The Amazonian rainforest ... you hear about it but you don't realise how impressive it is until you get there! When the plane started its descent towards Coca, near the Napo river, you suddenly takes in the enormity of the rainforest. It stretches until the horizon line (the Amazonian basin surface apparently equals the US territory surface) and the forest is really dense and dark, with a cloud of mist hanging above it. As soon as we stepped out of the plane the humidity & heat grabbed us. That's when we started feeling apprehensive and excited at the same time. Apprehensive because it is a an hostile environment for humans, excited because it is a mystical and truly unique place !

We stayed in the Selva lodge, deep in the jungle . We got there after a 3hr canoe ride on the river. And because it is the RAINforest after all, half way through the journey a torrential rain poured on us and being clearly so well organised we had meticulously packed our ponchos at the bottom of our bag and placed it on a different boat. 1.5 hours under the rain left us with nothing dry. And again in the humid rainforest, nothing dries, so wet is pretty much the state we spent most of our trip into !!!

We spent the next 3 days getting up at 5.30 (to avoid the midday heat wave) and doing excursions in the jungle to get more and more familiar with it. The 2 things that struck us most when we set foot for the first time in the jungle were how noisy the jungle is : Millions of insects, bugs, and birds of all sorts sing non-stop. It is very impressive and slightly unnerving when you try to go to sleep :) The second striking thing is how big everything is. The trees are huge, the leaves are enormous, the insects are growing on amphetamines: we saw giant snails as big as your fist, giant ants that eat frogs (!!) , massive tarantulas...etc .

Of course , everything is highly venomous ! Needless to say that at first we were closely walking on the heels of our guides, nervously looking around us every 2 seconds, half expecting to feel a spider or snake falling on our shoulders. Andy regularly entertained us by screaming as soon as a vine hit him, as well as frantically searching under the bed and blankets with his torch light every night to ensure no nasty spiders/bugs had decided to share his bed :)

Our 2 guides, Rodrigo and Bernardo were great - both born and raised in the jungle, they had learned everything from their grand-fathers from medecinal plants to jungle hunting methods. Thanks to them we managed to see dozens of insects, reptiles and birds species, in spite of their highly elaborate camouflage colours. Our favourites finds: baby boa constrictor that our guide wrapped around our neck !!, bright yellow toucan, hyperactive cappucin monkeys, red tarantulas and scorpio spider.

Going on a canoe ride on the river at night to watch the caimans was also a key highlight of our trip. Armed with a powerful torch, we were softly gliding on the water trying to catch in our beam light the caimans eyes at the surface of the river. Because they're cold blooded creatures, when you get close enough their eyes turn red into the light, which is fairly impressive ! One of our fellow traveller went swimming into the river in the daylight, but Andy and I didn´t gather enough courage to do it . They tell you it is safe, but the river is infested with 7m anacondas, pirhanas, caimans and other delightful and friendly creatures. Apparently they leave humans in peace but we didn't feel  like risking it....:)

In summary, we simply fell in love with the Amazonian jungle and were gutted to leave it. Our pictures won't do it justice as you can't capture its dense and magical atmosphere, nor get an idea of its scale....but you'll at least get to see some of the nasty bugs that frightened Andy :)

Tomorrow we're leaving Quito. We're setting off for Tena in the East of the country. It's carnival time in Ecuador and we're going to stay with Rodrigo (our guide) and his family for the week-end to celebrate the carnival in a "authentic" style. Which means a lot of salsa dancing and drinking ! It promises to be a wild week-end !!! See u in a while !