Amazon prime

This country really is extraordinary. Yesterday we we’re sat in jeans and jumpers supping pints of real ale; today it’s shorts, vests and pineapple juice. We’ve only been on the bus for half a day but we’re back in the tropics, this time in the Amazon rainforest.

Yes folks, that Amazon, the one that’s home to the world’s mightiest river, the place where some indigenous folk have never set eyes on a white man, the one where if you’re lucky you’ll spot a boa constrictor, a colourful macaw or a shoal of narky piranhas. The biggest, baddest forest on earth.

 

We’re at the Sinchi Warmi lodge about 30 miles inside the forest, and of course, given that it has a total area of over 3 million square miles, this means we’re barely in the forest at all.

The weird and wonderful birdsong, 90% humidity and fact that 2 tourists were recently killed by anacondas in our neighbourhood make it Amazon enough for us though.

We really know we’re in the jungle the next day when Fabio, the resident Bear Grylls, starts sharpening his machete in readiness for our 7 hour hike into the unknown. 

There is a trail, of sorts, but Fabio reckons it hasn’t been used for a good month and because everything grows so quickly here he spends much of the time hacking away at the undergrowth.

Having lived here his entire life Fabio really knows his onions and points out all the stuff that’ll kill you (innocuous looking plants), the stuff that’ll save you (harmful looking plants) and the stuff that simply makes life more bearable if you choose to live in this environment.

 

We see many strange bugs.

 

Some beautiful ones too. 

And these cheeky monkeys.

At one point Fabio chops down a massive tropical palm leaf and weaves a designer handbag for Wendy and a fetching hat for me. We love Fabio.

Because of the humidity the walk is exhausting. Much harder than the hikes we’ve enjoyed in the mountains, but a fantastic experience. A bonus awaits right at the end when Fabio tells us we’ll be climbing into his boat for a ‘cruise’ back to the lodge.

 

The boat has been hollowed from a single tree trunk. It wobbles, it lists and it leaks so badly that to keep us afloat Wend has to bail for the duration (I would’ve helped but I was sitting comfortably at the dry end).