A Viper – Definitely Not a Garter Snake

Week 2. 21:10 on Tu 13 May 2019. Parque Ambue Ari, Beni province, Bolivia

For this episode of “How Clueless is Steph When it Comes to Jungle Life,” let me introduce the topic of snakes! I’ll preface this by saying that snakes are far less than my favorite creature because I never see them until I’m about to step on them; their unexpected motion gives me a heart attack and causes my heart to race a mile a minute as I jump like a cartoon character. For obvious reasons, I try to avoid these encounters. Very wise of me to head to the jungle, eh?

We’d wrapped up morning tasks and breakfast with the anuncio (announcement) that there were no anuncios for the day. Wanting to visit the baño before I headed out of camp for the morning, I walked past the dorm buildings and showers to continue down the more narrow dirt path to the brick baño building. Shin height plants grew along both sides of the path.

As I glanced farther down the path I realized that there was a small snake on the trail about ten meters ahead of me. Amazing! I didn’t jump or experience a racing heart! What a treat. Figuring someone else might like to see it and maybe identify it for me, I turned back to the dorms and found Camille, a friendly French Canadian whose response was “oooh.”

We looked at the snake for a couple minutes, and Camille thought maybe it was the type of snake that tries to imitate the dangerous coral snake. We got the attention of another campmate, and he raised the stakes of this snake’s danger when he said it was a viper. A viper! This 30 cm snake blocking my way from the toilet was a venomous, aggressive creature? I never would have guessed it. Until deciding to share the discovery with others, my plan had been to simply take a large step over the snake and continue on to do my duty. Good thing I didn’t, as now I’ve been informed that any time I see a snake I should give it a very wide berth. I’m not in the land of harmless garter snakes any more.

As we looked at the snake, we called others over to get a look. Eventually one of the local Bolivian guys was asked to remove the snake from our area, so we all watched as he harassed the snake by trying to pick it up and carry it with a stick.

Once the danger had been removed, I was able to visit the baño. Hopefully there will be no more such encounters; despite the fun of seeing new wildlife, I don’t really need to meet snakes in the jungle.

Wild animals seen around camp so far:
howler monkeys, spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, chanchos (wild pigs), a tarantula, and a viper