We awoke at dawn when the first few rays of sunshine dimly lit the night sky over the rainforest canopy, causing hazy purple lines. We were whisked off in the van for a short drive before boarding a boat to take us along the river towards a 'clay pit' where the parrots and parakeets all gather on mass to eat the salt from the clay in the early hours (apparently it helps their digestion of fruits later in the day). The sound they produced in a flock was deafening and through the binoculars you could see constant flashes of bright red blue and green. It was surreal to see so many parrots together since I'm only used to seeing them caged as pets in the UK. We were also lucky enough to get a glimpse of monkeys in the trees along the river and an extremely well camouflaged sloth! Breakfast was pancakes and marmalade and boiled egg sandwich and tea/coffee - all aboard the boat. A post breakfast loo stop for one of our party involved a scramble ashore from the boat wading through thick sticky clay to find some helpful foliage for a natural wee stop (I was pleased my bladder could hold out!)

After that we dropped the French group off at the entrance to a nature reserve called San der Val where they hiked and boarded a smaller boat on a lake in search of otter and cayman. Scott and I chose to carry further along the river to an area of the jungle where you could experience the forest from high up in the canopy via a bridge and to see a rescue centre for injured animals being nursed back to health. Luckily it was just the two of us and the guide again which made it quieter and more peaceful. We saw lizards, a bat, a small wild pig, several more tarantulas and stacks of beautiful butterflies as well as more varieties of birds wild in the jungle, and the rescue centre had loads of different monkey breeds, a leopard (donated to them - it was reared in captivity) and also helped protect fresh water turtles by collecting the eggs and burying them in artificial sand beaches to hatch before releasing them into the wild. The bridge experience was a bit nerve wracking - mainly because the bridge started at 9m and worked its way up to 43m so was pretty steep to get up, and secondly would no way pass the health and safety checks in he UK. It was creaking and making cracking sounds and bits of wood were coming loose! Maybe we've watched too many Hollywood movies but both of us expected it to break in the middle at any moment!

After a long boat ride and bus journey back to the lodge we arrived back at 3pm desperate for a shower to recover from the extremely muggy heat. The insects were out in their droves as he day had been hotter than previous and unfortunately Scott got stung by a wasp on his bum through his trousers! I lazed in the hammock reading my book before a few beers and pisco sours at the bar. Dinner was an exciting concoction of steamed chicken inside bamboo! We were exhausted by 8pm and ready for bed!