For what seemed like the 20th day in a row we were up before 7 on Saturday morning to meet our Guide (Antonio) and the 2 Israeli guys and two Canadians we were off on our jungle tour with. We would probably normally avoid these types of tours but given we´re in the middle of the jungle we didn´t really have much choice.

In the morning we travelled up the Amazon itself which is truly vast (10kms across and we´re 3,000 kms from the Atlantic) and visted Isla Micos (Monkey Island) and then a pond with the biggest lillies in the world before having lunch. To be honest this wasn´t a great start these places were very touristy and quite expensive and there was no sense of what the rainforest was really like.

After lunch we continued our boat trip and before we knew it we were in Peru where we spent half an hour wandering around a very poor little village while the paperwork was sorted out for us to enter Peru on a tourist tour. We then clambered back on the boat, this was a precarious exercise as any slight movement by anyone made the whole boat rock and given how low the boat sits in the water this was pretty scary, and set off up one of the Amazon´s many tributaries. This was when we really began to get a sense of the Amazon, first of all you notice the aroma, there´s so much vegetation that the scent is very strong. You travel in the boat winding in between the trees, the area is flooded for six months of the year and large areas are underwater which enables lots of shortcuts to be taken and therefore the opportunity to see the wildlife which is not so visible from the main rivers. We saw lots of birds including eagles, monkeys and a sloth as well as the chance to see the local people going about their daily business on the water. We then had dinner and played cards with the other guys before the generator packed up at about 8.45pm.

Just as well we got an early night as on Sunday morning we were woken up at 4.20am, stumbling down to the boat we headed off to see, and more importantly hear, the rainforest waking up. We sat in silence in a nearby lagoon and listened to the birds and monkeys and other animals as they responded to daybreak. While this was probably not as raucous as we´d hoped it was still a great experience to be sat in the Amazon rainforest at daybreak (yet another bout of how lucky we are).

After breakfast we headed off into the forest for a guided 2 hour walk, Antonio our main guy introduced as to one of the local villagers who was to take us for the walk. Most of the wildlife is high in the trees and will not normally avail themselves of passing tourists. However, it was still extremely interesting, in the space of about 20 metres we walked past three trees which our guide stuck his machete in producing rubber, milk of magnesia (you know the stuff your Mum force feeds you for all ailments when you´re young) and some kind of yakult type liquid. Shortly after this we started to hear what sounded like the roar of some kind of cat, we were relieved to hear that it was a large monkey that marked its territory by howling. Our young guide was fairly excited as this was pretty rare and we were told that if we kept quiet we could hopefully get sight of them. We set off towards the calls.

Alison and I were wandering along at the back, discussing how interesting the rate of decomposition of the vegetation was when the rest of the group started running - if we moved quickly we´d be able to see them before they disappeared. This was exciting stuff and we chased after the group and we were rewarded by all being able to see a male and female high in the canopy. The guides were pretty excited at this and were attempting to get the monkeys into view by shaking nearby trees and throwing branches. The monkeys then moved off as did we, feeling pretty pleased to have seen these rare and beautfiful animals.

Unfortunately however this tale does not have a happy ending. Having continued our walk we were on our way back and hour or so later when our guide heard further calls. We saw in a tree a tiny little monkey. Our Guide told us that this was probably the young of the monkeys we´d seen earlier and that because we had chased them they had abandoned the little guy who was sat whimpering in the tree. This was really distressing for both of us, through our actions and the excitement of wanting to see a rare animal we had put a young monkey´s life in jeopardy. It was a really sickening feeling that we´d been party to human actions impacting on wildlife, the desire of our young guide to please the tourists had driven them to terrify local wildlife to the extent that they´d abandoned their young.

Thankfully the young guides seemed to understand the consequences of their actions and when we got back to the bopat Antonio, our main guide, made it clear that this shouldn´t happen. He also said that the monkeys we´d seen were very territorial so would hopefully return to find their young. We can only hope that´s how it turned out for the little guy.

After that we returned on a fairly subdued boat, we made the point to the guys that we hoped this wasn´t the norm and they shouldn´t be swayed by tourists who don´t know any better to put animals lifes in danger which they seemed to accept fully.

The remainder of the day we went out fishing for piranhas. Alison caught 1 and I´m sorry to say my teenage years of sitting on the banks of the River Severn drinking lager and attempting to catch fish were all in vain as I caught a big fat zero. In my defence the pirnahas were working in conjunction with the mosquitos who would bite my ankles making me kick out, wobble the boat, freeze in terror in case I fell in and truly caught some piranha who were happily eating the bait. We then took a couple more trips in the evening to see pink dolphins which are only found in the Amazon and later on after dark to search for Cayman.

Monday morning we travelled back to Leticia, stopping at another small town (Islanda) for a while. This visit involved the most terrifying part of the trip so far. I asked to use the bathrooms and was directed to a room with a hole in the floor where you pished directly into the river. Now I´m not normally too fussy where I pee but on the first day Antonio had told us not to go in the water as there are creatures which are attracted to the ammonia and will swim through the urine into your privte parts pipes. However, needs must and off I went only to see a fish swim up and start to feed off my pee as it entered the water - I don´t need to tell any of you (especially the blokes) how my heart stopped. I then got my senses and realised that the fish was just a fish but it wa still a moment I´ll remember from the trip.

A short stop to see more pink dolphins, really amazing creatures, and then we were back in Leticia where we need to arrange activities for the next few days before our flight back to Bogota on Thursday.

It was a really great trip and truly amazing to experience the Amazon rainforest although we´ve had a real lesson in the dangers that tourism can introduce to the ecosystem - even when the tourists truly have the best intentions.