Goodbye altitude and hello to the heat and humidity of the Amazon Rainforest. A short, half hour flight to Puerto Maldanado on the border of Peru and Boliva where the 3 of us were met by our guide and driven to the river port to board our boat for the 3 hour journey up river to our first lodge - Refugio Amazonas. En-route we saw spectacled Cayman, herons and Capybara. We arrived late afternoon and were shown to our room with one side completely open overlooking the tropical rainforest and brazil nut trees and lighting provided by kerosene lamps and candles. We spent our evening after dinner at the well-stocked bar sampling the local G & T and Heather's favourite South American drink, the Pisco Sour, before climbing in to our beds, cloaked by mosquito nets.

The next morning was meant to be a 5.30am start - unless it was raining. We awoke at 5.30am and we were all sure it was raining so another couple of hours in bed to sleep off the excesses of the previous night - Adam is indeed a bad influence to our otherwise healthy lifestyle. After a hearty breakfast our guide, Oscar, together with his powerful binoculars, took us on our first venture in to the jungle. Oscar had an amazing ability to hear and seek out birds and monkeys which we viewed through his bins. Our first trek ended at a 30 metre high lookout which we climbed for the amazing view over the rainforest canopy.

Shortly after we left our lodge by boat for a 5 hour boat journey deeper in to the rainforest to the Tambopata Research Centre - One of the most remote rainforest lodges in South America and our home for the next 3 nights. Our lunch on the boat was a wrapped banana leaf parcel containing a delicious Peruvian Omelette. We spotted more Cayman, howler monkeys licking the salt from the clay banks, and a huge family of Capybaras trying and mostly failing to climb up the mud bank when they heard our approach. The potential to spot Jaguar or Anaconda eluded us - but we still had time. Before dinner we ventured out in the darkness complete with head torches to see what was lurking. Oscar knew where a tarantula was living and he carefully tried to coax it out with a stick, but he was not playing today. So, a shower, a beer and a meal and we were ready for bed.

4.30am was the start time for the following day to go and visit the "clay lick" (a clay bank with mineral deposits), the largest known Macaw clay lick in the Amazon. On most mornings dozens of large macaws and hundreds of parrots congregate on the large river bank in a raucous and colourful spectacle which apparently inspired a National Geographic cover story. Despite sitting on our camping chairs for 3 hours watching the arrival of these beautiful birds, they eventually decided to settle on the part of the lick hidden behind trees. Oh well, there would be another 4.30am opportunity tomorrow, or so we thought. The day continued with another 2 walks, in-between eating and resting, where we saw a variety of monkeys, birds, peccaries and a really beautiful, albeit poisonous, frog on our way back to the lodge.

After a night of torrential rain like we had never seen before, and loud claps of thunder, our 4.30am start was cancelled. Bitter sweet as we would miss the opportunity to see the macaws at the clay lick, but we could have a lie in. After the rain had stopped, we donned on our wellies and squelched our way through the jungle on the hunt for more wildlife. As it grew dark we saw a tree frog, snake and the tarantula which was certainly worth waiting for. This was our last night before making our way back to Refugios Amazonas. It had been a great 3 days, even though we hadn't seen any Jaguars. Ironically a bird watching party had arrived the previous day and they had seen two Jaguars on the river bank on their journey to the lodge and an Anaconda - their photos were amazing.

Our downriver journey was quick and we arrived at the lodge where we were to spend our final 2 nights. We mostly relaxed with the occasional walk and a nice morning spent rowing on the oxbow lake (after we had baled out the canoe) feeding the piranahs with bread from the breakfast table. Our time in the jungle was over and it was back to city life and our flight to Lima for a couple of days before Adam's departure back to the UK.