Sorry it's been so long everyone, who knew there weren't internet cafes in the jungle?! Gemma here, telling you all about our 4 day jungle excursion...

Thursday

We left Baños early in the morning to make our way to the big bad jungle!! We had a six hour journey during which we mostly slept and read, although a large part was ruined by a woman in the aisle pressing herself into my side and hitting my legs with her bag every 30 seconds! She got off eventually though and the rest of the journey was uneventful. We arrived in Napo about 1pm, and had a short walk to catch a local bus to Misahuali. It was dirty and hot and packed full of school kids, who moved out of the seats for us (we'd payed for them) when they saw the look on most of the groups faces when they thought we had to stand! We got some ice pops to cool us down and then enjoyed the 45 minute trip, soaking up the culture and laughing at everyone else's displeasure at being surrounded by locals! When we arrived at our destination we were met by our guide, Marcelo, and the owner of our lodge, Adones. The town was roaming with monkeys, cheeky scary looking ones who we were a bit wary of. While we were stood waiting for the truck for our cases, one of them climbed along the balcony above me, took aim, and through a couple of thick heavy bolts at me! Obviously i didn't see this, but it sounded hilarious from all the people who followed his movements above my head and didn't inform me! Luckily he had bad aim so i continued unscathed. We sat down outside a restaurant and ordered some lunch. The monkeys continued hanging around while we waited for our food, trying to steal our sunglasses and cameras. Once our food arrived we were all quit worried! I ate my chicken (for want of a better word) as i was starving, but Jess decided she couldn't manage hers. As if it read her mind, a monkey jumped down onto the table and grabbed half of the piece, running off to stash it somewhere. After lots of screaming and sidling up the bench, Jess pushed the plate towards the end of the table for the monkey to finish off, and it came back a minute later, looking at her as if to say 'Do you dare me?!'. He took it, and went off happily, not to bother us again. Since Jess didn't want it anyway, everybody won really, although she was informed later by the know-it-all member of the group, that she "really should have shown the monkey who's boss"! After lunch we walked down to the Napo river and hopped onto a motorised canoe which took us downstream for an hour and a half until we arrived at 'Anaconda Lodge'. There were 3 other groups there, and a really nice atmosphere in the dinner area/bar, where we had a few drinks and played cards before dinner was served. We hung out for a little longer and then when we could barely keep our eyes open, we struggled back to our cabin with our awful torches, and tucked ourselves up in our mosquito nets.

Friday

Woke up early, since the same came up at 5.30 and we had no walls! Snoozed until our alarm clock (Athena) woke us up about 7am. We had pancakes for breakfast and then took the canoe down river to a small town. We went to visit a woman who made pottery from the local clay. She talked us through the process and then we bought some of her products in the little shop. Nex we went to visit a man who made carvings out of balsa wood. He made all sorts of animals like parrots and dolphins and armadillos. They were so intricate and we were amazed to see how they began... just a block of wood and a machete! We good back on the boat and went back down stream to visit a Shaman. We expected him to be crazy but he seemed like a nice normal old man! Athena volunteered to have a cleansing ritual performed on her. He basically shook a bunch of leaves over her, hummed a bit, and sprayed alcohol over her from his mouth. I'm such a cynic! It was very interesting to see though. After that Marcelo painted some of our faces with some ink from a local fruit. After lunch at the lodge we went back out to learn about Chicha (the indigenous alcoholic drink) from some local woman. In fact, she just brought a cup for us to try, and Marcelo told us it was made from bolied mashed yuka that was left to ferment. Nothing more. We then waited half an hour for the boat to come back, and then Marcelo and the driver built us a raft from 10 logs, 2 sticks and a bit of string... And told us to float back to camp! Bear in mind it took us 45 minutes by motorised canoe to get there! We ditched all our stuff in the canoe to stay safe and dry, and the 11 of us climbed on with Marcelo. The fact that it practically sunk in the first 2 minutes did not dishearten us! It was a lot of fun, but we got absolutely soaked. There were a couple of rapid waters that we went through, causing a few screams and splinters, and a couple of times when we got stuck on the rocks in the shallow waters and a few of us (obviously Jess and I!) had to get off to lighten the load and help push. We also got whacked by a few branches... but all in all we arrived at camp (2 hours later, the sun almost set and all of us shivering!) relatively unscathed! Another nice dinner and a chilled out night and back in bed for another early night.

Saturday

A jungle trek was on the agenda today, which included a wade through the river, which we were told may or may not reach up to our necks! So after breakfast we picked out our wellies and we were on our way. When we arrived at the start of the trek, Marcelo told us we might have to swim parts of it, since the rain last night meant the water was very high. He told us to leave our bags on the boat and bring all essentials in a plastic bag. So we stuffed cream, repellant, spare clothes, water bottles and camera into a plastic bag which we had to carry through the jungle for four hours. It was uncomfortable to say the least, especially when one of the handles broke. It was very hot and humid and the walk was difficult, very slippy! Our guide was really struggling to explain things to us, and i was forced to act as translator, talking about a load of plants and animals i'd never heard of, never mind knew the words in spanish! At the end of the trek we found out that the water was too high to wade through and high enough for the canoe to collect us so we didn't even need our wellies, bikinis or plastic bags! We had a packed lunch on the boat which soon cheered us up, and then went to a jungle museum where Marcelo gave us some long explanations about all sors of animals traps, weapons, and cooking implements. We also saw loads of snakes and tarantulas in jars (thankfully!). After this Marcelo showed us how to use a blow gun with poison darts. We all took aim at a wooden parrot which seemed really far away (excuses...!). It was powerful though and everyone came close, if not hit it. We hopped back on the boat to go to the animal sanctuary, where we saw loads of monkeys, maccaws, parrots, toucans, a little jaguar type thing, and some beautiful little cheetah like things called ocelots. It was interesting, but sad at the same time to see so many of the animals playing up to us or shying away from us, proving how they have been mistreated and could never go back into the wild. Made a quick donation to the gift shop (because i'm such a good person and not because i love to shop...!) and we went back to camp for dinner and a nice evening with the group. Another early night in time to be up for the early morning bu to Quito!