The greatst thing about being in the jungle is undoubtedly the wildlife spotting. This is especially great when you´re not doing something where you fear for your life. I enjoyed the boat trips the best where we explored the river in a small motorboat (40 HP engine) with a motorista and a guide.

Getting into the boats is a little tricky, because you must step very carefully from a precarious jetty. These jettys have a long runway because the river rises so much during the wet season, so you step into the boat from a ramp wherever the water meets the jetty.

At Jacamar Lodge, the jetty is now a little shorter. On my 3rd day in the jungle my motorista Jose and my guide Nataly and I were going to head upstream into a reserve which has no inhabitants. This is the last remaining habitat for the endangered Red Uakari monkey, and I was hopeful we might catch a glimpse of some playing in trees. As I went to step onto the boat however, I fell through the jetty after stepping precicely on a piece of rotten wood. As I was hitting the water, all I could think of were anacondas. I did a contorted barrell roll into the boat, and thankfully only got one leg saturated. We never saw the monkeys.

This day wasn´t all unlucky though, as I was able to watch a rosato delfin (pink dolphin) frolicking in front of the lodge for about an hour. The picture here is a baby pink dolphin, and although I didn´t take this pic I thought you might like to see that I´m not pulling everyone´s leg, pink dolphins really do exist.

We saw so many great animals. In the mammal category, we saw a 3-toed sloth, a group of titi monkeys, 5 pygmy marmosets (smallest monkey in the Amazon) and 15 squirrel monkeys. Bird life was prolific, there there´s too many to list here. We´d see 20 - 50 different species each time we hit the water. My favourites were the yellow ridged toucan, blue and gold macaws, the variety of woodpeckers and parrots.

The most awful thing that happened to me was also at Jacamar Lodge, where I was lost in the jungle for 5 hours with Jose and Nataly. We headed into the forest for a ´short hike´which seems amusing now. I´d become a bit fearful of being on the longer hikes because my malaria medication was in my lost luggage with my long-sleeved shirts. I was totally unprepared for the walls of mosquitos in my state, so I only went on the shorter hikes of 1 hour.

We had been exploring for about 1 hour when Jose and Nataly started conferencing in Spanish. This conferencing became more heated, and then they started looking around confused. We usually hiked on well hewn trails, and they couldn´t find the trail.

We were in a weird area where the humous was mostly dry leaf matter rather than the usual sloppy wet decaying humous we see in our rainforest. This leaf little was also about a foot deep, so it was a strange and difficult walk because I was always wondering what creatures lay under my gumboots as I trod through. You couldn´t see roots or vines either, so negotiating this part was a little tough. The trees were all very small and scattered, probably due to the lack of sunlight hitting the soil under all the leaf matter.

We turned around and retraced our steps, but couldn´t then find the trail we came from. Jose kept darting off into the depths of the jungle trying to locate the path while Nataly and I stood around and got eaten by mosquitos. They´re bearable while you´re walking, but everytime you stop they pounce, so to speak. I was constantly reapplying my insect repellent and it painfully burnt my skin.

After about 3 hours my water run out, and attempts to find the jungle water supply, agua lianos (water vine) didn´t work so well because they were all dry. At one point Nataly told me to sit on a big log and rest, and after checking it thoroughly for snakes, I took a seat. She ducked into the forest as well seeking the trail, and I started to cry softly to myself. I was so scared I wasn´t going to get out of this jungle, and equally frightened I´d have malaria and/or dengue fever. The mosquitos were really interested in my tears and increasingly interested in my eyeballs because they were wet, and so I had to toughen up really fast and not cry anymore. I certainly did not want any mosquitos biting my eyeballs! This was also cool because Nataly and Jose never got to see that I was upset.

We crossed a creek 3 times in the same place trying to find our way. The creek crossings are all frightening because the logs are mossy, wet and very slippery. On the first attempt of the creek, I fell in and my gumboot was submerged in a foot of mud. It took all three of us to pull me out of the mud, because it really grips your boots badly.

At 4 hours in Jose´s jungle ducking got a bit out of hand and we couldn´t find him. We didn´t respond to our calling, and we banged a machete on a buttress root to make a really loud noise but he didn´t bang back. Nataly and I decided to press on without him. Noise doesn´t travel very far in the jungle interior with so many trees and leaves to block the sound. Jose found us about 15 mins later, but he hadn´t found the trail.

I was so buggered. We´d been walking for ages in hot humid conditions with no water, and I was started to get quite dizzy. It was harder to negotiate roots, and my feet were so heavy that I kept tripping. I didn´t fall over, thank goodness, because there are big ass spines all over the forest floor. You also can´t reach out to steady yourself because there´s a good chance you´ll reach for a porcupine tree which are all over the forest much like our wait-a-while´s are.

Our primatologist Michael saved the day. Hís first research project is to mark 100 hectares behind the lodge in a grid format so they can study the primates living in each 100 sq. metre grid. He had cut just 1 km of trail, and we found one of these new trails. I was so relieved.

It took another 30 minutes to reach the lodge. I had big blisters over my big toes. I drank 2 litres of water, and took a very long cold shower. No hot water in the jungle.

And… I didn´t hike for the remainder of the trip. It didn´t matter though, the wildlife viewing on the water was much better!

I’ve just arrived from 8 days in the Amazon Jungle, a most amazing and terrifying experience.

The terrifying:

• Travelling by canoe
• Falling through a jetty into the Rio Amazonas
• Seeing a bullet ant 20cms from my arm
• Hiking lost in the jungle for 5h

The amazing:

• Watching 100’s of beautiful birds
• Seeing monkeys in their natural habitat
• Witnessing the speed of a sloth up close
• Playing with monkeys and scratching their belly

We started our adventure in Iquitos, a city of 300,000 people that is incredibly remote, and where I felt very outside of my comfort zone. Iquitos is a 3rd world city, mostly because there are no connecting roads to it and the outside world. All things come by boat from Brazil… on a very long trip up the Amazon River.

In the whole time I was there, I saw only 10 cars. Everyone travels in motocars which is a motor bike, usually a Honda, with a carriage. They’re noisy, smelly and open air, and it’s generally accepted that people can rob you very easily from them. Despite us needing to take at least 15 trips on these things, I couldn’t get used to it. I feared for my life with each trip. Each trip costs between 1 or 3 nuevos solas. Denoted like S/1, with no dollar sign, this is about AU$0.40.

All the roads are one way in the inner ciudad, and there appears to be no road rules. Motocars and motor bikes park anywhere. They’re often 3 to a lane, with lots of beeping and overtaking. You’re painfully close to other people, there’s rubbish all over the streets, and potholes that could swallow most smart cars. It’s amazing, but there are no accidents.

Most people in Iquitos like in houses which have roofs thatched with a palm leaf, or extremely rusted corrugated iron. In perspective, Iquitos is on Latitiude 2, Cairns is on Latitude 17. So we’re close to the equator, and its stinking hot. Most people have no electricity, so no refrigeration, and no air conditioning. Sleeping is difficult. As a result, nobody spends time in their houses during the day, they’re outside trying to make money.

They sell all sorts of weird things, lots of jugo (juice) in all sorts of flavours, plantain cooked lots of ways, assorted fruits and cooked goodies. There are people everywhere, and they cross the road wherever, chickens and dogs run everywhere. Bananas line the sides of some streets, and every now and then there is corn kernels drying on the footpaths.

We left Iquitos on a fast motorboat, with a 150HP engine. The horse power is very important to Iquitians, they often refer to the strength of the motor with pride. This started a 2.5h boat ride to our lodge, Tahuayo Lodge. I became very well acquainted with the two men sitting next to me, Steven from Boston, who informed me it snowed the day he left, and Michael from Chicago who is the Director of Tahuayo’s Amazon Research Centre. He’s a very famous primatologist and has extensively studied juvenile primates.

The lodge was exactly like you might imagine a jungle lodge to be… lots of little huts with thatched roofs, all joined together by a series of crickety boardwalks. They’re on high stilts because the Amazon floods, and the waters rise dramatically peaking in March - much like our wet season at home.

Coral and I had one of the newer lodges built, this had two hammocks, a king sized bed, two single beds and a bathroom. All the beds are four posters, and have fine mosquito nets which is both romantic and absolutely necessary in the jungle. The toilets were flush and very modern, however we were told the lodge sewerage system doesn’t handle toilet paper very well, so there’s a bin next to the toilet for such deposits. It’s very strange to get used to this. In addition, the toilet bowl fills up really high with water, so high in fact if you’re wiping without thought, you may accidentally dunk your hand in the toilet water. The shower only has one tap, the cold water tap. Coral didn’t have a proper wash the whole time she was there, but since I didn’t have a change of clothes we didn’t notice each other’s stinkiness.

Every day we had three meals, which were basic but always adequate. We ate lots of weird Amazonian things like Yuca, which is like a sweet potato with less sweetness. It’s closest to our cassava and they have it with almost every meal. They’re keen on white meat, mostly chicken and fish, and lunch is a huge affair with soup, mains and dessert.

Other interesting food we ate was plantain cooked every which way; fried slices dusted with salt, boiled till soft, cut in half and fried slowly until spoogy, deep fried as chips. We see plantain at home too, it’s the big ass bananas that never go yellow, they’re cooked green. They’re sometimes called cooking bananas. Sweet bananas don’t play as big a role here, everyone grows and trades in plantain.

There were 3 activites every day, these were usually on the river in a motorboat or a canoe, or hiking through the jungle. The locations varied each time.

My favourite by far where the river activities because the wildlife spotting was far superior to the hiking experiences.

Hiking was also a pain because the walls of mosquitoes are thicker than you possibly could imagine. There are 100s swarming around you constantly, and the DEET insect repellent only works for about 30 mins while you’re sweating up a storm. It’s 35C, 80% humidity and no wind - so not sweating is impossible. There are so many interesting plants in the jungle, and the occasional insect, snake or frog that pops up. However everytime you stop the mosquitos land and bite, so you need to keep moving.

I unfortunately discovered I’m allergic to DEET. My skin turns bright red about 3 mins after I apply, and then starts to burn. I know when it’s wearing off because I get relief from the burn.

… to be continued.

Back from jungle, safe. Lots of things to report - no time to do so right now.

I have my luggage. Everything in it was stolen except my clothes and medications. I annoyed but not suprised.

Mad rush around Iquitos to find chargers and batteries for phone and camera. *grr*

Thanks to everyone who have been writing me encouraging comments. I´ve had to be discouraged about so far, and the first official “day” was an incredible disappointment.

First, it´s stinking hot here. If you think it´s hot and humid in Cairns, that´s nothing compared to Iquitos. It´s been 35C in the day, and 80% humidty. Being inside at all leaves you extremely sweaty, and outside you need to keep out of the sun, or risk being frito.

Some of you might have heard about about my luggage fiasco already from Kaj. This will be my 5th day without luggage, and while it´d be great to go and buy new things, it´s actually not that easy. I can find Tshirts without any problems, because any street hawker sells them. They have souvenir crap all over them, but I can live with that. I can buy socks here too. But everything else is impossible. Coral is a size 10 and she´s having problems! She couldn´t find a bra big enough to fit her, so I´m certainly having issues.

So, wearing the same bra for 5 days that gets entirely saturated with sweat is about as disgusting an experience as they come. Coupled with it taking FOREVER to dry, due to no dryers, and overactive humity, and you have a very discouraged Nicky. My pants are getting a bit whiffy too - they´re quite thick so I haven´t bothered. With this kind of humdity it´s a bad idea to wear them wet.

I´m going into the jungle tomorrow, and although I was considering staying in Iquitos until my luggage arrived I´ve decided that would mean I miss out on one the great experiences I´m looking forward too. Drying any of my clothes in the jungle is going to be a much greater drama than here, so I´m very worried.

I had also prepared to go into the jungle with no electricity by stocking up on camera batteries and memory cards. I have just one battery in my camera, and it might last two cards.

I only have one more day´s worth of malaria tablets with me too, the rest are packed in my luggage. I´ll need to buy a different type of malaria tab, the only one that is sold here, and it has lesser protection and nasty side effects like runny poo, nausea and yeast infections. Ick. Not looking forward to any of those. And the protection for malaria is nowhere near as good. *sigh* I´m getting sad thinking about all this again.

Today we went to La Isla de Maños and I was able to play with monkeys. Well, they sort of play with you. Wesaw 6 different types of monkeys, and they´re like kittens constantly playing and being rather mischievious. Amazingly intelligent critters, and really interactive. They use you like a tree to jump to places too.

The trip to Monkey Island was a 2h boat ride on an amazingly dodgy boat, but it floated and the driver waited for us without issue, so that was awesome.

After that we headed to an animal orphanage which was sad and exciting. Lots of theanimals had a sad story of how they got to the orphanage, and one monkey there was a trained pickpocket. We had to leave all of our belongings in a monkey proof house, and empty our pockets. We saw a jaguar, tapir, sloths and lots of butterflies and monkeys. A few macaws and parakeets, but not too much action on the close-up bird front yet.

The day really lifted my spirits, which had just about died, and I really hope my luggage comes in on the first plane to Iquitos tomorrow.

Special thanks goes to Kaj who rescued Coral´s luggage from Australia - and a savage complaint goes to Lan´s South American staff who are useless.

Got to Auckland about an hour late and things were looking up. Coral was waiting for me at th lounge, so I was pleased to see she too had arrived as we’d had no contact since getting off the bus from the hotel.

We headed to the transit lounge to inform them we’d arrived and get details of our next flight, but instead informed our plane was not leaving until 3am the next day and were given a form which had overnight accommodation in Auckland at the Centra Hotel, return airport transfers and lunch and dinner in the restaurant. Although we were less than impressed at another delay, we were relieved to have somewhere to rest properly.

Unfortunately it took 5 hours to discover our luggage would not be available to us in Auckland and we missed our free lunch.

Tired, hungry and a bit grotty we stumbled into our hotel to be pleasantly surprised that it was modern, comfortable and had hot chocolate.

I begged the hotel to let us have dinner early and we were treated to a big buffet dinner with some awesome New Zealand oysters and a huge array of desserts and cheeses.

We caught a 1am bus to the airport and we’re now waiting in a lengthy customs queue with 300 displaced passengers, many red eyes and shortening tempers.

Our connections to Lima and Iquitos are now cancelled and and we will be provided with overnight accommodation in Santiago. Hopefully too, our baggage will be available there, because you can only wear the same clothes for so long before others treat you like you’re a grot.

Despite losing a day in Iquitos I’m relatively upbeat because we were otherwise going to be spending 11 hours waiting in various airports and that’s now been replaced with 2 free hotel stays and food and phone calls included.

Coral has been quite stressed at times and says this has been a test of her patience. I’m doing most of the talking and negotiation with various authorities as she tends to get a bit aggressive when they’re useless or don’t know things. Compared to work stress, I’m coping really well.

We haven’t left the country yet but Coral and I have already encountered great difficulties.

Tomorrow morning we were supposed to fly at 10:45am from Sydney, Australia to Santiago, Chile with a quick stopover in Auckland, New Zealand. Unfortunately for us the plane is having issues, and our Sydney - Auckland leg was cancelled.

I was rescheduled onto an earlier Syd - Akl Qantas flight, leaving at an evil and ungodly hour of 7:35am, which means I have to be at the airport at 5:35am. I am immensely unhappy about this, however can live with it.

Coral however was scheduled on an Air New Zealand Syd - Akl flight which doesn’t leave Sydney until AFTER our flight was due to fly from Auckland to Santiago.

So… our day today consisted of the following:

•  Panic
• Stress
• Worry
• Talk to Qantas
• Call Flight Centre
• Get grumpy because Flight Centre’s entire system was down
• Get on plane to Sydney, very worried
• Get off plane in Sydney, call Flight Centre
• Got a bimbo, no help
• Call Air NZ, can’t reschedule
• Call Lan Chile (in the USA from a mobile) who rescedules
• Go to Sydney International to pick up new tickets

It does indeed appear I may be leaving Australia at 7:35am. But at this stage, we’ll see.