From Venezuela we took a 29 hour journey by bus to reach our next destinatioin, Manaus, in the Amazonas region of Brazil. In doing so we crossed the equator from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere. Manaus is the capital of the area and with a population of 3m is a thriving city - not quite what you would expect for the middle of the rainforest. We decided to venture into the rainforest for 5 days as soon as we arrived, where you get the opportunity to stay with a local family and really see how people live along the world's longest river. The journey from Manaus to Juma Lake, our base for the trip, took 5 hours and covered some 80km's, primarily by boat. Along the way we got to see the meeting of the rivers. The Amazon river actually has a couple of different rivers filtering into it along the way and just outside Manaus the Rio Negro from the North and the Rio Solimones from the south join together. The really strange thing is that they are two different colours - the Negro is black from all the mineral deposits and the Solimones is a creamy colour. Because they have different densities they continue to run along side each other for some 12km towards the Atlantic until they finally mix together. Two rivers for the price of one ! Gerry, our guide for the jungle trip, still lives on the river with his family of 23 and besides their venture into tourism they have to be pretty self sufficient and feed the family from the land. None of the families out here actually have a legal claim to any of the Amazon region but because the Brazilian government does not generally support them they farm the land around them, growing wild pineapples, bananas and Mandioca (similar to Yuca from which they process the root into foodstuffs). Each family farms an area the size of 100 football pitches every year and rotates the plantation area over a 20 year period, so that the rainforest can be completely restored. The Amazon is coming out of the wet season at the moment so they are between high and low water - the river dropping a total of 12 meteres over the season. In just the 5 days we were there it dropped a whole metre. To get over this problem the houses near the river are built on floating logs cut from the rainforest, so that the houses rise and fall with the water - clever! The higher water also makes wildlife spotting easier as there is less land for them to inhabit, and we were really fortunate to see Cappucino and Howler monkeys, Macaws as well as the rare pink and grey dolphins in the Amazon river itself. Our camp was also visited by an Anaconda and a Tarantula (it was eating a frog at the time!) The Howler monkeys were a whole event in themselves. On the first night at the camp Carol had a little trouble sleeping - it's actually really noisy as 90% of the animals come out at night. Whilst lying awake in her hammock Carol suddenly heard this horrendous noise that sounded like a rabid beast right outside the door and was petrified into a catatonic state, until it passed. It wasn't until the next day that she was told it was the Howler monkeys calling to each other, to bring the pack together when they thought there was danger near and the sound can carry for up to 7km - it didn't sound like any monkey we have ever heard before! The lodge where we stayed with Gerry and his family was comfortable but very basic and after 4 nights in a hammock, both of us looked forward to a real bed on our return to Manaus. However, we soon discovered that the hut we shared with the other 4 guests was relative luxury compared to the jungle camp we slept in on our trek into the rainforest. With nothing more than a makeshift roof covered in palm leaves and a wood fire for light and cooking we got the impression that this was really "getting back to nature". We came away with about 300 bites each despite a mosquito net and the strongest mosquito repellent known to man (it actually melted Carols watch) The food, however, was fantastic based on fresh fish caught from the river and grilled over an open fire within the hour - even Gordon Ransay can't manage that! We were even able to have a go at catching our own fish. The first attempt was to catch Piranha but with just a basic line and a hook they proved elusive, though our guide managed to catch a few. With a proper rod and reel we were much more successful in catching the peacock bass and we ate very well that night. As well as having Piranha in abundance the river is also full of Caymans, a relative to the Alligator - they didn't tell us about this before we went swimming! One night we were able to go out in a paddle boat and catch a few of the smaller ones - though we did throw them back in. We later found out that two months ago a local fell in whilst catching Caymens and was eaten alive. Just along the river from the camp lives Jose Maia, now in his 80's, who is the last known person to still make rubber products from the rubber tree sap, in the old Indian way. He took a morning out to show us how it is done, basically bleeding the tree and then smoking it over a mold over a coconut fire, drying it out in 15 seconds. It was from this original process that Goodyear originally discovered how to vulcanise rubber and as a result the old way is now dying out. One of the ggod things about the trip was the amount of rest we got. The temperature reaches 105 degrees by mid day with 85 - 90% humidity, which just completley saps your energy. Therefore an early start everyday around 5am was called for and then the house rule was a siesta for 2 hours after lunch. As there was no electricity it also meant that once sunset had been and gone sleep was about the only thing left to do - so we got a full 9 hours every night until sunrise. Going back to work is going to be very hard after this! Overall, the trip was a great adventure, though both of us were grateful to get back to a bed and air conditioning. On our first day back in the city, we had the biggest slap up meal you have ever seen. We will now spend a few days in Manaus before updating the site and venturing up the Amazon river by boat for a week and on to Peru.