Eli Martinez

March 27, 2024

Anaconda Diving - What an Epic Day! Part Two

Eli Martinez

March 27, 2024

Finally our girl left the darkness of her cave and began swimming up-current (thankfully), to find an exit out of the river.

We didn’t know she was trying to leave the river when she was swimming, we figured she might be headed to another hiding hole.

These snakes are notorious for having quite a few hiding spots in their hunting territories.

When she left the cave, she swam through the roots of the tree that were not only guarding the entrance to her cave, but also offered support to the soft mud that made up the walls of her secret dwelling.

The trees and grasses help prevent erosion by stabilizing the sediment with their tangled root systems.

This in turn helps maintain water quality, filters pollutants and traps sediments originating from land and us humans.

Nature is amazing.

Back to our girl…she slowly emerged from the roots of the tree and out into an area where we had a bit more light, and it was awesome.

We were all there (the four of us), taking turns snapping images of her as she poked her head out of the shadows.

When she began swimming out of the tree, we were ready, all of us were lined up, waiting patiently for her to fully emerge.

When she slithered out, we did not know what direction she was going to take, she chose swimming into the current, my guess is so that the dirt and debris would not obstruct her view.

This was great for us, as we would get clean shots of her beautiful head free of the silt and dirt.

She slowly came out of the darkness, silted debris poured out around her… and damn, she just kept coming.

She was a big girl, at least 5-6 meters long, and thick!

These are the moments that we all live for.

This is the stuff I dream about.

When you plan a trip like this, you want moments for everyone who joins you, where they will see a big prehistoric snake swimming underwater.

This is why we are all here… and what we all dreamed about. A big snake, up close and fully submerged underwater in crystal clear water.

We were all very excited and firing away.

The snake made her way slowly up river and we slowly, but excitedly followed her. Knowing full well, the encounter was going to end the minute she left the river.

We were not forcing the encounter, nor did we touch her.

Just as expected, the snake found the exit she was looking for and slowly slithered herself out of the river, disappearing into the underbrush that made up her mysterious world.

We all surfaced with massive smiles on our faces. The excitement we all felt was electric.

I was beaming with pride, knowing our friends experienced an extraordinary day.

This day was magic and everything I love about wildlife photography with special animals in special places.

Thank you for reading!

Eli Martinez

March 26, 2024

Anaconda Diving...Into the Black. PART ONE.

Eli Martinez

March 26, 2024

I posted today on Social media, a photo from a trip we ran, back in September of 2021.

We were in Brazil diving with anacondas.

On this particular day we were on a beautiful river in Bonito, Brazil.

The water was gin clear, and the scenery was spectacular.

We were slowly cruising down the river looking for snakes. We were watching the edges of the river, as well as the river banks for any snakes that might hiding in the water, or basking in the sun.

We finally found one on the river bank. She was a big 5-6 meter long snake. She was so beautiful lying there in the sun.

We slowly approached, but she dropped in the water to hide from us.

AND hide she did!

When you are a big snake in super clear water it should be impossible to disappear. But these snakes are territorial, and she knows the area she lives in well.

Snakes this size get big by being smart and cautious.

The area she has chosen to live in is surrounded by a forest. The river has a lot of trees, tall grasses and forest debris along the edge of the river, so she disappeared fast.

The search was on, we didn’t want to lose her.

We began searching the edges of the water with masks and snorkels to try and find her.

I checked underneath a tree right at the bend of the river and could see her large body tucked up deep underneath.

WE FOUND HER!

Our snake in her hiding spot. To the right of her, you can see her breathing hole. To the left, the river opens up.

It was a shallow area, but she was tucked in tight, so we had to put on scuba tanks to go where she was at.

This snake was hiding in a massive hiding hole she found or created that was behind a tree growing in the water.

It was dark and deep with a small breathing hole, which allowed her to hide indefinitely.

We swam underneath the tree that was half-grown, in and on the river bank. It led to where she was safely tucked away.

It was a tight area, so we took turns, so it would be less intimidating to the snake. A bunch of faces all trying to look at her in here hiding hole might stress her out. We did not want to do that.

I admit it was a bit unnerving swimming in there.

It was dark, and the water was silted up from her moving around in there. You could see her massive body, but you couldn’t see her head.

So we had to wait for her to settle down before we could inch in and see where she was.

She was just laying there, occasionally swimming up to the surface to get a breath of air.

Once she did, she would swim back down and curl up again.

These snakes are so calm and well-behaved. Nothing like we are led to believe.

She was relaxed and never got aggressive with us.

Yes they are predators and yes they are dangerous and must be respected, but interactions like these prove that if done with respect, we can co-exist. They truly are such a polite predator.

She eventually left her cave and swam along the edge of the river searching for one of her spots where she exits the river to slither back into the forest.

We continued to follow her and I am so glad we did, we managed to capture some epic images of this iconic predator…

PART 2 COMING TOMORROW.

Eli Martinez

February 28, 2023

As a Kid I wanted to Work with Wildlife!

Eli Martinez

February 28, 2023

anaconda in the Southern Pantanal, Brazil.

I travel - I keep visiting new places, and I keep seeking out new animals. It’s what I love to do, and it’s what I live for. As a young kid, I ate, slept, drank, and dreamed of wild animals. I always wanted to be around them. All my toys were animal toys (until Star Wars arrived, then it was all Star Wars stuff), and all my books were animal books. I would read stories about wildlife and the places you could find them. I dreamed of being there, of going there.

I grew up in rural South Texas; my views were of orange orchards, plowed fields filled with corn or melon (I still can’t stand melon to this day). There were small ranches, with horses and cattle peppering the area. We had one neighbor, the Curls. Bob Curl was an old horseman, he never liked me much, I always asked too many questions I guess. My days were spent outdoors, running around on dirt roads, looking for lizards, snakes, ground squirrels, and birds. It’s what I filled my days with.

When the evenings would come, the toads would come out, and I’d try to catch them. As the sun set, the light bugs lit up the sky, and I ran around trying to catch them too. Of course, when the light bugs would come out, I knew it was time to head inside and have dinner. I’d go in, hungry, sweaty, covered in dirt, runny nose, with a big smile on my face.

It was a good childhood.

Growing up I wanted to be a veterinarian, but not for cats and dogs. I never had much interest in that. I dreamed of being a vet that worked with wildlife. I wanted to go to Africa and care for lions, elephants, giraffes… animals like that. At the time, it was the only way I knew how to get into the game. I didn’t know about wildlife filmmaking or guiding, or photography. Being a vet was the one way I knew I would be able to get close, and be close to wildlife.

Photographing sperm whales off Dominica. Image by Jean Dubois

That was forty-something years ago, and here I am at the age of 51, still eating, sleeping, drinking, dreaming of wildlife and wild places, where I can go see animals.

As a kid, I wanted to be close to them, and that hasn’t changed. I can’t help it. It is just the way I am. My daughter Sophia has always joked, “there is close, and then there is Eli close.”

Having a bit of fun, sizing up an American crocodile off Banco Chinchorro, MX. Image by Mark Rangi

Dancing with my beloved tigers, Tiger Beach Bahamas. Image by Jack Meadows.

I just enjoy the feeling of being there and smelling that rare air. It is a fantastic feeling. Of course, I understand and respect when I have to keep my distance, and I do when I am supposed to. And there are some animals you just can’t and shouldn’t get close too… sadly. Lol. But those moments when I can be close, where there is no blue between us, or a silverback is walking just a few feet away… it is the best feeling in the world.

Of course, I have often been accused of being an adrenaline junky because of it, but I am far from that. I am just comfortable in that environment. It feels normal to me. It feels like I am home. Weird, I know, but I don’t have any other way to describe it.

With my partner in crime, Maritza Martinez. Tiger Beach Bahamas.

This year we are celebrating twenty years of running wildlife expeditions. It is crazy that I have made a career out of this, that showing people wild animals is my job. I am eternally grateful that I get to do what I do. I love helping people on their wildlife journeys, helping them make their dreams come true. Knowing that I am part of that makes me so happy, and gives me purpose.

Of course, without the love and support of my family, especially my wife, dad, and brother, none of this would have been possible. They believed in me and every single one of my crazy dreams. Why, I will never know. But they did.

As I write this blog, I wonder what compelled me to write this up. Then I remembered, it was a social media post that sparked it. Someone asked me to tell more of my story, so here it is. Well, a tiny piece of it. There is so much more there, motorcycle days, bull riding days, teenage years… but I don’t think this blog is the place to post those stories. But sharing where my crazy love for wildlife came from definitely is.

Writing this helped me to remember so many things I had forgotten about, so many great memories of my childhood started flooding back. Of course it wasn’t perfect, nobody’s is I guess. But the good for sure outweighed the bad, and the good is all I care about. It also helped me realize that this journey that I am on, the job that I have, the people that I share time with, and the wildlife I encounter - it has never been a career with wildlife I am chasing… it has always been about living out a little kid’s dreams.

Thanks for reading.

Eli Martinez

January 3, 2023

Happy New YEAR and 20 Years of Expeditions!

Eli Martinez

January 3, 2023

Well, a new year is here, and I am so grateful. Grateful to be alive and healthy, grateful that my loved ones are alive and healthy… and grateful for a new year full of possibilities and promise.

This will be an exciting year, and I can't wait to kick it off and get out into the world again.

I took a nice and much-needed break from travel and social media and just off-gassed from a long and fantastic season. 2022 was a tough and wonderful year.

On my personal journey, it was a challenging year, but on our professional one, it was an outstanding year with a lot of wildlife and beautiful moments out in the world; from orcas in Baja to mountain gorillas in Uganda, it was wild and unique and beautiful and just, Damn, Damn, Damn.

We did so much traveling. The year was so taxing, and I did not keep up with my writing and posting toward the end. Unfortunately, it seems I have a track record of doing that. I start strong, but towards the end of the season, I end up just exhausted and not writing or editing videos as I should be.

I apologize for that, and I will keep my postings much more regularly for you guys.

Anyway, onto 2023 and a new and magical year… It is here, and I am fired up for a new season of trips, especially since this is our 20th anniversary. Yes, sir, (or Ma’am), it has been 20 years of running trips, and I am completely blown away by that.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have seen this in my future and what I would be doing with my life; organizing wildlife adventures and bringing people with me to experience these amazing animals. It is crazy.

Our first expedition, May 2003, for sand tiger sharks off North Carolina.

The reality is I could have never done this without you all. Thank you so much for allowing us to introduce you to these wild places and for trusting me with your time and lives. I am forever grateful to you all.

Jaguar

Jaguar hunting off the Northern Pantanal. Wildlife photography expeditions with Eli Martinez.

Above are a few group photos from past expeditions. Click the button to see a gallery of images from our years of adventures.

IMAGES

If I wanted to create a highlight reel of all the years we have been organizing trips, it would be a nightmare to figure out how to tell the story. There are so many memories and moments that we have experienced... Where would I start?

All of it really feels like a dream.

Of course, it wasn't a perfect 20 years, I did have some hard times in there, but the beauty and the magic definitely shined way brighter than those dark moments. But hey, that is life. Life will constantly challenge you, which is ok. Life is often so messed up that you might as well go right to the crazy.

And crazy it has been.

With a lot of magic, and beauty mixed in there, with very special souls - of course, I am referring to the humans and the animals we have shared these adventures with. It has all been imperfectly perfect. The funny thing is I now realize that perfection comes in little moments, but I will take them all… All 20 years' worth of them.

It has been amazing, and thankfully it is not over. We are just getting started. 2023 is going to be another epic year, and I can't wait to get back out there with you all, sharing the stories and images from these places with you.

So again thank you for sharing this journey with me, and reading our blogs and watching our videos, and just being a part of our crazy world. I will end this New Years' Blog here… wishing you all a Happy New Year! May it be filled with love, adventures, and magic.

…with lots of love from the SDM Crew.

Eli Martinez

January 21, 2022

Anaconda Diving Video

Eli Martinez

January 21, 2022

We finally created a vlog from our anaconda diving expedition. This was one of the best days I have experienced here in the water. It was an amazing time spent with good friends in an epic setting with amazing wildlife. This was taken from day three of our second week in Brazil. I am going to be cutting a couple more videos from this trip, but for now, here is this one. I hope you enjoy!

Eli Martinez

January 5, 2022

The New Year Begins!

Eli Martinez

January 5, 2022

Photographing sperm whales. Image by Jean F. Dobois

It is Monday, and the new week, to a new year has officially begun. So for all of you that have kicked it off with New Year Resolutions, we wish you all the best with them - We hope you achieve them all.

For those of you that did not create any NY resolutions - good for you, for not wanting or needing to start the year out that way.

I always kick off the year with new goals. I set travel goals, business goals, personal goals, and weight goals. In my past, some goals I accomplished, some I did not, especially that weight goal of mine. That one always seems to fall short, damn it.

But, this year, I do hope to fulfill my NY goal list. It just means more fun and a much more fulfilling year once I do., and my wetsuit will fit better. lol

Diving with a blue whale. Image by Graeme Purdy

Photographing green anaconda. Image by Daniel De Granville

One of my more important goals is to stay connected with you all via newsletters, blogs, and vlogs. I seem always to start out strong, and by the time our summer season arrives, the blogs get further and further apart.

Travel life can be taxing on a storyteller's soul. Of course, travel is where we thrive and find the stories that we share. But, some days are just emotionally draining on your soul.

So sometimes when you reach the end of the day, and you are have nothing left to give, you just do not feel like document your day. I have been there so many times. Some days are just emotionally draining on your soul. But reflecting, I need to remember that this is where the heart and soul of a story lies, in those moments.

photographing humpback whales. Image by Pat Ford

However with the craziness of our new global realities, I am no longer taking our ability to travel and see the world for granted. With how regulated many places are, I will be documenting everything, everywhere we go, and I will be sharing a lot more with you all. And - I invite you to keep me in check if I start slipping. Call me out on that shit please.

But I promise I will not this year. I have been really wanting to document an entire season from start to finish, I have never done that, but this year I will make it happen.

Anyway, the year has begun and the work starts. We do not begin our travel season until January 30, so until that time, I will be sharing past stories, from previous adventures that I have yet to share.

Until then…

Wishing you guys a beautiful start to the new year. I hope it is filled with a lot of love, light, and adventures!

Photographing a spectacled caiman. Image by Juca Ygarape

Eli Martinez

December 26, 2021

Thank You 2021 For Your Magic!

Eli Martinez

December 26, 2021

I am trying to figure out how to tell the story of our year. It was so good, and we were able to experience so much magic and beauty out in the world. I am filled with gratitude because of it. The first place I will start is with our guests who traveled with us this year… THANK YOU so much. Especially after the craziness, we all experienced last year. You guys traveling with us means everything. We get to do what we do because of you, and we don’t take that for granted.

With the uncertainty of 2020, we were not sure we would be able to continue traveling, and doing what we do - thankfully the world started opening up, and we were able to visit a few places. We still had a few trips that had to be postponed until 2023 but we were grateful that most of the places we had planned to visit remained open. I plan to cut together an end-of-season video, something I used to do annually. The last one I created was back in 2019. Those videos are always fun to put together, and I am looking forward to working on one again. But what to do and how to do it?

I am thinking it will be ready around the middle of January, which is in a couple of weeks. Damn it is weird saying that already. For now, I will share a few short stories with some of my favorite images captured on some of our trips from this season. The wildlife we experienced was so good, and the photo and video opportunities the animals gave us were priceless.

The grey whale season was really good this year. I was racking my brain trying to figure out what image to share in this blog, because we did have a lot of opportunities, as the whales were so interactive with us. There are no words to describe the feeling of having a wild and free whale swim up to the boat and ask a human for a face rub. The fact that these very intelligent species have forgotten, or chosen to forget that they were once hunted to the brink of extinction in this very Bay, says a lot about these animals and their perfection. So I chose this bubble blowing whale for my share on this blog, even though this is not my most favorite capture of the trip, its my second favorite. The whales do this to clean out their baleen, getting rid of mud and other muck that might clog them up when they scrap the ocean floor for food.

Coastal bottlenose dolphin off the Baja coast. This was during our summer pelagic trip seeking out orcas, whales, mobula rays, and whatever else Baja offers. These adventures are full of surprises and so much fun, you never know what you are going to see when you are out there. Some of the fun is the topside action; breaching whales, mobula rays and of course dolphins. When I was capturing these images of these dolphins, I had to keep messing with my settings because these dolphins are so dark, I was having trouble capturing their details. I really thought I was seeing things, normally bottlenose dolphins are a grey color, and these guys are more of a dark grey when they are underwater, however, when the sun touches their skin, they look more black in color. Such beautiful animals.

One of the highlights of our year is having the opportunity to swim with these guys. I love how things have changed so much with how these animals are seen. There is still a lot of work to be done to change the publics perception, and maybe I am naive in this thinking, but I am holding onto hope that we one day will change how we see these animals. I will do my part to change that. We have been running these trips for 7 plus years now and I am always looking for ways to try and capture different images of the crocs, since the images are always pretty similar looking. I got lucky with the very top image of Gambit chasing a hang bait. I was originally trying to capture an image of Gambit coming up for a breath of air, with her eyes, just above the surface, but when she started chasing the bait, I managed a few shots that I really liked. The above pic of Gambit walking over some logs was pure luck. It created a very different look for my normal croc images.

There are no words on how to express our sperm whale expedition this season. It was easily one of the best trips we have ever experienced. It was a very emotional trip for me, just overwhelming. We had many days where the sperm whales wanted to play and interact with us. That is truly the stuff that dreams are made of. Trying to pick my favorite image from this trip was difficult, as the whales gave us so many opportunities to capture great images. The above image is not my best from the trip, but easily one of my favorite moments.

The back story; A pod of whales were swimming off and I decided to try and catch up to them to snap a few photos of the group. While in pursuit, this young moody female saw me swimming after them, she stopped swimming, turned around and swam towards me. She was clicking her sonar hard at me and then hit the brakes, opened her mouth wide open and scream/clicked at me. I don’t speak whale but I got the message loud and clear. She wanted me to back off and I did as she commanded. The experience is one I will always cherish and never forget.

Our anaconda diving expedition is always a great experience. Brazil itself is just one of the greatest places on the planet to find diverse wildlife. When I am there it feels like I am kid in a candy store, its just magical. During our two weeks there, we encountered 3 different female anacondas, all of them around 5 meters, if not bigger. One of the females had finished eating a capybara, or a marsh deer, and had a huge lump in her belly as she will be slowly digesting her meal over the next couple of months. The meal should sustain her for at least 6 months - if not longer. You can see a shot of her on my Blog header pic, love that shot of me with her. Image by my buddy Daniel.

We also encountered a fourth anaconda, but sadly this 5 meter snake was dead. She had tried to make a meal out of a wild hog, but these guys travel in family groups and as the snake was trying to eat it, the rest of the family swooped in and attacked it until it finally let the hog go. Sadly she did not survive that attack and died. After we found our dead snake, we encountered another big girl basking on the river bank. We spent the next two hours with her, which was a lot of fun. The above image is one I really liked showing not only the snake but our group swimming with her. LOVE this image.

Marlin season off Magdalena Bay Mexico was filled with every emotion you can think off. The reason is the weather made it challenging this year. We got our asses kicked around by the seas. But damn was it special. From blue whales to humpback whales, we experienced some epic magic out there. The marlin were a bit of a challenge to find in the beginning of the trip, only because they were so far out and with the weather we had trouble getting to the good spots safely. Once the conditions smoothed out, it was game on. Epic baitballs, and a lot of amazing encounters. Mouth open shots of marlin are not easy to capture, I have struggled to capture the perfect one. I am getting close and the shot I captured this year is one of my favorites, until we go back next season and do it again!

Tiger Beach was all time great this season. There were so many tigers, on both our trips this year. We normally run one in October and one in December. The December trip is a combo Tiger and Great hammerhead trip. The hammerhead part of the trip was great, but Tiger Beach was all time! This year, we were gifted with a massive school of horse eyed-jacks which made for amazing photo opportunities. I spent a lot of time trying to capture images of a tiger swimming into the school, this one was my favorite of the session.

I am left with moments and memories floating through my heart and soul. Thanks again to the beautiful people who joined us out there and for making these trips amazing. Our final images in our blog are from my phone. Just a few captures of the people and places that helped make these trips special. Until 2022… thank you again and thank you for reading.

Love you guys!

Eli Martinez

October 2, 2021

Anaconda Diving 2021 Photo Gallery

Eli Martinez

October 2, 2021

Brazil is a special place. The wildlife here is some of the most incredible you will ever encounter in our magical wildlife world. I love everything about this fantastic place, and I truly feel honored that I get to spend so much time here. It never feels like it's enough time, though. I leave always wanting more.

Sadly, they were working on re-cabling the internet at our hotel, so it was not working properly, which meant I could not share as much as I usually do for a trip like this, which kills me because something was going on every day. From troops of capuchin monkeys feeding and hanging around our hotel to giant anteaters seeking out food in the fields we were driving by on our way back to the lodge at the end of the day, to ponds filled with caiman, and we are talking about 200 plus caiman on the river banks. This place is just amazing.

We did have some magnificent snake encounters this season which was the main reason we visited Brazil. We ran two trips back to back. During our first week out there, we had one big female and a few male anacondas. Our female had recently eaten a capybara or a tapir, and she was so full she could barely move. It is impressive to see how her skin can stretch to accept prey that big in her body. Mind-blowing really. We spent a few days with her, but we were respectful and were careful not to stress her out. She was so lethargic from having eaten her meal that all she wanted to do was sleep.

Snapping an image of our big girl. You can see a bit of her face on the left. Image by Daniel Degranville

We found three big females and a dead one during our second week out there. While on the river, we found a dead six-meter snake in the river. Juka, our boat captain, saw her the previous week with some severe injuries after trying to catch and kill a peccary. Peccaries live in family groups, and the snake was mortally wounded by family members trying to help their kin escape, while our snake was trying to kill it - sadly she did not survive the encounter… it is the circle of life.

Juka snapping our big dead girl. Kinda filthy, but still cool.

After we saw that snake, we were all gutted, thinking that this would be our snake encounter for the day. But we continued searching the river for more wildlife and found another snake ( alive one of course), basking in the sun on the river bank. We spent an epic two hours with her. It was the kind of encounter you dream of having when you plan a trip like this. It was so great.

I really wish I had better signal while I was out there, because damn what an adventure it was. One of our best Brazil outings to date.

I am sharing this photo album I put together of both the wildlife and Behind the Scenes images of the fantastic moments we had out there. It was such a great trip. A huge thank you to our friends who joined us out there and made it special. Love you guys.

One of the highlights of the trip was crawling into an anaconda snake hole and capturing unique images of a resting snake.

Eli Martinez

September 22, 2021

I Said Goodbye to Brazil!

Eli Martinez

September 22, 2021

Looking at the full belly of a very big snake.

September 22, 2021 - I am back from Brazil, today is a travel day… writing this up in the Houston airport, and I have proper wifi again! Sadly the wifi at our hotel in Brazil was getting upgraded. So we did not have any wifi for me to update our blogs for you all. I am working on a trip report to share two weeks' worth of craziness. Not sure how I am going to write it up, but it will be fun. The sad part is that I was not able to give nightly updates because this trip was so good. But I will do my best to capture the spirit and essence of what this trip was… a pure raw, off-the-beaten-path adventure in search of a very elusive giant snake.

Of course, if the only reason we went to Brazil were for the snakes, then we would be missing out on what the heart and soul of the Pantanal wetlands are. It is so rich with natural beauty and wildlife both on land and in the water. It is just a fantastic place.

So this blog was just to let you know that I miss writing and sharing and am happy to be back in an area where I can, and I will update you guys with a lot of images and possibly a short video vlog edited by my buddy Steve. I regret not getting more underwater video, but I was hell-bent on capturing stills for this trip. So I am hoping I will have a few clips to share for that in it as well.

I would get straight onto the trip report, but sadly I have a couple of things that need my attention first. That family emergency I mentioned in my last blog still needs attending too, and I have an article deadline that I missed due to Brazil and the family thing. My latest article for The Journal of Wildlife Photography fall issue is way overdue. So I will be writing through the weekend to get it to them by Monday. In the meantime. I thought I would get this up and to you to let you know I missed you guys, missed sharing stories and images with you all. I am hoping this storm passes quickly so I can get back to some normalcy in my world.

As always, thank you guys for reading!

Eli Martinez

September 7, 2021

Brazil and the HIGHS and lows of travel life.

Eli Martinez

September 7, 2021

September 7, 2021 - I am in Brazil. No words can express how blessed I feel to be back in this magical place. I have been dreaming of returning here every day since the last time I was here. This is one of my most favorite places in the world. I should be over the moon with excitement. Sadly the truth is I am not. Recent family events have cast an enormous shadow on my excitement of being here and leaving home. Getting on that plane yesterday afternoon was one of the hardest things I have had to do in a very long time.

Thankfully no one has died. No one is sick. It is just a very low moment for me and my loved ones… I could put on a game face and pretend that all is perfect in my world, but that would not be right. Part of sharing the travel life is sharing those low moments as well. On the bright side… I am hoping for some amazing news from home that will remove this dark cloud, but until then, I sit in my hotel room in Campo Grande, over thinking things and working hard to muster up some good vibes to send out to the universe.

Anyway, off my soap box and onto some details about why we are here, and why you read this blog. It is that time… anaconda diving. Yup, it is time to go seek out the largest slithering reptile on the planet, the green anaconda. The largest green anaconda on record was 29 feet long (8.8 meters) and 550 pounds. Now that is one giant ass snake. I hope that our guests who are joining us for this trip find a few snakes like this to swim with.

Unfortunately, they are not easy to find, and each year, thanks to poachers, fear, and ignorance, they are becoming more scarce. Thankfully the private lands we visit during this trip protect the snakes there. So they do have some refuge here in Brazil, which is amazing.

Green anaconda from our 2018 expedition.

Like every trip we run, these are wild animals not from a zoo, so we have to search for them, and nature is nature - she is going to do what she does, and sometimes is not very kind. Thankfully we have been fortunate on our trips here, and I feel terrific about our chances of seeing some big girls. The females of the species are the ones with size. The males are normal-sized snakes. So with some luck, which we have on our side, we will find some snakes.

So the adventure begins tomorrow! I arrived a day early to ensure that I would get here on time. Unlike my Dominica flights, things went smooth - no late flights, an empty row for my 9-hour plane ride, no crazy customs, and no missing bags… it was nice. Our friend Pooja arrived here in Campo Grande with me, and tomorrow morning, we pick up our buddies Julian and Stefan at the airport and go off to Bonito.

The new adventure begins… now all we need are some giant snakes, and some good news from home.

Thanks for reading.