A long, cramped, hot bus later we got to the Cuyabeno Bridge (We left at 11:45pm the night before and arrived at 11:20am the next day), the first thing was this was the start of the internet detox then second thing was I forgot to look at my emails to see which lodge we were going to be in.......So we just attached onto a group we assumed would be our jungle buddies but after eating a free lunch with them were told to go to our own group (we thought we were!). We met our Guide Ellias and our two new Mexican Jungle Friends and set off down the river in our boat. The commute to the lodge was 2 and a half hours via boat, which was extended due to our boat breaking down at some point (not scared at all.....). We spent the boat ride watching as Ellias would pin point birds, Monkeys, insects & Flora from the top of the boat and explain everything about them (He is like a walking top trumps for the Amazon!). Getting to the hostel we didn't have much time from putting our bags down, having lunch to getting back in the boat to watch the sunset over the lagoon! Apparently the water has a lot of Caiman, Piranhas, Anacondas and other friendly water creatures but Ellias told us it's fine to swim in (Maybe a little heat stroke but it sounded like a great idea so in we went!). Once darkness hit and lightening lit up the sky and thunder echoed through the jungle using flashlights we could see the about 30 Caiman who were watching us from the shore by the glint in their eye's! Getting back to the lodge and going for a Shower we walked in on a bat in our bedroom, leading to me, Ellias and our new Mexican Hero trying to get him out! But it wouldn't be our luck just to have one crawly in the room, after dinner we found a tarantula in the bathroom (Sarah was not keen on having to stay in the jungle another 4 nights!).

The clouds had opened and it was torrential, The first rain in a few weeks for this section of the jungle so the water level was already low, but we learned that no matter the weather the plan doesn't change so rain ponchos on we went for a hike through the jungle (The Ponchos do nothing my t-shirt is still wet! It's so humid that clothes doesn't dry unless they are directly in the sun!). Looking like a cult on our way to a sacrifice we marched through the jungle learning a lot about the local wildlife and about Ellias' wit, jokes about things killing us! (Nearly every tree has something going on with their roots, the walking tree moves around 20 - 30cm each year by growing a new root above ground and abandoning it's old roots). We got back to find we had grown our group by 2 more, A Belgium and Australian! We caught up on some rest before heading back out on the hunt for more animals, We found Caiman and a handful of some more snakes and other crawlys! Getting back to the lodge Sarah me on a mission seal team 6 would be proud of as I expertly swept the room for anymore uninvited guests!

The storms broke and we were back to extreme heat and brief sprays of rain. We jumped back into our boat with a noticeable difference.....there was no motor and it was replaced with oars. We ventured downstream for what seemed like hours (because it was.....) stopping every so often to stretch our legs and take a walk around a new part of a jungle to try climb vines like Tarzan, fall down mud banks, try eating a few branches and insects (not all bad). We eventually made it to a section of jungle where we docked the boat and hiked an hour to the local village in which we assisted in the baking of Yuca Bread from the digging up of the Yuca (like a big jungle potatoe) to the eating of the bread we made of it! We were then treated to a sit down with the village Shaman, who after getting us to drink "fire water" and giving us a lecture on Ayahuasca (He did not want to share) he proceeded to beat us with nettles (no clue, something about proving power but was really just assault) and various other rituals (I have a very good Aura apparently......gold star to me!). We ventured back thankfully in a motorboat that Ellias had arranged and we met the final few people on our trip, a family from Columbia and a German Student. We ventured into the jungle for a night hike where we stumbled across lots of creepy crawlys but the best was the Bullet Ant Nest!

We bid farewell to our Mexican Jungle friends before getting back into our man powered canoe for more paddling, trekking and searching for more flora and fauna. The lagoon we were paddling in apparently contained Manatees, Black Caiman, Anacondas, Electric Eels, Stingrays and water snakes (but the water was so murky Atlantis could of been under there and we'd have had no clue! We did however see Pink Dolphins in the river (The name is a little misleading as they are pretty grey apart from when they are particularly active!). We went back to our normal lagoon for an evening swim at sunset and a substantial photoshoot on our part! We got back into the boat (which proved a bit difficult and as I'm writing this a bit more than a week later I am currently in a sling from whatever I tore doing this!). Breaking down the multi-lingual language barrier that night we all sat around (Ellias included) to play Bullshit, playing it with your friends is hard enough but strangers makes the game particularly difficult!

We took off on a gentle river paddle, bird watching and animal spotting. We seen a few troops of monkeys, toucans, sloths and eagles before we settled down for a spot of fishing in which myself and Ellias were the only ones to hook and catch some piranhas! We eventually had to bid our farewells and got back on the motor boat back 3 hours to our bus for another 12 hours home (Was not looking forward to that part!).