Deep into the Jungle

After a lovely full nights sleep (the first so far), off we went into the Jungle; Emma and I, Guide and Cook... fully equipped with hammocks, mosquito nets and welly boots! A two hour canoe ride down the river with a continued lesson on how to interpret the guide´s point to the middle of a load of trees saying "look", and after a couple of minutes of more specific location questioning we ask "what´s that"... replies ranged from "a kingfisher", "a fly-catcher"...

We pulled into a tiny "river", really just a mud bank with a little water at the bottom, through we went (cue disembarking of guide and cook to push the little canoe across the mud), and pulled into a little secluded lake - "okay, this is the camp". Off we pop to a 4mx5m patch of flat leaf-free ground with a fire smouldering (fishermen apparently) with a few trees ready for hammock and net apparal, in the woods. And now we meet the mosquitos, flies, wasps, ants (who are all huge by the way). Hammocks tested, lunch cooked and off we go for a quick canoe ride and walk through the jungle... swamped in mosquito repellant, welly booted up, following our two machete-happy friends: Ray Mears eat your heart out! During the afternoon the heavens opened - while Em and I hid under the plastic sheet, off went our two friends to play in the river to fish (apparently) - in their pants.

Night canoe ride for animal spotting, saw a few sleeping birds, the tiniest sleeping bat that looked like a leaf on the end of a branch (about the size of my thumb) and a sleeping frog which would later keep us awake by making a ridiculous amount of noise trying to attract friends... Couldn´t get the canoe back across the mud bank, so left it on the other side and had to wallow through the mud, in the dark...

Morning arrived too early, breakfast, packed up camp and off into the canoe for our next camp-site(!) After some machete slashing to create some space, up went the hammocks, nets - and into them when Rachel and Emma to escape from those pesky mosquitos, who had happily feasted on us both during the previous day and night. Insect repellant doesn´t work as well as I´d like! Off into the canoe for a proper jungle walk, with thick leaf floor, no trace of human existance at all... only the footprints of a jaguar. A few caterpillars later we exited.

Next day, off to monkey spot. A final night in the lodge (what luxury, a shower!). And a long boat journey back to the boat, via pink dolphin spotting.... baby-pink colour ... photos to follow!