I´m in the jungle!!! I´ve only been in the jungle for a week but already I´ve seen and done loads!! On my first day we got stuck in with spades and wheelbarrows and dug a trench around our hut - very few builders bums in site as the mosquitoes would have got to them! :-)

Then in the afternoon we went off to visit the local shaman. It was so interesting but pretty different to what I expected - there was no tribal dress just jeans and a USA sweatshirt!! He was incredibly knowledgeable though and showed us different plants and what they are used for / to treat. We were also introduced to a couple of his patients. He claimed to have treated diabetes! (slightly skeptical about that.....)

We´ve been on lots of walks in the jungle and it´s been brilliant! The scenery is just unbelievable!! Some of the plants are so beautiful! The other day we ´found´a waterfall. It was amazing!! The water was gorgeously cold and refreshing! They´ve also let us loose with machetes! Dangerous things those!!! It´s been great fun cutting trails through the jungle with them though!

The wildlife has been quite difficult to spot - well the wildlife that I want to see anyway, the wildlife I´m not too keen on seeing has been very easy to spot! We bumped into a venomous snake on our walk today and one of the Shaur (tribal) guys found another one near our hut the other day. I had an interesting experience whilst going to the loo - came face to face with an incredibly large tarantula - nice! We´ve also been told that most of the spiders that we see out at night are venomous (or at least bite and hurt!). On a more positive note I never thought I´d say this but I did actually see quite a beautiful cockroach on my first night! It was bigger than the palm of your hand!!! I´ve also seen the local monkey Chi Chi, the odd hummingbird, loads of butterflies, a macaw and some guinea pig things (as well as the usual farmyard animals).

I haven´t eaten anything too shocking yet - we had some ants today which tasted just like lemon! We´ve been eating huge amounts of rice, plantains and pasta - this is certainly the wrong place to come if you´re on a carb free diet!!! I have a feeling that I´m going to be bananed (plantained) out by the end of this trip!!!

Had an interesting plant experience! One of the Shaur guys collected some tree fibre while we were on a walk and mixed it with water to form a paste. Then he squeezed it into our hands and told us to snort it. The pain!!!! It burnt the inside of our noses and went straight to our heads. It felt as if my brain was going to explode!!! It lasted for a very uncomfortable 10 minutes!!! Apparently it´s used as a decongestant……………

At the moment it´s pretty rainy - we´ve had torrential rain for the last 4 days. Wellies are certainly a requirement here!! Even with them you still get absolutely covered in mud!!! The rain has meant that none of our clothes have dried so we´ve been putting on wet clothes - not nice!! The lack of sun also means that the ice cold shower is erm not refreshing!!!!! We´ve also been finding a slight dampness to our sleeping bags...........

My Spanish definitely needs to improve as the tribe only speaks Spanish and Shaur! Luckily there are a couple of girls here who have been able to translate for us. The stories that they have told us about their culture and way of life are really interesting - I can´t wait to learn more!!!Adios amigos!!! xxx