Today started off with another one of the most beautiful sights we have ever seen in our lives. Watching the sunrise while being sat in middle on the Amazon river was perfect especially with the river reflecting the light back up off the water made it an unbelievably surreal experience.
To top off our morning when then went bird and dolphin watching which helped having hardly a cloud in the sky. Seeing a school of grey dolphins and numerous birds including hawks, macaws and loads of other colourful birds. We have never been ones for bird watching but on this incidence it was even worth the 5:30 start.
After a little break for breakfast we headed back out the the forest this time going on land. This was for a two and half hour trek looking at some off the medicinal plants that the jungle had to offer. Finding the source of vix, cures for malaria and contraception as well the scent of rosewood all combined when touched made a delightful aroma from our hands. Also along the journey we were allowed the put our hand in an ants nest which immediately had hundreds of ants crawling on your hands within two seconds but they only bite when they get to your clothes. There was also the opportunity for a mid-trek snack of firefly lava which tasted a lot like coconut. The guide also showed us they climb trees to reach fruit at the top which I must add was made to look easy. After numerous members off the group tried and were unsuccessful we had a new found respect for the indigenous people.
The real fun of the day and highlight of our whole trip then started in the evening. Four of us then headed into the jungle seeing the black monkey on route as well as more dolphins before chopping wood off the trees and mooring up in the middle of the jungle. The lads then were challenged to chop the wood for the fire while Abigail had to chop garlic to marinate the chicken and make sure it was prepared for cooking.
After two of the three lads (the lazy Italian apparently had better things to do) had chopped the wood and Abigail and prepared the food we had to start and maintain our camp fire which seemed no easy feat. Finally after a little while we got in going and cooked our food. With the rice and pineapple being delicious it was the grilled chicken which was no word of a lie, one of the best meals We have ever eaten with us both happily tucking into seconds and then thirds.
Once we had polished off the last of the chicken we put up our hammocks which had bats in the roof but more of a worry was that they were accompanied by hundreds of spiders, some of which we had been informed were poisonous. With a hurried attempt we put them up and went off crocodile and snake hunting. When we came out through the trees into the main river we were greeted by another view which literally took your breath away. The river again reflected the light but this times from the stars and moonlight. With nothing but natural light we had a romantic journey down the river which photos could not even come close to capturing. After, our guide called out to the crocodiles which they appeared to respond to and we saw a 3 metre long one swimming in the water. He then caught us another cayman to explain the dangerous species in detail before letting him back into the wild. Thankfully there were no face to face encounters with snakes and we have survived.
We then got into our hammocks and attempted to go to sleep. With a lazy Italian finally choosing to contribute to the group by snoring loads we thought it may keep the animals away although we did have a skunk come a couple of metres from our camp in the middle of the night. Thankfully nothing bigger than that we are aware of.