From Cali we flew to Leticia, a city which lies in a tiny strip of land sticking out from the southern tip of Colombia in the middle of Amazonia (the Amazon Basin - just seeing it on the map made us want to go there). Leticia is the capital of the Amazonas province, the largest city for hundreds of kilometres and very remote: 800km from the nearest highway! Flying in was very exciting: just miles and miles of rainforest and then suddenly out of nowhere, a tiny landing strip. Leticia is located on the Amazon river, at the point where Colombia, Peru and Brazil meet - and it was amazing to see the difference when you walked over the non-existent road border into Brazil, where suddenly from one shop to the next the shop names change language, the beer was Brazilian and my rather minimalist Portuguese was having to come in to use! It was from Leticia that we embarked on a 3-day trip into the Amazon rainforest, just seeing a tiny part really, as the Amazon jungle accounts for more than a third of Colombia's total area.

We set off on our trip after some necessary 'jungle prep' (stocking up on insect repellent, Simon trying to find some lightweight, jungle-appropriate trousers - which ended up being a pair of pyjama bottoms, which maybe also could have been chef trousers) along with two Germans and a Dutch guy, and our guides, Francisco and Pancho. We left that morning from Colombia, got into our boat at the Brazilian port and stopped off briefly at Peru immigration - three different countries in about 30 minutes. A 4-hour boat journey took us to our jungle camp - officially now in the Peruvian part - which was a basic, wooden structure on stilts above the river with some bedrooms and a communal eating area, and most importantly, about a dozen hammocks strung up on the rear deck.

The next few days were spent doing trips into the Amazon's tributaries, exploring both on foot and by boat, and learning about the flora and fauna, which happened to include some pretty scary rainforest inhabitants and some less-scary ones: on the first day we spotted a sloth, and met a baby one which seemed to be the pet of some local children; we went swimming in a part of the river where you can spot the greyish-pink dolphins typical of the area; in the afternoon it was piranha-fishing to add some extra fish to our dinner; and after dinner we went out in the boat to try and see some caimans (similar kin to crocodiles) - and it didn't matter that we didn't see anything for a while as it was just beautiful being out on the river in the moonlight. However as we neared some reeds, Pancho suddenly dived for something and before we knew it he had a caiman in his hands! Luckily it was only a baby one, as they can grow to 5m in length, and even though this little dude seemed pretty calm (blinded by our torch light apparently) I wouldn't want to come across its mama or papa.

The next day we went for a walk through the jungle and explored some more tributaries by boat, with the motor off - which is really the best way to experience the area's beauty, without the sound of the boat's motor, just paddling silently and moving through the flooded forest, it was so peaceful just listening to the natural sounds of the jungle, and was a surprising highlight of the trip. We came across giant lily pads - Vitória Régia, the largest lily pads in the world - which apparently can hold up to 20kg in weight each - the equivalent of both our backpacks, we didn't test it out. We also learnt about the jungle's many medicinal trees and plants, which local people use to cure various diseases and afflictions, such as stomach problems, diabetes and cancer. The other highlight that day was when Simon accidentally found the most ENORMOUS frog, by stepping on a rotten tree trunk (and almost on the frog in the process) - when Pancho lifted it up to show us it was like he was pulling some other-worldly creature from its home, as its size - like a big rabbit - and the noise it made (a sort of high-pitched squealing) was a total shock! We also saw and heard so many beautiful birds, including toucans, red-crested woodpeckers, herons, and some very pretty royal blue-coloured birds.

That afternoon was mostly spent helping Pancho and Francisco build our camp for the night, for we had chosen to spend the second night sleeping out in the jungle. It was very interesting seeing how our night's lodging was built from almost nothing, using just machetes and liana (vines) to secure everything (hammocks and trees etc) together. With our camp built, we set off for a night-walk, where we saw some extremely huge and hairy tarantulas, a scorpion, and a strange-looking mammal from the fox family (name unknown). By this point the mosquitoes' never-ending presence was pretty annoying - not helped by our head torches - and was pretty difficult to see where we were going (I hate to think what we stepped on, unknowingly) so the walk was a short one which I think everyone was pretty happy about! We headed back to our camp and lit a fire, which was a great help at keeping the mosquitoes and bugs at bay. It was all very calm and happy when we suddenly heard Pancho shout for Francisco, from the other side of the hammocks - hearing the urgency of his shout and curious as to what he had found, we all went over to where Pancho was standing, and looked at where his torch was shining - just metres from where our hammocks were set up was a rather huge snake, curled up. It was too dark to see Francisco's face turn white but I am sure it had done, as when he explained what it was he sounded pretty petrified: apparently it was an 'hergon' snake, one of the most lethal snakes in the Amazon, whose venom can kill a human within a day. The guides explained that our choice was to kill it, or scoot out of there pretty damn quickly - no-one was very happy about its discovery, and the group decision was that if it was the snake or us, the snake must go….so as the guides didn't want to get too close to it, they didn't use their machetes but just a very long branch to give the snake a few good thwacks over its head. When they thought it was dead they started to approach it, when suddenly it reared up and started hissing at us all pretty angrily (as you would), and I've never seen a bunch of grown men jump so high and we all legged it as far away as possible, leaving the guides to finish it off…this time the job was done and just to be sure they cut off its head with a machete. This certainly put a new spin on the nights accommodation choice, and some questioned whether to still spend the night there - I can smugly admit that Simon and I were the ones saying we should stay - and in the end we all decided to stay put, after all I am sure there was a whole host of wildlife right around us that we would not want to be aware of. The most obvious remedy to still the beating hearts and calm the nerves was to drink all the beer, rum and aguardiente we had brought with us, which did indeed seem to help.

The night in the jungle passed without further incident, relatively speaking…I'd forgotten that the romantic notions of sleeping out in the rainforest and going to sleep to the sound of the jungle, are not always as such…you are more likely to try fall sleep to your neighbour's beer-laden snores than anything else. A torrential rain storm in the night, which at least helped drown out the snoring, wasn't ideal when you had a hole in the tarpaulin cover above you, and I basically slept in a puddle for most of the night. Furthermore, when I first got into the hammock, it collapsed (too much fried Colombian food?) and the inside of the mossie nets were riddled with cockroaches - but after deadly snakes those seemed the least of our worries! So a good experience but I think it was with some relief when we arrived back to our previous camp on the side of the river, now a luxurious lodge in our eyes. However I felt most sorry for Francisco, our lovely guide, who said he didn't get a moment's sleep as he was up all night thanking God that none of us had wandered into the snake's path before it was discovered, and praying that nothing like that ever happened again. I felt bad that as a result of the 'tourists vs snake' incident, the snake - who after all was there first and it was us trespassing on his territory - ended up losing, and I have decided that as much fun as they are, these Amazon trips (or certainly this one) are not the most eco-friendly….cutting down a couple trees to build our camp, the guides trying to shake sloths down from trees, the local children keeping a pet sloth for tourists' interests and coins etc, all don't really go with this beautiful environment! One just hopes that the money one pays as a tourist to experience the Amazon, somehow goes towards maintaining it and supporting the local communities.

On our last day we visited a Peruvian community and family home, where they had a sort of Amazon animal rescue centre, with a number of rescued/domesticated animals including monkeys, birds, turtles and even an anaconda….not wanting to be outdone by all the all-male group, I also agreed to have the anaconda placed on my shoulders, to feel its weight, and you could certainly imagine how these massive snakes crush their prey to death, as its immense strength was obvious as it started to curl round one…at which point I was more than happy for it to be taken off.

It was quite an interesting boat trip back to Leticia that day…at one point another long boat sped up behind us on the very narrow and twisty river ways, so Francisco slowed down to let is pass as they seemed to be in a rush. Once it had passed, Francsisco told us that the boat was driven by 'narcos' (drug traffickers), which certainly added an element of intrigue to the trip. At one point their boat disappeared and then came up behind us again, and with Francisco having warned us not to take any photos if we saw them again, we were all trying to surreptitiously 'look but not look' as they sped past us. A couple of them certainly looked like you would imagine Colombian drug traffickers to look like (swarthy, long hair, bandanas etc) - not trying very hard to disguise themselves but also hiding their faces and any eye contact. Their boat certainly looked very heavy as it was very low down in the water, and Francisco said they were probably on their way to drop off their cargo in a secret location, for it to be picked up by someone else. Just to add to the drama, when we rejoined the Amazon river from the smaller river we had been travelling on, near Leticia, the weather suddenly turned and before we knew it we had a huge storm over us - lashing rain and thunder and lightening all crashing around together in the sky right above us, it felt like we were in a storm at sea, and at this point we realised that the only two boats in the river that could potentially get hit by lightening was us and the narcos! Francisco ordered us all to put on our lifejackets and I was suddenly having visions of lightening hitting the narcos boat in front of us and seeing an explosion of cocaine before our eyes…however we made it back to Leticia, very soggy once again, the plastic covering the top and sides of the boat not having protected us much from the rain which seemed to come in sideways, and once again relieved to be on more solid - and drier - ground. All in all it had been a great few days, and our small taste of the Amazon made us think how hostile yet fascinating this area must be if you have the time to really get a full experience, going deeper and deeper into the forest, but for that you probably need weeks not days…maybe one for the next gap year! But our guides were good and our group was fun - and I am sure it is a trip we will not forget it in a hurry. And I will always be thankful that a few bites aside, the resident Amazon mosquitoes seemed to love the others in the group more than us - or maybe they just didn't much like the look of Simon's pyjama bottoms ;)

As well as our few days of fun exploring the Amazon, Leticia was also our exit point from Colombia, and where we would move on to our next destination, Brazil. We were sad to be leaving Colombia where we had spent five excellent weeks, loving all that Colombia had to offer and the warmth of its people. When you think of what Colombians have had to suffer during 50+ years of bloodshed and conflict, you would forgive them for being a more downtrodden, solemn group of people - but they are the total opposite, so happy and sunny and with an amazing outlook on life. Our walking guide Pablo in Medellin summed it up well, his view being that the country's bloody past has taught Colombians to see the bright side and silliness in the littlest of things, and this is certainly something we experienced every day. As well as lovely people Colombia has so much to offer - historic cities, beaches, jungle, mountains, desert, archaeological sites - it really has it all, and couldn't recommend it highly enough.