Image of Spectacled caiman

Description:

This was interesting. I had on knee high rubber boots and was wading through muck at the edge of a lagoon looking for dragonflies. I got my foot stuck in the mud and was making quite a disturbance in the water trying to get unstuck. Suddenly there was a big splash right next to my foot and looking down there was about a 4 foot long caiman withing 12 inches of my boot. We stared each other down for about 20 seconds and I finally managed to get my tripod legs between the caiman and my foot and was able to free myself. All the time the caiman did not move. I took two shots of the critter and went on my way. Not sure if he was hungry or curious but neither of us was the worse for the encounter.