We started our 3 day trip into the Amazon jungle, with 4 other travellers - Kelly and Jess (English), Madelon (Dutch) and Kurt (Curacao). The boat took us to the meeting of the waters of Rio Solimoes and Rio Negro, which joins up with the Amazon River. Rio Solimoes flows from the Andes, is a muddy brown, is cooler with a pH level of 6.4, and flows at 6 kmh. Rio Negro starts in the Amazon lowlands, and as its name implies is black from the decomposition of leaves and has a pH of 3.2, and flows at 2 kmh.

There is a visible divide where the 2 rivers meet. We were supposed to be able to view dolphins at this spot but none showed up. The boat dropped us at Careiro de Vargea where a very run-down van took us on a 40 min journey inland to board another boat to take us deeper into the jungle. This road leads to Bolivia more than 500 kms (300 miles) away, and was riddled with potholes along the way. I took the middle seat next to the driver so I could better enjoy the vistas, and Matteus, our guide, hopped in next to me, whilst the rest piled into the back of the van. I was a little dismayed to find that the seat belt fastener had been completely ripped out, which meant that Matteus and I could not strap ourselves down, whereas next to me, the driver was comfortably buckled into his seat. I was even less impressed when our driver took both his hands off the wheel to clean his sunglasses as the van jolted merrily across the potholes. There was no telling what speed we were travelling at as the speedometer was not working, but I would hazard a guess at about 50 mph (80 kmh) …. and there I was, seated in the middle with nothing between myself and that massive windshield. I set my feet in a brace position on the dashboard just in case of impact (don't even think of airbags - vans of that age have never seen one!)

The van deposited us on a dirt track leading up to a floating store, where we boarded our boat. After 5 mins of cranking the motor, the boatman eventually got the engine to turn - and it was a very pleasant ride as we took in the views on either side of the river. Or at least, it was pleasant for the first 20 mins until our boatman decided to take a detour across the flooded jungle to shortcut a bend in the river. He hopped off the boat into the shallows to scout out the route, and came back saying "nao passer" (cannot pass through). He hopped back into the boat to restart the engine, or at least he attempted to multiple times with no success. Each subsequent attempt nudged the boat a little deeper into the narrow channel among the trees which he had earlier declared as "nao passer", and soon we reached that point of no return, and we had to push our way among the trees and underwater bushes, regardless of whether or not we could 'passer'. He must have attempted for about 10 mins before the engine spluttered to life, and we cheered … but our jubilance was short-lived as the boat moved about 10 yds before the engine stalled again. And so this went on ….. sometimes the engine stalling even before we started moving, and if we were lucky we may get as far as 20 yds before it stalled. We laughed about our predicament initially, but rapidly lost our sense of humour as the heat of the midday sun beat down on us, the humidity intensified, and there was not the tiniest whisper of a breeze. We probably travelled the distance of 500 yds in the space of an hour. We eventually hitched a ride from a passing boat, and he was kind enough to take us the remaining 20 mins inland to our campsite.

Our lodgings were cabins perched on the top of a small cliff, which looked back onto Lago Momiro (Momiro Lake). From our perch we would watch the occasional dolphins swim by. After lunch and a siesta, we went piranha fishing. Out of our group of 11, only Madelon managed to catch a tiny piranha, the boatman Gersan caught 7 red piranhas, and Matteus caught 1 black one before handing his rod to one of us. I now remember why I never go fishing - I can't think of anything less stimulating than to sit quietly for hours on end waiting for a fish to bite, or not bite as in our case. At least I could entertain myself by watching the pink dolphins which were swimming nearby - every so often we would hear them puff out air when they surfaced, much as a whale would (except without the blowhole). Matteus pointed out all sorts of birds to us - kingfishers, egrets, black hawks, black-collared red hawks, parrots, macaws, herons, swallows. As dusk settled, we headed back to camp to don our long sleeves and long trousers to shield ourselves from the feeding mosquitoes. We then went out on the boat again in search of caymans (alligators). It was pitch black except for the stars, and it was pretty to watch the blinking light from the dragonflies as they flew around us. The reason we went out cayman hunting at night, was because it was easiest to spot them at night as their eyes are illuminated by our flashlights. We soon spotted one on a grassy patch by the river bank, and Matteus paddled straight towards it. Before we had a chance to register, Matteus had thrown aside the oar, jumped into the water and after a very brief struggle, he came back on the boat, triumphant, with a 4 ft cayman in his hands and flashlight in his mouth, gesturing with his head for me to rescue the oar which was slowly drifting away from the boat.He gave us a brief education about caymans, allowed us a chance to touch it (if it had been smaller he would have allowed us to handle it), before he released it back to the water. It was pretty amazing watching how he handled the cayman - it was like watching National Geographic live. We also received our education on mosquitoes - how the sex of the mosquitoes was determined based on the ambient temperatures: at 26-30 C, the larvae would become female mosquitoes, and at higher temperatures, they become male. The Amazon had mainly female mosquitoes - ie. those that fed on human blood!

The next morning, Matteus took us for walk in the jungle and introduced us to the flora and their medicinal properties: quinine to cure malaria, liana vine from which you can drink water (incidently, also the same vine that Tarzan used to swing from tree to tree), the sap from some tree as disinfectant, lighting the bark of the breeu where the incense is used to cure headaches, the caliso from which he made a flute. Very ingenuous! A wild turkey (Tracey christened him Barry - sorry Barry Ganci, it was not my idea and is no reflection on you!) followed us on our 3-hr trek through the jungle - it was hilarious, it stopped whenever we paused, and kept in line whenever we continued our walk. We were a little worried when Barry followed us into camp, in case he had a chance encounter with the chef and ended up on our dining table - we had gotten a little attached to him. Instead, we were served cayman stew for lunch!

We were supposed to venture deeper into the jungle that afternoon by boat and foot to set up camp (ie. find a clearing, set up our hammocks, and prepare our own dinner). However there were too many mosquitoes (Matteus had a bout of malaria at the time), and Matteus made alternate plans for us to stay with an indigenous family (which we found out later was Gersan's family). The hut consisted of 2 sections: a living room cum bedroom, and a dining room cum kitchen. It was a little strange initially when 12 of us trooped into their kitchen /dining room, but our hosts were very hospitable even though we could barely communicate. Matteus showed us around the commune, which comprised about 5 or 6 huts belonging to the extended family. They kept all sorts of pets: 4 dogs, a few cats, of which at least one was on heat, goats, chicken, ducks, a tortoise, a parrot, a parakeet and 3 boa constrictors. They grew their own fruits and vegetables: papayas, pineapple, bananas, ginger, manioc, sugar cane, etc - and they had their own manioc processing tools. We were surprised to see that they had a TV installed in their living room / bedroom, with a line leading to a satellite dish on the outside. There was a queen bed which also doubled as the sofa, and there were hammocks strung around the rest of the room, presumably for the kids. Water was supplied by a combination of rain water, and a pump piping in water from the river. The outdoor banhero (toilet) was 3 wooden walls with an unhinged door, and a hole cut into the wooden floorboards which led to a larger hole in the ground below. There was a live chicken sitting next to the stove (we thought that it was dinner - we found out later that the hen was actually roosting, when in the next morning, Gersan's mum grabbed the chicken and the 2 newborn chicks and threw them out to the ground below). Gersan's mum cooked us a wholesome meal of pasta, beans, chicken, salad and toasted manioc flour - the food was prepared and consumed in pretty unhygienic conditions, but the meal was really good (and none of us were sick afterwards - we must have built up our tolerance significantly in the 2 weeks)! Nothing was left to waste - the dogs, cats and chickens had lined up outside the hut in anticipation of after-dinner scraps; they all fought for the scraps and it was the rooster that consistently dominated, bullying the dogs and cats out of their share of the scraps. After the obligatory rounds of card games and dominoes, we prepared for bed. The dining table and benches were set on their sides along the wall, and our 12 hammocks were strung across the entire length of the dining room / kitchen - very cramped but we were now veterans at this from our experience at Angel Falls. At 3:30am, a rooster started crowing, which set of a series of other roosters around the commune, and this went on a few rounds for about 5 minutes before they settled, and I managed to fall back to sleep….. except they started again at 4:30am , and again at 5:30am. At least I got to enjoy the full moon from my hammock throughout the cacophony. Just when I thought I would doze off again, a chicken flew up to the perch by my hammock and started scratching away on the ledge, the goats started bleating, and to top these off, the cat on heat started belting out its mating call. I gave up at that point, got out of my hammock and sat in the boat by the river to watch the jungle come alive as the day broke. We had boiled eggs and bread for breakfast. Again, the animals were all lined up outside... they know the routine. Angelica collected the scraps from all our plates, mainly part- eaten boiled eggs, and threw them out to feed the animals - none of us really gave a second thought to it, except for Louisa who was absolutely horrified that she was promoting cannibalism by feeding the chickens their own offspring.

We left after breakfast to look for sloths, but after 2 hours of circling around in the boat and finding nothing, we were a little disenchanted as we headed back to our cabins. But to make up for the disappointment, we were treated to a display of dolphins at play all around us - it was amazing just to sit and watch.

We headed back to Manaus after lunch and were thrilled to finally spot a sloth feeding in a tree on the river bank. We also spotted a giant iguana in the middle of some bushes a little further up. The boat dropped us off at the same floating store, where a van was supposed to pick us up at 4pm. We waited 1.5 hrs until 5pm, and we whooped when we saw a van finally turn down towards us on the dirt track. At the same time, another boat had arrived from our camp with 3 Germans who were on a fishing holiday. We grabbed our bags and marched up to the van, in case there was any confusion from this new group that the van had come for them. The driver was completely taken aback when we accosted him, and was unsure of what to make of our hand gestures and our appalling attempts to Portu-gise our very limited Spanish, and who was obviously not interested in the receipt I was waving at him, nor had he any interest in taking us anywhere. We also noticed that the van could probably seat 7 comfortably but 9 would be a tight squeeze indeed (Matteus had stayed behind with Jess and Kelly for an extra day in the jungle). In the meantime, the Germans (who happened to speak brilliant Portuguese) and the boatman were in deep discussion with the driver, whilst I was plotting to hijack the van to drive us back to the port. We found out from the Germans (who also happened to speak fluent English), that the van driver was not here to pick up anybody, and had just driven off to the dirt track for a brief stop …..well, that explains a lot, but it did not explain why our transportation had not shown up. The boatman convinced the driver to take us to the port after some lengthy negotiations, and thankfully the rest of our journey was completed uneventfully.