It poured with rain all night, which sent me to sleep with ease. And then throughout the morning the downpour continued, monsoon style! Now i know why its called a rainforest! This put a 'dampener' on our excursion as we headed to hike some more in the primary area of the jungle reserve.

I was the only one to travel to the reserve on top of the bus. The rain doesn't really bother us English and I wanted to enjoy then views. Got drenched though.

The whole area lacked in animals, which is a shame as we had been told that we had the chance to see monkeys, snakes, frogs, anaconda's and jaguars. But we found a vine to swing on, which Cheered me up, and I was awesome at it.

Sodden through, we changes clothes and went to a cooking class. We wrapped fish in leaves and steamed, we cut out palm hearts, and we made a spinach-like dish from stinging nettles. We cooked live grubs, which tasted like chewy,fatty bacon and also learnt about plantains and yuca. This I enjoyed, as I do love my food!

We then headed up river and jumped in, using inner-tubes to stay afloat. We drifted down the river lazily towards our lodge and took in the view. For the first time I was happy we didn't see any wildlife, crocs, anaconda's and piranha would not of been a welcome sight.

I also learnt that the word 'hembra' in Spanish means 'female'. They don't pronounce the H so our jungle guide enjoyed the fact that I was called Richard Female! In Italy you get respected for that name...in Spain, ridiculed. Thanks Dad!

I'm glad I visited this place, although I was hoping for more of a 'welcome to the jungle! we got fun and games!' vibe....but it was more of a 'in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the OAP
Sleeps tonight'. It was educational and interesting, but maybe I should have researched some more entertaining lodges...with more animal/fun based trips rather that focus on insects/trees/plants. And a bar which is open past 9pm!