South America 2007

Jungle was great!!! Stayed with a river family a couple of nights and the kids were adorable, man they know how to fight, they move their hands so bloody quick! The 5 year old tried to beat me up when he first saw me - guess hes more used to jaguars than humans!

Got a boat from Iquitos that dropped us off in the middle of nowhere - had to literally get off the boat into the amazon river and walk in the pitch dark, with water up to my waist, while my guide was making strange monkey noises trying to get the attention of the river family to fetch a canoe!

It was a truely amazing experience. After staying with the family a couple of nights we headed further up the river in our canoe and found a good spot to camp. This was when the real adventure began. As pretty much everything in the amazon is nocturnal, and when night comes so does every creepy crawly you can imagine start surfacing from the ground - if I once had a fear of snakes and spiders - I dont now!

Camping outside on nothing but a bed of leaves it not the wisest move in the world. Basically got eaten alive by mosquitos and my whole body is covered in bites. One night even had a jaguar circling my bed, although luckily had a machete near by, which became my new best friend.

The scariest moment was the first time out on the canoe at night in search of alligators. I was ducking and diving under the trees as the guide was navigating the canoe through the dark when I felt something really heavy fall on me from one of the trees. I reached for my torch as it was pitch black (bad move!) I didnt know transulas were THAT big!!! I freaked out as it was slowly crawling up my chest towards my face, I jumped up in the canoe and it nearly capsized - dont think the amazon has ever heard such a scream! Shoutiung i'm a celebrity get me out of here doesn't quite work in this neck of the woods. My guide - who I nick-named Mogley was great though and thew it off into the river, phew!!!

Was sad to come back to the city although learned loads of useful jungle survival techniques as Mogley knew absolutely everything you could want to know about the jungle. Leaned how to navigate the canoe at night by following the shadows of the trees, how to get fresh water from under the ground and even how to signal if you are lost by banging a tree with the machete 3 times - it actually works! The jungle kids are taught this from a young age for if they get lost, if someone is out there they respond with 2 tree strikes and come to find you! How cool is that!

Saw loads of wild animals - monkeys, pink dolphins, tucans, condors, parots, snakes, spiders, toads, alligators. Also tried loads of strange fruits and learned about the different botanical medicines. On the last night even found the courage (and a mixture of necesity as I stank!) to take the canoe out into the amazon in the dark and shower myself with a bit of balancing and a bowl (decided to leave the tourch at camp this time though!)

For dinner we ate fried grubs, fried ants, tree bark and the fish that we caught. yum yum!

Amazing experience, cant wait to go back in, just have to wait for my bitten skin to calm down

So i´ve decided to go back into the Amazon via northern Paraguay or Bolivia in a couple of months time.