We have spent a couple of days in the Amazon Jungle which from Simon´s point of view was a fantastic experience. I was not convinced. It was extremely hot with 95% humidity and I found it a struggle. When we stepped off our river taxi at 3pm, we were greeted with cocktails and lunch. I wasn´t too keen on my food when it was given to me wrapped in a banana leaf, but I was surprised when I opened it up because it was very nice. When we had eaten, we went across the river from our Lodge to Monkey Island. There we saw many species of monkey and fed them with bananas whilst being eaten alive by hungry insects. The lodge itself was beautiful and you can see that for yourself on the photos. There was no electricity and at night we relied on a very dull kerosene lamp and torch light. That night after dinner and drinks, we went back to our lodge only to find a pair of geckos and plenty of cockroaches. Simon took great delight in playing terminator and splatting them with my reading book! Dont worry, he thought the geckos were too cute so left them alone. The next morning, we were awoken at 5am to go for a half day jungle trek before it got too hot. By 8am the heat was stifling and becoming unbearable. I did not enjoy it at all but Simon didn´t find it as bad. I got a terrible headache and could not wait to get back to the lodge to jump in the cold shower. On the final part of the trek, our guide kept stopping to show us different flora and fauna. The whole of the group were rolling their eyes everytime he went into great detail about some ancient tribal folklore about trees that walk or plants with healing powers. I could have throttled him by the end. He did stop to show us a tarantula nest and tried to coax it out with a twig. We all stood there waiting in anticipation to see it come out of its hole for what seemed like about 20 mins but it wasn´t playing. We eventually arrived back at the lodge and the first thing that I did was jump in the cold shower and prayed that the afternoon would go quickly so that it cooled down a bit. Little did I know what was in store for me during the night ahead. We had dinner and although it was still hot, it had cooled down to a bearable temperature. After a few drinks we headed back to our cabin by torch light. After the unwanted visitors the previous night, I shone the torch all around the room to check for more. What I didn´t expect to find was a massive big black tarantula making itself at home in my room !!! I couldn´t believe that I had spent all that time on the trek waiting for the thing to come out of it´s nest, and then one just happens to visit me in my bedroom. I sent Simon to get a man from the lodge while our neighbours, James, Sarah and I made sure it didn´t go anywhere. When the man came with Simon , all he had was a sweeping brush. He swept the spider to the door but it kept running back to Simon and James. James ended up jumping on the chair, Simon was dancing around on the floor trying to dodge it and I was hiding behind Sarah screaming. Would be quite funny in a comedy sketch. He did finally get rid of it but I kept thinking it was going to come back for me. I had only 2 hours sleep that night because every noise I heard I kept flicking the torch on to check that nothing else was in my room. I couldn´t wait to get out of that jungle and my mood suddenly lifted when day broke because we were leaving early to go back to Cuzco. Certainly an experience I will never forget. Lisa