The Amazon Rainforest

Wow... The Amazon was great - we went on some long hikes through the jungle in very humid conditions - hard work, but interesting and the views were well worth it. To get there we took a 3 hour bus journey to a town called Tena, from where we jumped onto a pick-up truck (literally - 5 of us rode in the back!) for 30 mins to where our canoe was. The canoe ride was very relaxing - all in one big long canoe 2-people wide for about 30 mins. We had to walk for about an hour from where the canoe dropped us off until we arrived at the community - Chuva Urcu.

They were wood huts - raised from the ground to prevent flooding. Two bedrooms, one for the couples and Fernando, and one for the four other girls. Very comfortable, and good food - mostly rice and plantain with chicken or beef and veg. We were told lots about the different plants in the rainforest and what the community used them for in terms of healing and Shamanistic things. Our guide from the community, Salomon, was friendly and informative but didn't speak any English so Fernando had to translate everything. We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife other than insects, but it was still good.

Coming back posed a few problems as it had rained hard in the night and the river was flooded so we had to find an alternative route to catch the canoe. We travelled for a few minutes in the canoe and then we had opted to go tubing down the rest of the river so we all collected a tyre inner tube, stripped down to our swimwear and let the river take us down to the stopping point. Salomon felt bad that we hadn´t been able to see any wildlife so we stopped into an animal sanctuary off the river after the canoe picked us and our tubes up. It was good, but we didn't really have time to change or anything so we went on a 20 minute whirlwind tour of the sanctuary in our bikinis and wellies!

I'm completely covered in mozzie bites though. All have swollen up and are very itchy, and I look like I've got some nasty disease :o(

A half-hour pick-up journey back to Tena and we caught the bus to Baños...

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