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From Tena, myself, Tom, Liam, Masch, Flo and Anna were driven by Eddison and Rolando (our host Delphin's 2 lads) to their pad in the Amazon. Having met the extended family,familiarised ourselves with the rather impressive (given our location) but basic facilities, and doused ourselves in Deet the lads took us on a walk through the jungle to a view point of the river, on route pointing out interesting plants and bugs, clambering up trees, wowing us with the culinary delights of a type of edible ant which had a curious citrus taste, making sun hats and jewellery from the plants and generally pulling pranks on the jumpy gringo's which was awfully good of them! Back at base with the evening darkness descending and the creepy crawlies getting vocal we had an amazing candle lit dinner of steamed river fish before getting stuck into a session of ridiculous card games with increasingly embarrassing forfeits which broke down any language/social barriers that may have remained. Mucky feet were kissed, ears were licked and Edison came good on his challenge of catching one of the many chickens knocking about in the pitch black and proceeded to frighten the crap out of us by flinging it at us over the dinning room wall! Wandering back to our open eaved rooms the heavens opened and we got a real taste of the rainforest. From the partial security of our mosquito net shrouded beds and with Liam giving us a run down of his animal noises (some a little too convincing and close for comfort) we watched the spectacular forks of lightening illuminate the night sky accompanied by the almost deafening cracks of thunder over head. With bright fluorescent bugs buzzing around the room miraculously I eventually drifted off into a deep sleep.
The following morning having been woken by the ridiculously loud cockerel directly under our raised hut and a hearty breakfast of pancakes Delphin painted symbols on our faces relating to their beliefs in the Pachamama (or mother earth) with the dye from a fruit from a nearby tree. We donned head bands plated by the girls and headed off to the local school where Delphins wife continues to teach after 30 years. With Delphins amazing little 3 year old nephew Jose-Louis skipping along with us we arrived at the school and conducted a little English lesson explaining where we were from (my big Ben drawing didn't really help but Liam's Rock of Gibralter was a disaster) then had a round of musical chairs which they seemed to enjoy. We headed back for a hammock session sin Deet where upon I was bitten to b*****y. In the afternoon Delphin took us on a hike through the forest pointing out and demonstrating the different practical uses and medicinal properties of the plants and trees that is so important to them which was fascinating before taking us to his family's stream to pan for gold which wasn't as easy as it looked but between us we managed to come up trumps (no nuggets mind). That evening after a dinner of pan fried tree grubs that everyone surprisingly tried and tasted like warm mayo in a chewy shell (one was enough to be honest... we had chicken and rice for mains) the family demonstrated some traditional dancing which we all had a bash at and their wedding ceremony where Liam got hitched to Maria (Delphins daughter) which was fun. The next day we said our goodbyes and moved on to Quito and the luxury of a hot shower, a sprung mattress, no mammoth bugs and our final destination in South America!
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