San Gil

San Gil is a pretty little town who's main attraction is adventure sports. We stayed at a cool hostel run by and Australian backpacker. He was a nice guy, and told us about the town and he also seemed to know just about everything about Colombia. I learned quite a bit when I was there. He told us where the best places to eat were, as well as organising our hydrospeed and caving adventures.

Every day we would go to the market and take advantage of the fact that Colombia is the country with the biggest selection of fruit grown withing its boarder. At the markets you can go to have fresh fruit salads and some fresh fruit smoothies made right in front of you all for about 75p. A wonderful way to start any day if you ask me.

Hydrospeed

Hydrospeed - a small polyurethane floatation board, designed for descending rapids. The user rides the hydrospeed in a prone, semi-swimming position. The upper body rests on the board and the legs hang free in the water.

Going head first into some rapids. What a terrifying concept, and yet something that sounds like a lot of fun. The safety equipment consists of little more than a helmet and a life vest. Not much, but enough, I suppose. The crash course was short, but informative. It was more or less just to tell us how to hold on to the borad and to never let go of it. Pretty straighforward stuff.

Five minutes later and we were thrown into the river. To our advantage the weather was beautiful and the temperature quite high, so jumping into col water was somewhat refreshing.

We got to the first rapid almost immediately. It was exhilerating getting sucked down into the water and having my head poking through long enough to gasp for air before getting sucked right back down. Much like the swirlies often talked about in American movies and TV shows. For those not aware, a swirly is the act of repeatedly shoving someones head in a toilet while deploying the flush.

For maybe ten minutes the rapids kept on coming and there was very little time to breath between each submersion. There came a point when my hydrospeed and I were fully submerged for a while; shortly followed by a feeling that I might have to let go of the board, or I might die. That feeling went away rather quickly when I finally came up for air and saw that that was the last rapid for a long time. The river was as calm as a swimming pool after that until the end of the experience.

We arrived on shore in the city park which consists of a forest full of trees which looked like something found in Peter Jackson's Middle Earth. A magical setting.

Caving

Our final day in San Gil was spent wandering around in complete darkness with flash lights straped to our helmets. It was difficult at first to navigate my way around, as I was reduced to complete tunnel vision, but I was surprised at how quickly I became used to it.

There are several different sections to the cave. The first one was called the Cathedral. Simply an large opening after having to get on our knees due to a small tunnel leading to it. In there we saw some bats, and then turned our lights off and sat in the dark in complete silence. I don't think I have ever had all my senses completely shut off like that before. As we were sitting there, a bat flew right past my ear. The guide told us not to move because their radar system allows them to know where you are, but they get it wrong if you move.

The next section, the mud, was by far the most amusing. The whole point of this was get dirty. Frankly, I thought this would be the worst part of the whole thing, but I loved every second of it. I took my shoes off for this, and I am rather glad I did. We crawled for a couple of metres completely flat on the ground, and then ended up in a puddle of mud that went all the way up my knee. I do not know who started it, but we ended up having a mud fight. It went everywhere and would take days to wash off completely.

At this point, the guide was having so much fun that he suggested taking us to a part of the cave not usually seen by tourists. It would involve a difficult climb, but we all wanted to stay in there as long as we could.

We walked through the third section, which was supposed to be a river followed by a waterfall, but the river was almost completely dry. This is normally the place where people wash off all the mud, but we were not so lucky. Nevermind.

The climb was very difficult, it involved sending the tallest in the group up first by giving him some footholds with our hands. Once he was up, he would hoist everyone else up. Not exactly safety first, I would have rather had a rope or something, but no one got hurt and that is the main thing.

Villa de Leyva

We met a Colombian school teacher in our hostel who was writing a book on the Muisca civilization, the natives of Colombia before the European invasion. He told us that there is a site just outside of town where the Muiscas had planted some rocks in the ground (something in the same vein as stone henge) that would line up perfectly with the sunrise durring the equinox. As luck would have it the equinox was the very next day, so plans were made to wake up at 4:30 the next day to go to this site and witness this extra-ordinary bianual event.

I always hate having to get up before the sun rise, and this time was no different. We had left the hostel by 5, and we walked for about one hour to the site. When we arrived, the place was closed, and did not open until 9 o'clock. Entirely unacceptable! How could they commit such a crime to close this site at the one time when that makes it special? We were having none of it, and so went searching for a place to climb over the barb wire fence.

Once all nine of us had climbed over, we finally got a good look at the set up of the stones. The sun had not come out yet, but it seemed like full day light. Comparing it to stone henge would be rather unfair to the British monument, because, quite frankly, this was unimpressive. It was litterally just a bunch of rocks in the ground, but we sat and waited for the sun to rise. When it finally did is when the rock formations transformed as they were perfectly in line with the sun. What an exquisite sight it was.

The rest of the day was spent sitting around the town square sipping fresh fruit juices. Colombia is apparently the country with the biggest selection of fruit grown within the country, so they are all extremely tastey. On top of that, Villa de Leyva was considerably warmer than Bogota, which means we were all in shorts again. Hooray!

The town was being used for the filming of a TV mini-series based on the story of Zorro, so they had repainted part of the town square to make it look older. They had also set up a fake market as a set for one of the scenes. It was fun to watch everyone in period costume walking around town. Frankly, I could have spent days just sitting in the square drinking juice and watching things happen. The atmosphere was very enjoyable.

Despite that, the next day we went out on a hike to see some waterfalls where we got caught in the rain without raincoats. The weather was so beautiful when we left that no one even thought it could ever rain. So we all ended up getting really wet, but it was still pretty hot, so it just ended up being rather fun.

In the afternoon, we caught a bus over to San Gil where we would experience some adventure sports.

Catedral de Sal

Eight of us set out from the Platypus hostel armed with clever instructions on how to get to the salt cathedral neatly printed on a nice little slip of paper provided to us by the hostel. Very clear and consice directions indicating that two buses need to be taken in order to get to the town of Zapaquiri.

It just so happens that the bus stop next to the hostel was closed on this particular day, so we were facing an extra 11 block walk to the next one. How fun. It must however be stated that this was the only problem encountered on the way there thanks to the clever instructions on how to get to the salt cathedral neatly printed on a nice little slip of paper provided to us by the hostel.

Entrance is half price on Wednesdays, and being the good back-packers we are, we just can not say no to such an excellent bargain such as this one. We managed to save oyurselves a whole pound fifty! Something I would not even have batted an eye-lid over back home, but it makes a huge difference here.

The tour of the salt mine was in English, but frankly there is not much to be saif about a salt mine, so had the tour been in any other language I would not have missed much.

We walked through the tunnels for about 5 minutes before finally getting to the cathedral. Along the way were some statues representing the stages of the cross. All of this was neatly lit using fluorenscent lighting, but I could not figure out how they have done it becuase there were no cables anywhere. How does an electrician hide his work in a salt mine? Surely not plaster. Maybe that would have been a good question for the guide...

Despite this cool lighting - or maybe because of it - I was unable to take any pictures. Everything came out completely black. I suppose this is what I have to expect from the cheapest camera available at ASDA. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. I have put up with this pathetic excuse of a camera for long enough, and decided that I needed a new one. That crap cost me pictures of a beautiful sight.

The cathedral itself was very impressive. One of the biggest rooms I have even been in. It definately made me feel very insignificant stepping in such an enormous space. The first thing that came to mins was how excellent a cenue it would make. The acoustics were unbelievable, and I am sure it would have been possible to fit thousands of people. Everyone agreed.

The journey back to the hostel was far less simple than the one to the cathedral. The clever instructions on how to get to the salt cathedral neatly printed on a nice little slip of paper provided to us by the hostel forgot to tell us how to get back. It should not have been very difficult. Just take the same buses in the opposite direction. The only problem is that the bus lines going in the opposite direction are given completely different numbers and none of the bus drivers could agree on which bus we needed to take. We eventually just jumped on one even though the driver assured us that it would not take us to the right place. Good thing we paid no attention to him because we ended up exactly where we wanted.

Bogotà

2640 Metres above sea-level.

... and that is why, despite being right next to the equator, it is rather chilly here. I must say, I was rather quick to adopt the shorts and sandals, but they shall now remain a distant memory for there are very few warm places I plan on going to. The winter clothes have come out from the dark depths of my bag (where I had hoped they would stay a bit longer) to keep me from being cold up here in the mountains for the next few months.

Mind you, my threshold for cold is probably not what it used to be. It seems to have evolved over the last months, which is why I feel I must clarify when I say "cold". Durring the day, we can expect temperatures reaching up to 20 degrees, and down to maybe about 10 at night. Hardly a freezing Brittish winter,but I really got used to 35 degrees with humidity. Nonetheless, I have not let the brisk temperatures keep me from exploring this beautiful city.

I have been staying in a hostel that I have been told is in one of the safest places in the country, which is nice to know, but I am still not going to take and chances. The hostel is a building marked with nothing more than a painting of a duck-billed platypus next to the door. I think this was done initially so people would not know it was a hostel - an extra security measure, which is always welcom - but it now seems that all of Bogotà knows of it.

The "cold" is also high-lighted by the missing window panes. This can make for some pretty chilly nights, followed by mornings with cold showers. The hostel boasts hot water, but I have yet to witness it. One of the employees told us there was a trick to getting hot water from a tap with only one working knob, so we asked him to show us how.

On the way to the nearest bathroom, he was modestly telling us that Bogota had one of the best irrigation systems in the world, no less. Still, I was ready to listen to any old non-sense provided he could show me how to have a hot shower.

He got the water flowing by turning the knob very slowly. His hand went under the current to test the tempurature. The contact with the flow brought a smile to his face, and he informs us that the water is now hot. The trick was simply to turn the knob slowly.

The news pleased me greatly nd made me want to dest it for myself. I was distraught when the ice streaming from the shower burned my fingers, but he seemed so pleased with himself for having been able to provide "hot" water that I could not bring myself to tell him that I might die from hypothermia if I were to stand under there.

Apparently this is something I will have to get used to, especially if I make it to Bolivia. Hot water is rarely available, even in the higher altitudes due to the crippling poverty of the country. Not exactly a pleasant prospect, but I am sure I will get used to it.


When walking around the city, the first thing I noticed was a beautiful building on top of a mountain peak over-looking the city with a cable-car leading up to it. This church of Monerate is visible from almost everywhere in the city, and would serve as my North Star whenever I got lost, because it was even illuminated at night. Obviously, I had to go visit it, and did so on my first day in the city.

Once at the top, there is a view of the city, which is frankly not very nice. I was shocked to see that the city is rather ugly from above, when it is so beautiful in the streets. The view is much nicer on the other side of the mountain of a forest in a valley. The church itself is very beautiful, and I got there just when they started having a mass. I find these deadly boring when I can understand what they are saying, so I did not stay very long to witness this.

There are also many museums in the Bogotà. I have visited a few, ranging from really nice, to so boring that I left before seeing most of it. The gold museum, which I was told was "un-missable", was definately missable. I stayed there no more than five mintues, before leaving (thank god it was free). The police museum (which also sounded like it should have been a total flop) turned out to be one of the best experiences I have had in Bogotà.

I showed up to the museum, and door-man asked me where I was from, if I speak Spanish, how I had heard of the museum, etc. I explained to him that I had heard very good things about the museum, and he asked me to sit down, while he went to fetch me an English speaking guide. The guide was a 19 year old currently serving his military service. It was really interesting talking to him about Colombia while we walked around the museum. I am glad I am not Colombian, though, becuase he is now having a "restful" time as they work him 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Normally, he works 15-17 hours per day.

At the end of the tour, he took me to see his major, who is the officer with the most years of service in all of Colombia. Apparently the major had requested to talk to me, which I made me feel somewhat nervous, but he was so friendly that I quickly felt at ease. He told me how he loved to meet people from foreign countries, especially the French, seeing as it was a Frenchman who was responsable for setting up the police in Colombia. When he was done complimenting me for being French, he gave me a chocolate, and sent me on my way with an enormous smile. I love this country.

Leticia

I did not do much in Leticia, and did not think I would need to make an entry for this rather dull city, but something happened to me hours before I was supposed to leave. Something that I thought I had done everything in my power to avoid, and therefore did not even conceive the possibility of it becoming a problem.

As I have metioned, the boarder between Tabatinga (Brazil) and Leticia (Colombia) is pretty non-existant. When leaing Brazil (i.e. walking down the street), you have to go to the Policia Fedral, for them to stamp your passport. This means you have officially left Brazil, and you are either going to Colombia, or Peru. This much, I knew, and got out of the way when I first arrived in Tabatinga on Friday.

A few days later, when trying to get a plane to Bogota, I went to get my passport stamped. The man refused to give me a stamp, saying that I had left Brazil serveral days before, and that I had been in Colombia illegally for that time. I found this a bit strange, seeing as Rotem had had her passport stamped just that morning (by a different guy). I kept askin him what I was to do now, and each time he just kept telling me that I had been in the country illegally for several days. Not only was I stressing out, because he was telling me this, but I was getting seriously annoyed by the fact that he would not tell me what he expected me to do about it.

I can not be sure, but I think I saw him rub his thumb over the tip of his index an middle finger in the international "money" sign. I only saw him do it once, and it was very quick, and possibly a part of my imagination, but it seemed for a moment that he was looking for a bribe. I know that I am not tactful enough to be able to do such a thing discretely, so I just kept on asking him what he wanted me to do about the whole situation.

Eventually, he told me to go back to Tabatinga, and ask the Policia Federal for a new stamp with today's date. This made me slightly nervous, as I had no idea how long it would take the Brazilians to do what I asked of them.

When I went to have my first stamp on Friday, we met a woman in a similar predicament who had been told that she would have to pay a fine, and wait in the office until said fine was determined. She had been there several hours already, and this poor woman's story came back to me when I was in the taxi on my way back to Brazil, because there was only one hour left before my flight to Bogota.

I ran out of the taxi into the office, and started yelling at the poor "boarder" patrol-man trying to explain my situation in Spanish, completely fogetting that this was Brazil, and that he might not understand a word I am saying. He did not. It took maybe five minutes of me yelling at him before he understood what I wanted, and he re-stamped my passport, for the sole reason of getting me out of there, I think. I impressed myself with how easily my Spanish flowed despite the stress I was under. I managed to confuse someone using a foreign language.

When I got back to the Leticia Airport, I shoved my passport in the imigration guy's face, and smiled as he was forced to give me the damned stamp that I deserved. All this with about 40 minutes before the flight, and enough time to go have lunch. Success! For now...

I know now, that I could have ended up like that woman, being stuck at the Policia Federal for hours, and not missed my flight. It turns out that President Bush was in Bogota for the day, and everything was closed. Including the airport. We left several hours late, and landed in Cali, where we waited another hour or so before going directly to Bogota, like it said on the ticket I was sold. Despite all these delays, other than a bread roll with some butter, they did not feed us on the plane. By the time we got in, it was about 9:30, and we were starving, but Bush's visit had meant that EVERYTHING was closed.

Our luck turned at about 11 o'clock, when we found what must have been the only place in the whole city serving food. A hot dog has never been more welcome on my plate, and never tasted so good.

Amazon River Cruise

It took some negotiation to get 40 Reais knocked off the price of the ticket. This is pretty standard procedure for Brazil. There is what they call the ¨Gringo Price¨, which is always open for negociations, so we thought nothing of it when we finally managed to get the salesman to reduce his price. He told us that he would meet us at our hostel to take us to the ship at 2 o´clock (Brazilian time. Roughly translates to 2:30). We just thought he was being nice and helping his latest clients make it safely to their destination. How wrong we were.

It turns out that the discount we managed to get was not marked down from the ¨Gringo Price¨, we had simply bargained hard enough for the salesman to sell us the ticket tax-free. This is blatantly illegal, so we could not get on the ship at the dock just like everyone else. Instead, we waited until the ship had left, and took a speed boat out to a clandestine meeting somewhere alond the Amazon.

We even had to get on using the back door through all the food storage. I was surprised to see live chickens trapped in wood boxes, but I suppose that is the best way to keep meat fresh for 6 or 7 days. It was really impressive to see the amount of supplies that were on this deck. What I had not realised at this point was that we would be making some stops along the way, and that this food would be unloaded and left in some villages that exist on the bank of the river.

People had told me that the food on the shop would be little more than sustainance, but I really enjoyed it. Rice, beans and pasta - what appears to be the main staples of the Brazilian diet - start to wear a bit thin after several weeks (this is also what we ate in the jungle), but at least it all tasted very nice.

The passenger deck was also a sight to behold. There were only a couple of cabins that were rediculously overpriced, so everyone else hung a hammoc on the deck. It is pretty crazy, but it looks really cool. I can not believe how many people they managed to fit on the deck. Someone told me that the ship could house 300, and that it was almost full (but not quite). We were all sleeping on top of eachother.

In fact, eating and sleeping seemed to be the main activites on the ship. The meal times were very early and difficult to adapt to. On the first morning, I missed breakfast by getting up at 8 o´clock, not realising that it ended at 7:30. Not that it mattered much, since lunch was served at 10:45. Even with these early meal times, I could never get used to dinner being at 5. Especially not after having spent so much time on this continent where people do not eat before 9 pm.

It felt like the entire trip was just a perpetual challenge to try and find something to do between eating and sleeping. I did manage it well enough that when the trip was over, I looked back, thinking I could have lasted a few more days.

1) Learning Hebrew - this entertained me for the first couple of days, but it soon reminded me, once again, just how much I hate learning languages. I only got as far as learning the alphabet before I decided to give up for ever. The problem was that they have two completely different scripts. One for print, the other for writing by hand, and I could not be bothered to learn both. Hebrew will always have to remain a mystery to me.

2) Making Bracelets - as luck would have it, there was a very nice French couple (Jean and Candice) in the hammocs next to ours that tought just about everyone on the ship how to make bracelets using string, like the ones you find being sold on the streets everywhere in South America.

3) Reading - I think I managed to pick up the lamest book in the world from the book exchange in the hostel back in Manaus. There were only two books available - hardly a mind blowing selevtion, but still should have been enough. One was about how great a person Jesus Christ is, and the other a romance novel. Sadly enough, I saw the romance novel as the lesser of two evils, but seeing as how boring it was, I might have been better off with the religious propoganda.

4) Cachaça - liquor was contraband on the ship, but it was not difficult to sneak on board durring one of the many ¨30 minute¨ that could last up to 7 hours while they unloaded the cargo. This also gave us some time to walk around the little villages that exist along the river. In the evening, we got back and made ourselves caprinhas in the cabin of the Belgian couple (Max and Julie).

5) Cards - as many times before, playing cards have come to the rescue and provided several hours of fun in what could otherwise have been a case of absolute boredom. We all learned how to play new games, and I was really glad to be able to play La Beulotte, a french game, which I had not played in several years. The Belgians had bought a game called Backpacker, wherein you must go around the world and bring home as many pictures of different places as possible, but were not able to fully understand the instructions, as they were only printed in Enlgish. I was comissioned to translate, so that we could try this game out, and it turned out to be one of my favorite things to do on the ship.

6) Stare into space - Sadly, it did come to this a few times. It was nice to watch the river bank with all the trees, but that became tiresome sooner than it should. The pink river-dolphins came out to play only once, but that was enough enough for me. They really are quite pink, although they do have many dark spots, and they could only be seen once they came up to the surface because the water was so opaque. In Manaus, and when we went in the jungle, the water was black (from sediment that it picks up. It really is all natural) but furter along, it turned to what they call white, but is really more of a beige. Seeing the two collide is really cool, because there is the black water becomes white almost instantly, creating a visible boarder between where one ends and the other begins. I have never seen anything like it.

Arriving in Tabatinga, we had to be sure not to forget to get our passports stamped saying that we were leaving Brazil. The problem is that there is no boarded between Tabatinga and Leticia (which is in Colombia). They really are one and the same. Forgetting to have your passport stamped would result in a hefty fine if I tried leaving Colombia, so it is something that should definately not be forgotten.

I am now in Leticia where I shall take a plane to Bogota, the capital city of Colombia. The ticket price is somewhat higher than I had anticipated, but it is still the cheapest way out of Leticia that is still pretty safe. The cheaper option (i.e. a slow boat to Peru, or Equador) has a nasty habbit of being attacked by the rebel forces of Colombia, or so I was told. Rather regrettably I have been forced to rule out this possibility. It seems that staying alive is slightly more important that saving 50 pounds. Who would have thought it?

Amazon Trek

We left our hostel at 5:30 am to take a bus to a village 180 km outside of Manaus. From there we went on a motor boat along the Urubu river - a tributary of the Amazon. I have not been on the Amazon yet, but this tributary is bigger than the Thames, so I can not wait to see just how big the biggest river in the world is.

Arrival at the base camp was quite nice. There were some wood huts on the bank of the river where we were finally treated to breakfast with lots of fresh fruit native to the Amazon. Some of them were pretty crazy. My favorite one, which the guide said was called plum, tasted like an Orange and a Mango mixed together.

After breakfast we took a row boat to go see the flood planes of the Urubu River. Right now is the rainy season - there are only two seasons here: rainy and dry - so the water level is very high. We were canoeing around tree-tops that the guide (Frank) told us were normally three or four metres high.

It seemed like they wanted to fatten us up because the canoe trip lasted only about one hour, but they were already serving us lunch. Not that I am complaining, because the food was really nice.

All of the days events were a bit too much for me to handle becuase I needed a siesta. I was falling asleep when my new travelling partner, Rotem, let out this scream that woke me up. A massive spider had just landed on her hest and frightened her. Apparently I was really funny when I woke up, trying to figure out what was going on, so she started laughing at me. She still laughs about it now, so I really must have looked stupid.

My lovely siesta was cut short by an alarm clock in the bag of the Norwegian couple on the expedition (heretofor refered to as the Norways). The timing worked out pretty well, though because it was time to go fishing for piranas. We stayed out on the river watching the sun set and desperately trying to catch fish for dinner. It is too bad wood is not edible because all I seemed to be able to catch was branches. It was quite lucky that Rotem managed to catch two, because no one else did, and it meant that we had some fish to eat for dinner.

The first night in the jungle was really loud. Base camp was right next to the river, so there were many frogs making alot of noise. After a while, I managed to tune it out - even find it relaxing - but at first, it was really annoying. The hammocs were really comfortable, which was nice, because they would be our beds for the duration of the expedition of five days and four nights.

The rain woke us all up early the next morning and made us miss the early morning bird-watching session. By the time we ate breakfast, the rain had cleared, so we went hiking in the Amazon Rainforest.

Everything was going fine when suddenly, about 5 minutes in, I felt a really sharp pain in the back of my neck. A wasp, the guide said, but it was like no other wasp sting, I have ever had. It burned for about ten minutes. It really felt like the back of my neck was on fire, but it would fade away and occasionally come back. It left no mark or anything of the sort, and did not itch, it just burned a lot. I never even saw the little bugger, but everyone described it as a really big black wasp. I would go on to get stung three more times by this pesky bug; twice as much as the rest of the group put together.

A bit further into the forest, and we saw a monkey jumping from tree-top to tree-top. We put our bags down and went off the path to get a closer look. Unfortunately, it was really high up and difficult to see - much like all the animals we saw durring the expedition. Still I got to see a monkey, which was one of my goals for the trip.

The monkey eventually disappeared into the forest and out of my life forever, but on the way back to our bags, Frank discovered a Liana Vine and proceded to chop it up. These vines run into the ground and have water flowing through them which you can drink. The water tastes quite sweet compared to the mineral water we were carrying. It was strange to see water come from the vine, because it is not hollow. It looks like a normal chunk of wood, but water flows out of it.

We reached the camp early in the afternoon. The first thing Frank said whem we got there was that the roof was leakig and we needed to fix it, but we would have lunch first (yay!).

While Frank was cooking lunch, we started removing the old palm leaves from the roof to save some time. Many of them were rotten, and difficult to lift because they would break very easily. We also discovered a snake in amongst them, which we were told was poisonous, and can jump to attack its prey. The Norways tried killing it, but they did not want to use the machete like Frank was saying because they wanted to skin it. Instead they tried drowning it, but that would last several hours, much to everyone´s surprise.

When we went out looing for new palm leaves to make a new roof, it started raining really heavily. I was wearing my rain coat, but the water still managed to find its way through, because I was soaking wet when it ended. Everything I had brought with me was wet, and so it would stay for the rest of my time in the forest. Thanks to Mr. Murphey and his sodding law, the sun was out and shining only minutes after we had finished building the roof. How typical.

It is really impressive how dark it got at night in the middle of the forest. I have never been anywhere as dark as this. I really could not see my hand placed right in front of my face. When I have said that in past, there was always a little bit of light somewhere in the distance, but there was absolutely nothing here. It also gets quite cold. I woke up many times because I had only brought one shirt, which I was hoping would dry, so I was sleeping topless under my blanket.

Day two in the forest was just as wet as the first. It was rather unpleasant having to put on wet clothes in the morning, but I hardly had any choice. It would not have made much difference if I had had dry clothes, because after five mintues of walking around, they would have been soaked from sweat. It is unbelievable the amounts I sweat just from walking in the forest. My hair was wet like when I walk out of the shower, but from sweat. It is disgusting, but all part of the experience.

We would leave all our bags at the camp, and walk around in a circuit, so all we had to do was bring our water bottles. I did not have a small bag with me, so Frank (aka Macgyver) took his machete to a tree, and started hacking away at it. Everyone was rather puzzled for a while, until he took the thin strands of wood he had chopped up, and started wrapping it around my bottle of water. Two straps went around the bottom of the bottle for support, while one was left to go around my neck, like a bag. It was really cool, but it only lasted until the end of the day.

We walked around for hours sometimes following a trail, sometimes going off the trail. It was weird seeing Frank opperate, because when we were on the trail, he would break branches and leave marks on the trees as if to be able find his way back, but when we went off the trail, he would stop doing so. It seemed to me as though going off the trail is when such tricks are necessary, but he never seemed to be lost, so he obviously knew what he was doing.

The following day, we had to leave the forest and go back to base camp. It was really funny how quickly it all went, because it really does not sound like it was much fun when I tell about it now. I would have liked to stay a couple more days in the forest, if I could.

Once we got back to base camp, and had lunch, we went to visit a family that lives in the middle of the Amazon. We were told that they live off their farm, and they sell fruits and such which they grow there, but when they started selling us beer, it became quite clear that they also make much money selling tourists like us alcohol. I still had a really good time talking to them, and having a few drinks before we went crocodile hunting.

We left of the canoe in the dark to try and find some caimans, but the moon was really bright on this night. We were supposed to sneak up on them in the dark, and use our flash lights to see them, because their eyes reflect light like a cats, but there was so much light coming from the moon, that they could see us coming and would run away before we could get a chance to see them, let alone catch them.

The next day we got up early to try and do the bird-watching which we had failed to do on the first day. We went out on the river, and although we did not see many birds, it was very relaxing, so it really did not matter.

I am now back in Manaus, where I shall be taking a boat along the Amazon to Tabatinga. From there I hope to go to Leticia, which is in Colombia. Sagy has told me of a cheap diving course there, which I would definately like to do before going to the Galapagos Islands.