We enjoyed our luxurious first class flight back to La Paz, especially the roast beef salad! We managed to book our preferred jungle lodge for our trip in a few days time thanks to a cancellation. So we decided to celebrate with a trip to Vivians, La Paz`s infamous nightclub, once and once only!

To avoid the 18hr coach trip into the jungle, obviously we booked a flight. It was the smallest plane either of us had ever been on and the turbulance going up over the Andes was a bit hairy but the views were amazing and you felt as though you could lean out and touch the mountains. The descent into Rurre was exciting but being able to see right through the cockpit was a little off putting as the pilot dropped the plane onto a grass airfield.

We spent the night in Rurre, a strange little settlement on the banks of the Beni river with only a couple of tarmac roads. Thankfully it had one decent bar, Moskito, where we drank until 2am with Jack the guy from our salt flat trip who just happended to be on our flight.

6.30am start feeling a little jaded we all bundled into our dugout canoe, accompanied by a cameraman, for our 5 hours trip further into the jungle. The trip up river was very peaceful which gave us a chance to catch up on some sleep much to the disappointment of the cameraman who was filming a documentary on the lodge we were visiting. Bolivia`s best. Occasionaly arousing from our slumber we saw capibara, macaws and caiman lounging in the sun as we drifted up the river through pristine jungle.

From the mooring at the riverbank it was a 30min walk to Chalalan Eco Lodge. Once we had settled into our bamboo cabin, a stones throw from the lake, we had an excellent 3 course lunch in the bamboo dining room. We relaxed breifly in the gardens with the brightly coloured butterflies, marvelling at the stunning scenery before taking our first hike into the forest. Our guide Sindah, an ex hunter turned eco warrior, impressed us with his knowledge of the forest.

That evening we were treated to a traditional Amazonian banquet of excellent river fish cooked in banana leaves and bamboo. A spot of Bolivian folk music and a coca leaf or 2 before we tramped off into the jungle to find tarantulas and an assortment of frogs on our night hike (Emma thought she was extremely brave!).

Our 5.30am alarm call was a troop of passing howler monkeys and after a breakfast of stale cakes and dubious biscuits we set out on our first trek of the day. Sindah imparted his knowledge of all things botanical including walking trees, garlic trees, trees you can make houses out of, trees for curing cancer and even trees that weren`t trees but vines that had strangled other trees. We were impressed and the 4 of us on the trek tried to hug a tree but they were too big.

Back to the lodge for a glass of squash and a leisurely swing in the hammock before a refreshing dip in the lake. This excited the cameraman from National Geographic no end as he substituted his arty lake shots of reflected horizons and steaming reeds for a couple of gringos jumping off a jetty. 4 or 5 takes of Jona gracefully diving into the blue lagoon he seemed to have the footage he needed and diverted his attention back to the myriad of flitting butterflies.

Another short (3 hour) trek for the afternoon, Sindah seemed excitable. He waxed lyrical about colonies of spiders building webs metres across, gleefully divulged how human s**t was the best for attracting beetles (half jokingly asking for donations) and almost dug himself into the ground explaining the workings of a leaf cutter ant colony.

It was time to get serious. We were going for the big game now. Stealthly as a herd of elephants we struck our way through the undergrowth. This was Capuchine country. Sindah listened intently every few steps, thrusting out a hand to silence us and going into commando style crouch. Nothing. "We must have scared them off" he would say. After an hour or so of this Jona was convinced he was just doing it for effect to add a little drama to the occasion, but sure enough just around the next corner the hand went up and then levelled itself pointing. A deer, hardest to stop (next to pigs) in the forest. It b*****ed off pretty quick once it saw us, but still. Round the next corner and a pack of Capuchine monkeys hurling themselves through the trees as we followed them along the edge of a swamp.

We returned to base feeling rather pleased with our tracking skills and chowed down on another 3 course meal. "Off to the lake" Sindah called as we were finishing off our last mouthfulls of baked banana. We climbed into the rocking canoe, giddy on wine, soon sobered by the frequent sights of rather large caiman and 4ft snakes. We had been swimming in here no less than 6 hours previously.

Another early start and the short trek back to the river punctuated by a languishing look at a troop of Spider monkeys having their breakfast. 3 hours down river through the ever unfolding green of the jungle and we were back in Rurre, onto our tiny plane for the bumpy flight into El Alto and into Olivers Travels for cocktails by 3pm.

We spent a few days in La Paz catching up with various friends after the relentless pace of the jungle which we both enjoyed tremendously. Echoes of Vivans and 2 crazy Irish birds meant it was definitley time to leave La Paz for the final time.