We got off the horrible night bus in Lago Agrio, the pick up point for the Amazon trip, we had to get a taxi to a cafe and wait there to be picked up. There wasn't many people there at all and most that were, were on our tour. We got picked up on time and had a two hour minibus ride to the river. There was us two, four Argentinian guys, a German girl and a French guy and they all seemed nice. We arrived at the river where we had lunch at a restaurant, chicken chips and rice of course, and also met our guide Elvis, then we set off for another two hours into the jungle by boat. The boat ride was really cool, you really felt like you were in the rainforest with the trees looming over the river and vines hanging down. On the journey we saw quite a few monkeys and a small snake sat on a log, as well as a couple of pink river dolphins really close to the boat which was really lucky. When we made it to our jungle lodge we were pleasantly surprised with how nice the room was, although it didn't have windows so anything could walk in, but we were assured that the roofs were too new to be housing any tarantulas. We went out on a boat safari that afternoon, the weather wasn't too good so only saw a few birds sat on the trees. We also went for a swim in the lake which was refreshing but a bit unnerving when you can't see anything in the water beneath you. That evening we had dinner by candle light as there was no electricity at the lodge, we had corn soup, chicken chips and rice and then fruit for dessert. We went to bed very shortly after and tucked the mosquito net under the mattress the full way round so no creepy crawlies could get in. The following morning we took the boat to do a jungle trek where we were wading through thick mud and over streams and through bushes looking at insects and plants along the way. We saw a lot of strange bugs along the way, huge colourful caterpillars, poisonous frogs, colony spiders, spiker spiders, bees nests. As well as some weird plants that tasted sweet, trees which bled milk, leaves which you could draw on and vines that you could swing and climb. We also came close to seeing some wild pigs but didn't get close enough, but they were the same as what we saw in the pantanal so we weren't that gutted. We were absolutely drenched in sweat by the end of it and were glad to get back onto the boat going back to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon we went on another boat safari where we saw a lot of pink river dolphins around the boat but it was really difficult to get a photo of. After we moved on from the dolphins the camera battery ran out and by sods law we then saw a sloth in a tree. We managed to get one photo but it was just of its back. We headed back to the lodge for dinner of soup, chips rice and a funny meat which we weren't sure where it came from. After dinner we went for a night walk, luckily we found a head torch under our bed in the lodge which must have come from the people before. We weren't walking long before we came across a huge bird eating tarantula which was disgusting especially when it started moving. We continued walking and saw quite a few tree frogs and a whiptail scorpion spider which looked like the design of someone's nightmare. A huge spider/scorpion with pincers and a menacing face, this particular one was munching on a large cockroach. We came across a few more where Elvis decided to pick one up and hold, we didn't hold one. We carried on walking and a few people pushed s huge leaf aside and went under but it whipped back and I noticed a humongous cricket sat on it the size of a bird, it looked gross and can apparently really sting you, it was called a lobster cricket because it was that big. We carried on and saw various other mutant bugs and various spiders which Elvis would through insects into the webs to watch the spiders attack. We got really far in when we had to turn all of our lights off and listen in the pitch black which was really uncomfortable knowing all of these things surrounding us and not being able to see.

We slept with the mosquito net tightly tucked in that night.

The following day we went to a local community another two hours into the jungle, we started off with a local lady making a flat bread and eating that with lunch, we then had a shamen come and do rituals which was a bit tacky and awkward but quite funny.

On the way back from we were speeding down the canal when a local lady spotted an anaconda in the bushes so we turned around. We got really close to the bush and we still couldn't even see it, we were about a Meter away and couldn't see it for a minute or so because it was so camouflaged, I don't know how she managed to see it while we flew past in the boat, maybe their eyes are trained to spot them a lot better. It was a 2 metre long anaconda and it was really colourful and sneaky looking. While we were watching a group of 8 blue and yellow macaws flew overhead which was an awesome sight.

That night we went on boat safari and Elvis fed a caimen really close to the boat, on the way back we also saw a Amazon tree boa constrictor snake in a tree. The boat went right under where it was sat when something massive fell on the boat, no one knew what it was because we only had headtorches, we only assumed that the branch with the snake on had fallen and we all nearly needed new underwear. It turns out it was a huge pineapple type thing that had fallen and thankfully not the snake. We headed back to the lodge shortly after.

The next day was an early one as we went out birdwatching. We didn't see many birds but we did see some more pink river dolphin and another sloth up in a tree. It was curled up sleeping but in the photos you can see its face looking down at us in the boat. After this it was time to go and we said bye to Elvis and went back with a different guide. On the way we stopped again for a three Meter or so snake sat on a branch before making it to the restaurant for lunch and sleeping in the car back to the main town.