I thought I would update my blog now as I am off to the coast tonight and will not return until Sunday. On Saturday nothing special happened, I just chilled out, slept, and spent way too much time trying to work out how to upload photographs in the internet cafe. Saturday night however was a completely different story! We all went to a bar, except Anna, who has some kind of tropical fever at the moment :S We started on a healthy amount of beer and before long Mel went home leaving Tony, myself and Las Chilenas to drink away. The persuasive power of the girls was too much and they started getting in Tequila´s and beers like there was no tomorrow. They sang some song which essentially translates to Chug!Chug!Chug! and by the end of the evening Tony and I found ourselves conversing in gibberish with two drunks, before sending them on their way which involved speeding off on motorbikes- I thought they were going to die! Needless to say the next morning was not the prettiest and we were late waking up.

Today we were going to go the la finca of Tony´s boss from the water company. He owns a large expanse of rainforest about 45 minutes drive from Macas. Arriving an hour and half late at our meeting point, we found a very very chilled Ronolo sun bathing in the back of his pick up. This is the fantastic thing about South America, noone cares what time you turn up, it is so relaxed. I promptly bought some tuna and some tropical flavoured juice to restore by upset stomach to normal and hopped in the back of his beaten truck with his son Max. Max soon turned out to be the Ecuadorian equivalent of Steve Irwin, even at his tender age of 11! After talking about Jurassic park and Anaconda for 45 minutes, we rolled up at Ronolo´s place with very sore bums. For 5 minutes we travelled down some dusty path with rainforest riding up on either side unitl we came to a tiny, rusty suspension bridge constructed of wooden slats. I have never heard a car rev so much and to my horror Ronolo thought it was acceptable to drive over this feeble excuse of a bridge. After stalling 3 times we evetually made it on and nervously crossed the roaring rapids beneath us.

Finally at his place we got out and took in the views. There was huge river flowing between hills or lush rainforest, rolling into the distance. He immediately asked us if we wanted anything to eat and sought about preparing a feast to eat for when we were to return from our trek. This unfortunately involved going back over the bridge, which became a common occurence throughout the day, to dig up some yuca, pluck some bananas, and get a chicken. he had a little farmyard full of chickens, ducks, geese and rainforest turkeys, not to mention a few pineapples knocking about. We soon drove back, dogs hot on our tail, and Ronolo almost manged to decapitate the two girls with a corrugated iron roof as he drove along: one of the reasons I do not stand in the back of a pick up!

I unfortunately made a very embarassing remark later. As I may have mentioned we call one of the Chilean girls La Negra. La Negra decided to go to the toilet and Daniella soon asked me where the toilet was, to which I replied oh The Negra is in the toilet. To my horror, there were 2 toilets and a very dark lady emerged from one of them looking furiously at me, what a bloody coincidence. I hid from her for the rest of the day as I am sure she wouldn´t have accepted my explanation.

We then headed off on our jungle trek which started with an incredibly steep incline, with our own Steve Irwin leading the way. Before long, he was man-handling all kinds of horrifying looking spiders and passing them on to me. The ´house ´´ spiders which I had encountered on my last medical brigade were indeed harmless but I couldn´t help but notice some very large mouth parts moving close to my fingers. Max picked up a cave spider and to assure me that it´s bit wouldn´t hurt thrust it upon my hand. Needless to say the thing bit me with all it´s might, but to my embarassment he was right, it felt like a tickle! We encountered many insects along the way: spiders, crickets, flys ....far too many mosquitoes. The rainforest here was different to what I had experienced so far. It was far denser and littered wit lianas and bromeliads. It was impossible to get through without a machete. Ronolo took us to The Labyrinths of Chiguaza which are completely natural rock formations that create a huge labyrinth. It is an incredible place and quite eerie. The ´´corridors´´ of the maze are very thin and the walls 10-15ft high so it is very dark and you keep expecting to be picked off by some monster. Spiders came rather too close to my face for my liking and Ronolo thought it was a perfect opportunity to interview us separately, with his camcorder, about the area. All of a sudden I heard a scream and Mel started running as large bats flew all about her. Not wanting to miss the opportunity I dived straight in to see them, only to find that little Max and caught one in his hand. He held it up and strecthed out the wings for all to see. He passed it round and I felt its delicate little wings in my hand. I held the bat for a while before flinging it into the air to let it fly away. It was a great sight seeing its wing strecth out as it flew between the trees. Little did I know that that would be the first of many that day!

We continued for a while and eventually got out of the labyrinths and headed down towards some caves. Tony and I were playing around with machetes for a while and the Ronolo pointed out the view. We peered through the trees and saw the same river but on either side were huge cliffs with large caves in. We headed down and the caves were incredible. Mini waterfalls flowed from their roofs and we all had a welcome shower as a respite from the searing heat. Whilst showering I heard Max shout and he had come across a snake. I couldn´t believe my luck! They are virtually impossible to find in the rainforest, especially during the day. And to make things even rarer, it was an incredibly venemous snake: a fer de lance i think. One of those bites and there is no way you would make it to a hospital in time. The snake was high up on a ledge, about 20 ft up which Max had somehow climbed up to. Not wanting to miss the action I hurriedly scampered up the slippery sides of the cave to see it. It coiled back and began to hiss, a good warning for me to stay well clear, I was only wearing shorts! Unfortunately Ronolo did not inform me of it´s posionous credentials until after IU had decided to take a close up photo of it! Max flicked it off towards the others and it landed on the ground. We got down the ledge and Ronolo using a branch managed to coil it and pick it up by it´s head. He soon handed it over to me and I pretended to kiss it. I seem to be builiding up an appetite for kissing dangerous animals on this holiday: a jaguar and a venemous snake! We soon let it go and headed off once more.

We eventually made it to the river and I raced across the stony beach to get in. I waded in up to my chest holding my rucksack above my head but to my surprise the river bed suddenly dipped and I almost went under, the current was really strong and I quickly made my escape before I ended up being swifted away. Once again Ronolo´s timing on giving me the relevant information was tardy. the river is highly polluted, you shouldn´t swim in it. Cheers mate, that´s the second time you have decided to tell me after it happened! We headed back, over lots of fossilsed shells, and began to make our ascent. I knew mud was slippy but not this slippy! The angle must have been 60/65 degrees and we all slipped over. On one occassion I slipped badly and began to slide furiously downhill. Unbeknown to me, my natural instinct kicked in and I grabbed a tree trunk and managed to arrest the slide. Health and safety on these treks is non-existent! It turned out we went the wrong way and found ourselves in a boggy area with spider webs adorning the floor. There were calcified plants and stalactites forming from the roofs of caves. Ronolo pointed out an entrance about 10feet long but only 2 ft high of the ground:i.e. a slit entrance. He told me to go inside and doing as I was told did so. I got onto my stomach and slid underneath scraping my rucksack on the rock: I was absolutely filthy by this point. once inside, noone followed me in, I found a large dark cave littered with bats, some of which were really large. I promptly whipped out the camera and set the flash to work, causing the bats to fly and bear their teeth, some great photos, but I have now decided I don´t like bats!

We evetually made it back, had some lunch (under the ever looming eyes of the lady I inadvertantly insulted), and then headed off to another river where we could swim. On the way I went ot watch Ronolo feed his pigs some sugarcane. I have never seen such a large pig in my like, the animal was elephantine in proportion,and watching them viciously maul away at the cane, I realised why Orwell used pigs to represent his characters in Animal farm. The river was stunning, one side a beach of dark grey sand, the other a rising wall of rainforest. I dived into the water which was very deep, to escape the incessant flies. I found one attached to my arm, removed it and burst it, only to send blood spraying everywhere (my blood)!! Before long we soon left as Tony had developed fever and I was being gorged on by flies. To my delight, I did see a tiny little grey frog which had red spots though!

We were driven up to the road where I lay on the tarmac reading my book: the apt choice (In the Heart of the Amazon), but the flies and heat became too much. Thankfully a bus came but the only seats available were vomit stained...and it was fresh. I sat there drifitng in and out of sleep, smelling sick, whilst Nicholas Cage was acting on the small tv screen in the corner of the bus..life is odd sometimes.

We got home: Tony had fever, Anna had fever, Joanna and Dani ahd sore throats and headaches, Mel had really bad insect bites and me, well same as always. On Monday I got up at 8 but went up to Tony and Mel´s room and ended up falling asleep there until 4. It wasn´t unitl 6 I finally decided to do something. I went to the gym and did a realy tough session on legs, I can now barely walk or sit down:what a dilemma! Anyway, the excitement and danger of the past couple of days has exhausted me so I am looking forward to a long bus ride to the coast for some beach chilling! Speak to you all soon. Lots of love xxxxxxx