We arrived in Manaus after a long plane journey. No ordinary journey though as this was more like a sky bus than a plane as it took off and landed 7 times between us getting on it a Salvador and getting off in Manaus. This meant a free drink with complementary peanuts, dry crackers and chewy bar for sustenance every time we took off.

During the journey we had the spawn of Satan himself sat behind us in the shape of a small child around 5 years old who did not know what an "indoor voice" was! He kicked the back of mine and Katie's chairs repeatedly for nearly the entire journey. What a delightful little child he was!

Arriving in Manaus airport we picked up our bags and went through to arrivals. I immediately realised that the people in this place are a lot more helpful than the other areas that we have been to previously. Within minutes of us arriving the tourist police asked us if we needed any help (in English) and told us where to get on the bus etc… At the bus stop we were asked again if we needed any help by a guy whose uncle seems to be the local Don around these parts and owns hotels, tour companies, bars and has fingers in almost every pie you can think of. We decided to follow this man one of these hotels and check it out. It was R$35 per night (About ten pounds) for the two of us with breakfast and air conditioning so we snapped up the room. We then met the Don! He took us to his offices and showed us what he could offer in the way of jungle tours… He organized a package containing two nights in one of his hotels, 4 days and three nights on the Amazon river (Rio Negro) and onward bus transport to Venezuela. We took him up on the offer and the next morning we were on a boat with 3 Italians, 4 Germans and 2 French guys heading down the Amazon.

I won't go into two many details as the photos kind of tell the story but our first day started by visiting a floating bar to stock up on beers and drinks for the trip and then off downstream to the Meeting of the Waters. This is the strangest of things where the Amazon (brown and silty in colour) meets the Rio Negro (black in colour). Where these converge the two waters refuse to mix and a clear confluence can be seen. This stretches for nearly 80 miles along the two rivers before it turns to the Amazon only and out to sea. From there we cruised up stream looking for wildlife in the trees on the way on our way to fish for Piranha. We spotted a couple of sloths and a few makaks (small monkeys) and a few birds. There was not as much wildlife as you would expect to see in the jungle but we just assumed that this was because we were still not that far from the main town (approx 50km).

In the evening we fished for Piranha. I caught 4 including the largest of the 5 that were caught by the entire boat and sadly Katie didn't catch any. One of mine was a monster of a fish that seem to impress our local guide. After a bit more fishing I thought I would get a picture of the fish for bragging rights. The fish could not be found. The two local dogs were blamed but we have our suspicions that one of the locals in a shifty looking straw hat stole it when we were not looking!

Night drew in and we got back in our motorized canoe to go and catch alligators by hand! As you can see from the pictures we (our guide) caught two monsters that we are proudly holding! That evening on the boat and as we slept the following morning, we continued up the river for a good four hours until we were about 90km up the Rio Negro from Manaus. There we came ashore at a local village where a hut was available for us to string up our hammocks. The village was atop a particularly steep bank reached by some conveniently placed steps from the river side, it was great to swim in the river here jumping off the boat into the black water. (The colour is due to its origins in the Venezuelan highlands where the soil is sandy and acidic)

We met a man from the village (Antonio) who would be our local guide and he took us for a walk into the jungle for about 4 hours.We wore long trousers and sensible shoes of course, as advised.He wore shorts and a machete, no shoes… We walked a narrow path that was frequently overgrown and had several trees pointed out to us due to their particular medicinal use and as the basis for many modern medicines.This included the bark of a particular tree which contained quinine (an anti malarial). Also the clove tree which when a piece of bark was removed, was unmistakable. Paul insisted on carrying a piece in his pocket because it reminded him of apple pie!

There were many rubber trees which has sap that is pure latex, these were what brought so much money to the region during the short rubber boom in the early 20th century, before they cultivated the trees in South East Asia.The flora was very impressive, but the fauna was illusive. We glimpsed bushy tailed monkeys high in the trees before they took off, as well as seeing many ants nests built into and around trees. These it turns out were rather tasty. You had to plunge your finger into their nest allowing the ants to crawl up you finger in their hundreds. Then, before they bit, you too much you popped your finger in your mouth and crunched on their tiny abdomens. This gave a pleasant tangy lime taste in the mouth and left a nice citrus smell on your hand along with a couple of bite marks!

The next animal can be seen in the photos. We stopped by a small hole on the jungle floor where Antonio started to poke a small stick down. Slowly out came one hairy leg, followed by another, then a couple of fangs and finally out came the largest tarantula we have ever seen. The photos don't really do it justice. After an overly cautious walk back to the village looking for potential tarantula nests to avoid on the way we returned for another swim and to gather our gear for a night in the jungle under the stars. It started to rain. It carried on raining. It rained a little bit more. Then just for good measure it absolutely tipped it down. When it finally stopped we jumped in the canoes and headed upstream.

The overnight spot was approximately a 20 minute hike into the jungle where we would have to wade across a stream over a waterfall to the camp. The earlier rain had meant that the once shallow easily crossed stream was now a raging torrent. We looked at it thinking that we would not have to cross that! Wrong. This was Brasil. The land of no Health and Safety regulations. So with backpack on and both hands full we waded across the top of a fast flowing waterfall (about 4m high). A few scary moments later we were safely on dry ground and we set up camp for the night. In the jungle there is not much to do so after a meal of flame grilled chicken and rice we turned in and went to bed at 7pm! This was two out of our promised 4 days of adventure. Being truthful this is all we ever had. 2 days of adventure and the further two days of sitting in a canoe looking for wildlife that was no where to be seen.

We talked to our guide who even admitted that you would be really lucky to see anything in the areas that we were looking as most of the wildlife has moved to areas where they are not disturbed by the distant noise of the loggers chainsaws or hunted to oblivion by the locals. Finally on the subject of the hunters, we encountered a small critter called a Quecho (sp?) that had been orphaned when his mother was killed. It looked like a small tapir with a long snout and a bushy ringed tail. These live high in the trees and are therefore excellent climbers. Because the one we met was still a baby he was trying out his climbing skills on anything that looked remotely tree like. As you can see from the photos he thought my hairy leg was a particularly good climbing frame and decided to scale up my calf much to the amusement of the locals.

Overall we are glad that we went on the adventure but sadly after watching Attenborough and people of his ilk we are led to believe that around the next tree is lurking a jaguar or tapir and all the treetops are packed full parrots and macaws. When you get there this is not true and our guide Daniel said that in 25 years of running these tours he has only seen a jaguar 3 times. Please note… We are having great trouble finding an internet café that has more power than Mr Babbages steam powered calculator and therefore uploading the photos to go along with this story is taking time. Please bear with us.