The camping trip was really good fun! We walked for 2-3 hours into the jungle and then decided to set up camp by a river. We constructed our own shelter out of wood and lots and lots and lots of leaves! It took a couple of hours to complete as we needed to have enough leaves to make it water tight.

We made a fire and cooked dinner - food that we'd collected on our walk which was supplemented by cooked bananas with chocolate and marshmallows which I had brought with me! Yum!

Unfortunately the rain set in at about 2am and was torrential. Despite having used so many leaves the shelter proved not to be completely water tight and because I was on the end I got a bit wet! But to be fair it did a very good job considering the persistent torrential rain!

The next morning Jose (the guy I was with) decided that he wanted to see how high the river would rise so we sat and watched it rise infront of us. It was interesting to watch but unfortunately we needed to cross it to get back! The nice little stepping stones from the day before had disappeared and we were forced to wade through the river with water up to our waists! At one point the current was so strong that I was nearly taken with it! Good fun though!

Unfortunately it rained the whole walk back and my stuff got completely soaked!

I had managed to arrange to join another project deeper in the jungle the next day. This meant a 5 and a half hour walk with my whole backpack as I would be there for a week. The walk was the hardest thing I have EVER done!!! The terrain was shockingly bad and the rain had not helped. It continued to rain for most of the journey. The Shaur guide who was leading us and who we would be staying with walked incredibly fast and didn't allow us any breaks either!!! I could hardly move by the time we arrived!!! It was worth it though!

The facilities were incredibly basic - I slept on a wooden makeshift bed, there was no water (so no washing facilities) and no toilet (only a hole in the ground).

We ate food that the family grew or food from the jungle including yucca, plantain, papachina (similar to potato), palm heart and other leaves. One day we went fishing and caught some fish for lunch - only small fish but still good!

The family worked us hard - we helped them clear areas of land to plant yucca and plantain, cleared some trails, built some furniture, labelled plants in their medicinal garden etc. We also learnt how to make jewellery and they showed us some of their traditional clothes, music, games etc. It was all really interesting and the children were lovely! They have 6 girls and one boy ranging in age from 3 months to 15.

I was able to see more wildlife whilst I was there. We saw some monkeys during the day which was great! I also saw an armadillo one night - it came so close to me it was unbelievable!

I'm now back in Arutam and following my experience in Irshum have decided to go and sleep in a hut on my own further in the jungle - up by the mirador there. It's much more tranquil and there are greater possibilities of seeing wildlife there.

Yesterday we went on a walk in the jungle to look at all the different food it was possible to eat. I tried ants, insects and larvae - yummy! For lunch they cooked us armadillo. It was meat they had bought rather than caught in the wild - it still felt a little wrong to eat it though....

I've only got one more day left here now before I head back to Quito - I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly!