After an incredible, if somewhat nippy, trip in Antarctica I flew from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires to enjoy some time in a warm city with McDonalds and Burger King and with dry land in every direction. And what a city this was! I absolutely loved BA, and my only disappointment was that I could only spend a few days there. The night life was great fun and the city had so much character.

On my first night there I ended up at and Israeli fancy dress party, which gives just a slight indication of the various places a stay in BA can take you! I spent most of my time in the city just walking around, soaking up the atmosphere and trying not to spend all my money on clothes. I went to the cinema to see The Watchmen (amazing) and met up with Maddie who I'd met in Chile for some fab Argentinian steak and nightlife. And I know I keep going on about it, but the steak in Argentina is AMAZING. And the empanadas too - they're like a pie/pasty thing which can be filled with meat, chicken, veg, or whatever, and unfortunately for me there was an all-night cafe just downstairs from my hostel that made cracking empanadas. Needless to say I ate them every day guilt free (national food - I'm eating like the locals!).

I sent a super long day walking around the city to make it to a Japanese Garden (I know, I know, I go all the way to Buenos Aires just to soak up some nice Japanese shrubbery, but it was very peaceful and a good chance to sit and figure out where I needed to be ext) and then headed on to the huge cemetery where Eva Peron is buried. However, it took me so long to walk all the way there, that I got there 10 minutes before it closed and didn't even manage to find her grave site. Bloody typical. So I ate ice cream instead. Yum.

Alas I had to move on from Buenos Aires, perhaps a little sooner than I'd have liked. But it wasn't really a sad time, as I was excited to be heading to the Amazon jungle in Peru! A couple of flights took me straight into and then straight out of Lima and on to Iquitos. This is a town that is only accessible by air or by boat - and boat takes a super long time. It sits right on the Amazon and most of it's provisions and exports come from the jungle. I met my pick up at the airport, after a rather annoying moment in which I was forced to tip some cheeky Peruvian for carrying my bag about 20 metres... after all, I'm a Brit, why tip someone for something I can bloody well do myself?? It's not the English way I tell you.

I could immediately see a huge change in my surroundings. Argentina and Chile had both seemed relatively well-off countries with many similarities to European towns and cities, but not so Iquitos. The bus wove round little streets which were buzzing with little motor taxis similar to tuk tuks, and shops had painted frontages with all sorts of bright colours and branding on them. The streets were rougher and the driving slightly more manic, and I started to finally feel that I was in the South America of my imagination. The bus took me to a little boat which took me on a 45 minute trip down the Amazon to my lodge. The Amazon was absolutely breathtaking. The murky green waters weren't especially inviting, but the river was huge with huts and palm trees lining the land edges. I immediately began to imagine myself to be something of a David Attenborough, except of course that I don't really know anything about nature.

The Cellba Tops Lodge was to be my accommodation and struck me as a bit of a surprise. I'd booked it in something of a rush and hadn't quite realised that I'd managed to place myself in one of the most luxurious lodges in this section of the Amazon. Seeing the pool, jacuzzi, wifi access and the fact that I had a twin bedroom all to myself made me feel slightly guilty that I hadn't gone for something a bit more rustic (and sightly cheaper perhaps) but I managed to forgive myself pretty quickly and settle into the gorgeous tropical surroundings. The lodge was right in the jungle and my guide, who I had pretty much to myself, took me on a night tour into the surrounding undergrowth. In just half an hour of stumbling through the jungle in the dark I managed to spot two tarantulas, a possum, some jungle rats and some huge toads which were about the size of my head (I touched one and it jumped away and I squealed and my guide laughed at me).

That night I got to enjoy the thrill of being really sick in the jungle. I was woken up at 2am by my stomach's somewhat rude demands to be taken to the bathroom swiftly and repeatedly throughout the night. It would seem that my belly was somewhat distressed by the swift move from snowy freezingness in Antarctica to the intense humidity of the jungle, and chose to punish me with extreme bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. Suddenly I didn't feel so guilty about having a room and bathroom all to myself.

Lack of sleep and complete illness led to me staying in bed all the next day and missing half the activities unfortunately. I suppose I could have made an effort, but I don't tend to hear great things about the hygiene facilities in the jungle, and I really wasn't in a position to move myself too far from bathroom. Bless my lovely guide brought me a bowl of 'jungle medicine' - a sticky gloopy type stuff that tasted delicious and sugary and was supposed to make me feel all better. Not sure if it worked, but it sure tasted good.

Luckily by the following day I managed to remove myself from my room and began to feel much better, so this was where my amazon adventures really began. I took in an Indian Village, and saw the local schools and vegetation. Bananas seemed to be one of the main trade and exports for these people and they shifted everything around by canoe and boat. Some even kept anacondas in their boats so that rats wouldn't get to the food. Seemed a little risky to me and I kept my distance. Also saw pink dolphins in the Amazon, as well as some smaller grey ones. Now I love dolphins but these pink ones are pretty terrifying. They're huge!

Then on to Monkey Island, which I guess is pretty self-explanatory. A local chap had decided to rescue monkeys who were on sale in Iquitos and train them to be ready for release back into the wild. I don't know how well he was doing though because they were all pretty tame. I had to wrestle my glasses off a spider monkey who had decided that they'd look better on him. When I couldn't fight him off the owner kindly beat the monkey with a stick, explaining that to the monkey this means 'no'. No s***. Anyways, we had loads of fun playing with monkeys all afternoon, although I found myself on several occasions wishing I had bothered to get that rabies shot the doctor had told me about...

The following day was incredible, I did so much. I saw some massive lily pads; made a few attempt at piranha fishing (unsuccessful); I saw where the Amazon river changes into the tributaries, which is marked by a sudden change from brown to black waters; I saw a sloth; I stroked an anaconda; I visited a traditional Indian village and shook hands with the chief; I tried my hand at blowing poisonous darts (and wasn't half bad); I got painted in the traditional red face-paint; and I had an amazing trip down the river where I saw traditional taxi boats with goats and chickens hanging out of it everywhere. Needless to say this was the one day that I forgot my frickin camera, so I have absolutely no photographic evidence of ANY of the above. Much self punishment, but still a really fantastic day.

And then the long ride back to Iquitos on the Amazon Queen boat. A very relaxing 4 hour ride where I had a little nap and managed to get burned to a crisp. Joy. From Iquitos it was a flight straight on to Lima and checking in to my hostel in Miraflores.