Beneath one of the 100+ bridges along the Transpantaneira road, we saw our first Yacare Caimans. Several little babies frolicked near their large watchful mother. They all quickly disappeared beneath the murky water, but the babies popped up again after a few moments in order to get their pictures taken.

Later that day we reached our first lodge which, like most places in the Pantanal, was chock full of additional caimans.

The next day we saw a few dozen more, mostly basking on the edges of waterways and ponds.

On warm mornings, many of the basking caimans would hold their mouths open for thermoregulatory reasons, and also no doubt to look more friendly. Some of these had black spots visible on their exposed palates, which rather disgustingly were in fact attached leeches.

We saw hundreds of these caimans in our nine days in the Pantanal. Here are a couple more photos from the Transpantaneira road as we headed back to "civilization".