunt head treesnake, or atleast one of the 4 types of coral snakes. I didnt find a single one, even going out at night by myself with just my flashlight and camera. on the othder hand there were plenty of anoles, skinks, geckoes, dartfrogs(lots of pumilio), a few mimic rain frogs, you get the point lots of snake food.

the thing to me that was more amazing than the animals was the amount of life growing on the trees, the ferns, orchids, bromeliads, mosses, and epiphitic cacti. Each tree is an ecosystem of it's own.