20- to 30-feet long, the largest snake in the world. A constrictor, though, but living in the river. Only dangerous when its tail is anchored, because it only has that. So all those Indiana Jones pictures, all the movies, people wrestling with anacondas, and Charlie Brewer's got one, you know, really big anacondas, they're helpless as long as someone out of shot is holding the tail up. The minute he lets go and it gets hold of anything, you move fast.

The anaconda is the very, very worst. And once it get into your imagination, it's horrible. Because on the Siapa, these dark brown waters... the Rio Negro you can see into, full of tannins. But you just don't know what's there. And lots, you've got to remember, lots and lots of vegetation floating down. Lots of things look like the top of an anaconda's head, and to know it's no bigger than a rat, but behind it is 30 feet and it's that thick. They're not very sensitive, probably. No good sort of pleading for yourself.