Nut Rings and Bean Piercing in the Jungle Jewellery Shop

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Today was our third and final day in the jungle and we were going to be making our own jewellery - cool!

After a leisurely breakfast with the other group, we headed back into the jungle with Angel, our guide, and spent a good hour forraging for nuts, beans and seeds to make into our very own necklaces and rings. On the way we saw loads more fascinating insects and spiders and Angel showed us a type of fungus that tribesfolk often use for writing on.

Surprisingly, it was Angel who was also going to show us how to make our jungle jewellery and he soon had us all working hard. While Glynn and Regula sawed off thin slices of a particularly tough nut that would form the centrepiece of our necklaces, Mathias and I busied ourselves with some decidedly non-jungle sandpapering and boring holes through some of the beans and berries we had found earlier.

After a couple of hours' hard graft, the completed necklaces were ready and I have to say they are absolutely brilliant! As if that wasn't enough, Angel then crafted us a couple of rings out of another type on nut that grows here in the jungle - how cool is that?!

Alas that was the final part of our amazing tour in the Amazon and with a heavy heart, we packed up and made our way back to the boat bound for Rurrenabaque. The sun was shining and all was well with the world as we sat back and enjoyed the river breeze on our 1.5 hour trip back to civilisation.

We decided to follow the Swiss couple's lead and checked into the Hotel Santa Ana, which was basic but had a ceiling fan and private ensuite for just 70 Bs a night (less than five pounds). After enjoying our first shower in 3 days, we met up for dinner at the Casa de Como where we had a wonderful homecooked meal and several beers to toast our excellent adventure. then we headed to the Inca Land Tours office to meet up with Angel and another chap from our camp whose name escapes me. off we went for yet more beers and plenty of laughs even though Angel and his friend couldn´t speak a word of English!

By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were all pretty worse for wear and simply ended up crashing out for the night. That wasn't before I spotted a small collection of geckos clinging to the ceiling by the outside light near our room. Being a bit of a gecko lover, this was without doubt the perfect way to end yet another fantastic day. Thank you inca Land Tours - you're the best!!!

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Photos

Jungle Posse
left to right: Glynn, Mathias, Regula, Rike, Sarah, Simon and Lizzie.

Shy Guy
Glynn tries to hde his modesty, even though he's fully dressed!

Mushroom Messages
Angel and Jude say it with fungus.

Bug Alert
Another colourful bug poses for a picture.

More Bugs
Another of Glynn's arty photos for you!

War Paint
Simon and Jude get their faces painted with some jungle rouge courtesy of Angel and Renee (the one with the machete at Jude's neck!).

Hacked Off
It took Glynn several attempts to saw off a straight bit of nut as the saw balde was so wonky!

Voila!
The finished necklace. Doesn't he look lovely?

Dining Room
The shack where we ate all our tasty meals. Shame we had to share the table with the ants though!

Cater-spiller
This giant caterpillar was about 10 inches long and apparently oozes something nasty and dagerous if you toucvh it!

Messing About on the River
On our way back to Rurre.

Slow Boat
The river was a lot calmer on the return jounrey.

Jungle Huts
People really do live in the jungle!

Geckos!
Jude was happy to see these little fellas in the Hotel Santa Ana.

Comments

[mom and dad]

jungle
hi kids glad to see you had a good time in the jungle the pics are awsome im glad jude is ok i would probably had sunk its a good job glynn was there for you cant wait to see you both not long now love mom and dad take care love you x x x for jish x x