Day 15 - 17: 3 Days sleeping in hammocks, catching Piranha and holding Cayman in the beautiful and vast AMAZON JUNGLE!! Day 1 - Sleeping in hammocks in the jungle! Jose was there at 8 in his VW to pick us up and the previous eve, another really lovely couple from Austria, Claudia and Thomas had also signed up to join us and were waiting in the VW machine! A Lancashire guy in the van had just done the jungle experience and said it was brilliant so we were a tad excited to say the least! Soon we were at the river meeting our guide for the first 2 days, Gerry, we were privileged to have the owner of the company as our guide initially which was wicked as Gerry spoke brilliant English (his dad was from Manchester of all places and his mother Indian but he was born in Brazil) and we learnt so much from him which was fantastic! First we jumped in a speed boat and headed to see the 'Meeting of the Waters', an incredible experience in that here the brown waters of the Amazon River which in fact is glacial coming from the Peruvian Andes and the darker blue river of Rio Negra basically meet and amazingly you see very clearly the massive contrast of colours as the density means they cannot mix easily. We almost fell out of the boat though as Gerry told us all to feel the 2 waters and naturally we all moved to put our hands in the same side which was very amusing, then to rebalance we all jumped to the left, doh!! Surprisingly the brown water was the coldest but it was then that Gerry explained this was glacial from the Andes. Further down river we then said goodbye to Manaus and on the other side to greet us was our taxi to take us further north to our second boat, another VW camper with green effect camouflage painted on the front, just wicked! Gerry explained that he uses these as if it ever gets stuck or falls into a ditch then they are the lightest thing to get back out and only take a few people, not a bad theory but here's hoping we won't have to prove it! At the port, it was very reminiscent of Asia, hustle and bustle of people selling bananas and any other fruit/wears they had to sell, cars attempting to reverse onto an old skeleton style car ferry like the IOW one but without any windows or steel which was quite amusing. How they never end up reversing into the river I will never know! Soon we were on our way heading further into the jungle; our destination was approx 100km south of Manaus in the Jama River Reserve. On route Gerry stopped to explain the water levels to us and showed us how many houses get totally flooded when the waters rise 12 metres higher and locals have to move out, quite incredible. The animals were interesting too in that the cows were the same as in India and had actually been imported here. He explained also how this highway was the beginning of the Pan American highway built in the 70's taking 8 years with any Indians who had land in the path of where the army were going to build it basically getting shot, very sad story to hear. Gerry explained also how some tribes still in existence have no immunity whatsoever to western culture so any visit to these tribes can kill them instantly and if you do want to visit them you have to fast on fruit alone for 90 days!! Both of us said how good it was to actually be on a tour again learning about the land etc.. you can read about it as much as possible but nothing is the same than having a local teach you. After an hour in our VW beast and a few muddy tracks later, we reached our next boat stop and jumped into our small canoe (just like Laos but with less holes and an engine this time!) and weaved our ways through the waterways heading for our reserve. The Amazon is just so immense, millions and millions of waterways going everywhere in every direction, I have no idea how these guys know which one to take. You can see how so many people so easily get lost here and unfortunately many are never found again. It was such a mega feeling though to be racing through the waterways, some large, some small, hearing all the animal/wildlife noises around us within the lush green jungle on either side. We felt so lucky to be here and didn't want it to end.......Gerry explained how anyone can build a house in the Amazon and if you don't declare it you don't have to pay taxes so it was a very tempting thought to move here and build a house, free land, unbelievable! Next ahead was our home for the 3 days, a lovely wooden hut right on the river with wooden bungalows higher up as our homes, it was even better than what we expected, just perfect! So peaceful as until a few years ago nobody lived in this area and apart from a couple of small shacks along the river, nobody still does! First things first, get used to our wooden bungalows and all the natural things that come with it.....i.e. frogs that like to position themselves in the water flush part of the toilet!!! Thankfully it was Adam that jumped out of his skin shouting "Horlicks" very loudly when it jumped out at him, very amusing to say the least. Then myself, Ads and Thomas braved the river and dived in. I managed to last all of about 5 seconds as the thought of all those biting piranhas that lie awake to grab you was not a good thought! The water was hot though and the dip was good, needless to say neither of us went in again! Then just as we were sitting chilling, 2 grey dolphins swam in front of us, it was just awesome! I never thought that dolphins existed in the waters of the Amazon, it was truly a special moment for us and yet another amazing experience to add to the thousand on our trip. Lunch next, lovely fresh fish for those fish lovers amongst us but for me salad and rice was good too. Joining us for lunch were a couple of funny American guys, Dennis and Julian, a crazy German guy Harry who drank even more than the British and 2 more Austrians who lived right near Claudia and Tomas in Vienna of all places. All were already on their 2nd/3rd Amazon day and who had had a great time already! That afternoon Gerry said that Ads and I would spend our first night with these guys sleeping in hammocks in the jungle whilst we left Claudia and Thomas to catch piranhas near the hut. Within a couple of minutes both had caught orange/white evil looking Piranha teeth things which were hanging off their bamboo sticks. For someone who doesn't like fish was not the most pleasant of experiences but I am trying to deal with it better and not trying anymore to free all the fish so that nobody can eat them!! Gerry whilst showing us their teeth got bit by one of the b*****s and boy his teeth were sharp, there was quite abit of blood from one bite....now you can see why we decided not to swim in the river anymore!! Heading off in our canoe, it was just beautiful, for an hour we took in all the stunning birds, heard a few monkeys, saw more dolphins and relaxed enjoying the wonders of this place and all it has to offer. Then camp for the night was a jungle spot just up from the rivers edge so we hooked up the boat and set out in groups to either catch dinner for the eve or collect firewood! I chose the latter of course! So the four guys minus the Austrian couple Bernard and Sylvia set out to catch us dinner for the night and if it hadn't been for the guide bringing a couple of chickens with him too, we might have been a tad starving! Within about 5 minutes, Harry, Ads and Julian had already got their hooks stuck on the river bed and we only had 4 hooks so the pressure for Dennis was on!! Thankfully he did well and managed to catch a black piranha which is the bigger one so somebody would eat that eve.... Nobody knew what to do with it though and the guide had said to just put it in the boat but nobody could watch this poor thing suffer like that. So not watching, the rest of the group spent the next 30 minutes banging this thing over the head with wood still convinced it was still alive as it kept twitching! It reminded me so much of the Dog Fish my dad had once caught (which is why I don't like fish and have been scarred for life!!) which laid in our conservatory for about 2 hours twitching and knowing nothing about fishing all of us thought it was still alive and dad kept hitting it on the head not knowing that fishes twitch for hours after..... Soon this battered black fish was flatter than previous, covered in mud and flies and in no way edible at all, thank god I hate fish!! A few hours later after rescuing a couple of hooks Julian came to the rescue and caught a smaller piranha, then Ads in the dark managed to catch two, one of which jumped right off the hook landing on his foot scaring the life out of us. By now it was dark, Harry had managed to launch his second hook up into a tree which Dennis then rescued almost making a hole in his leg as it bounced back, it was all very amusing to say the least and not what I would say was the best documentary for 'Survival' TV! As it had taken the boys so long (ha ha!) to catch dinner the firewood was the size of a bonfire so we had enough wood to cook our four fish on. The guide set the fire up and then when I walked back to camp, all I could see was 2 flattened chickens on sticks cooking against the fire, and it nearly put me off meat for life!! Having never seen a flat chicken before most of us didn't have a clue at first what it was, it looked like some alien species. I think the 3 onions roasting on a stick were going to be my tea!!!! Proud of their catch Ads and Dennis stood with their piranha kebabs and soon these were cooking on the fire. To watch the guide gut them was too much for me and again those eyes that look up at you are just too much for me to ever make me like fish!! A dark 8pm later tea was finally ready so we all ate chunks of chicken some onion and rice, it felt like 'I am a celebrity get me out of here' not sure how those guys do so long in the jungle which even for outdoor loving me, I am not sure if I would survive the lengths they do. Still a mega experience though!! The fish was apparently very bony and salty and Ads said in small doses it wasn't too bad but a very different taste to other fish. After, we headed out in the canoe in the dark to catch Cayman which was JUST wicked!!! By now you could already hear so many animal and wildlife noises, frogs talking to each other across the river banks, monkeys howling, birds chattering, it was incredible. Under the moonlight we headed silently as our guide staked out the water in search of Cayman. I had no idea he was going to actually catch one so when he dived forward and grabbed one by the neck and held it up to us it scared the hell out of me!! It was about a metre in length so quite a big one and its skin was a lot softer than a crocodile. Ads was brave and held it which sitting next to him praying he wouldn't drop the thing so we all got munched was pretty scary, then when the guide passed it over my head to Harry, I was bricking it!! Bizarrely this Cayman had two parts to its lower jaw as it had either been eaten by a piranha, been in a fight or caught some fungus. What an experience though, just when you think out world trip just CAN'T get any better........ Next a smaller one was caught which was a little less scary and we got to see its lovely teeth and stuff, nice! Thankfully we didn't see any alligators or crocodile so our night safari experience was a tad less scary thankfully. Later we chatted around the fire then headed to bed, a hammock tied between two trees under a little straw roof with a small capsule mozzie net around it, just right for a claustrophobic!! On seeing the net I was dreading the night and in the end got about an hours sleep with Ads fortunately getting a few more. The bonus of this though was that I got to hear all the different animal noises through the night which as the light got less and less, remarkably changed in sound and depth, then only to rise in magnitude as the sun started to rise, it was out of this world! At 4.30am the howling monkeys started and all around us the jungle was rumbling, King Kong was on the loose again!!! Thank god I had already experienced this noise in Guatemala, otherwise I would have been embarrassingly waking everyone up telling them to do a runner and get into the boat because a lion or gorilla was at large and loose in the jungle!! At 6am, after my hours sleep the guide woke me and Adam as we were heading back to join Thomas and Claudia for a jungle hike. Absolutely shattered was an understatement but as we wound our way through the still waters with the sunrise reflection of the jungle within the river it was just beautiful and something we won't forget. How lucky were we!!