5th November - Jungle Tour Day 2

Another early one - fruit, bread and popcorn for breakfast and then a 1/2 day trek into the rainforest. It was a great experience - we saw owls, parrots, hawks, frogs and toads, indigenous fruits that smelled of oranges and some that were "jungle garlic",trees bigger than houses, vines like pythons and trunks of trees teeming with fire-ants and the forest floor being covered with leaf-cutter ants. We also took a trip down a tributary in a dugout canoe and saw toucan, black caiman (much bigger than the previous night), butterflies and a heron. And then the heavens opened. Dear God, it isn't called a rainforest for nothing. We eventually headed back to the lodge. It was 4km and the trip was very wet but the poncho held up. The highlight of the morning was when Victor our guide coaxed a tarantula out from it's lair with a piece of bamboo. This beast was about as big as a cat. OK, it was as big as your hand but still got the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up. I also spotted what I thought was an oddly-shaped stone and went to turn it over with my foot but nearly died when Victor informed the rest of the group that I had just kicked a baby turtle in the head. It was fine though, just superficial bruising I guess.

We went back for lunch - still tipping down and actually it went really cold. Shivered way through lunch and made the call to miss the fishing expedition in the afternoon to sleep off the chills. The group singularly failed to catch anything but apparently the highlight was when Jean nearly fired her bait into a wasp's nest.

Back to normal after a kip and was back on the ale pre- and post-dinner. We are all getting to know each other better. Brigeene & Willy are a right laugh, it's a shame they aren't doing the full 3 weeks. Jane and Peter are nice. The Canadians are seriously boring. Both TT but not only do they not drink, they insist on SHARING cokes at dinner instead of having one each.

Lights out (literally, the power goes off at 10) and then bed. Have first mosquito bite on my leg - seeing as they have been covered all day it means the little sod bit me through my trousers!