Day 1 - Sat 13/12/08

Arrived early at Heathrow T5 for our flight to Miami - had checked in online so expected to go through the Fast bag drop but it was quickly renamed ´slow' bag drop by everyone in the queue as everyone seemed to have checked in online so the queue was the same as it would have been!

Flight passed unremarkably which was good, watched a couple of films and had snacks every couple of hours (good old British Airways) and arrived in a very warm Miami around 2.30pm. After the ridiculous immigration control we got a taxi down to South Beach to our hotel, freshened up and headed straight out. Walked down Ocean Drive (where the first episode of Dexter was filmed) and marveled at all the characters - guys with snakes round their necks walking around, schoolchildren asking for sponsorship money, 7ft tall guys with equally tall girlfriends and a begging dog with a bucket in its mouth!

Had dinner in a lovely place and I ordered the biggest cocktail in the world, a $25 mojito! It was fabulous, probably about 2 pints worth!

Day 2 - Sun 14/12/08

Woke up at 5am of course and got up and went for an amazing run along Miami beach watching the sun come up. Hard work running on the sand but a great way to shake off the travel weariness and jetlag. Went and had breakfast at 'Jerry´s Famous Deli' where I had some amazing pancakes and several free refills of pretty good coffee.

Then we checked out Lincoln Avenue to check out the shops and ended up getting a Starbucks which tasted horrendous as the milk was already sweetened! Had to get a taxi around 1pm and got the driver to take us around the Bay Harbor area (more Dexter) and we even drove past the street where Dexter's apartment is - all a very nice area.

Got our flight to Quito - again pretty uneventful and got to our hotel around 9pm. Immediately felt a bit wobbly and breathless - it is 2800m above sea level so the altitude sickness can kick in! The whole place around our hotel was quite spooky, very misty so we ventured out for some food but couldn´t find anything open so ended up in Burger King…sad.

Day 3 - Mon 15/12/08

Woke up early in Quito also - had a nice breakfast in the hotel and then our guide, Marco, arrived for our jungle trip arrived at 7.30. He and the driver, Davide, plus us two were the only four in a minibus - guess that's what you get with a private tour! We headed first to Papallacta which has some fantastic hot springs heated by the surrounding volcanoes. Marco also took the opportunity to get in as well so the three of us explored the varying degrees of hot and cold. Tim managed to get quite burnt during these couple of hours but I was ok - (he must be more celtic than I, haha).

Another 3 hours drive along some pretty interesting roads, dirt tracks for 10km stretches (our wedding was nothing!) then cows, sheep, dogs and all sorts sat in the middle of the road, then road works where half a side was complete only - but Davide was a very competent driver and we felt very safe which was nice considering the road manners of the Ecuadorians around us! We get to Misahualli which is actually Marco's home town (turns out the agency had only told Marco that he was doing our trip so he left his town at 2am last night to pick us up at 7.30 only to drive with us all the way down again). This town is lovely and is mentioned in the Ecuador Lonely Planet as there is a colony of white-fronted capuchin monkeys who live in the square - amazing creatures. They are so intelligent, one of them would throw a lemon in your lap to distract you before actually going through your pockets!

We get to the Napo river banks where Davide leaves us and then Marco, Tim and I get in a motorized canoe along the river to our hotel, Casa Del Suizo. This place is amazing - its high up on a bluff overlooking the River Napo and we have a little jungle cabin - dark wooden floors/ceilings and a bathroom with hot water (supposedly a rarity in these parts) and no glass windows, just screens to keep out the bugs. There is a little balcony with a hammock as well, perfect for watching the sunrise/sunsets.We had a swim in the lovely pool to relax before dinner and then we sat down to dinner to discover Marco was dining with us! Looks like this is a honeymoon for 3! Amazing buffet food, soup, fruit, rice, chicken, beef, plantains of all different types so we filled our boots.Had a bottle of wine on our balcony after dinner - seems like everyone goes to bed very early as I guess most people have varying degrees of jetlag plus getting up early is preferable to get in all the activities.

Day 4 - Tues 16 Dec 08

Had an amazingly good night´s sleep here despite my recurrent nightmares that huge spiders were landing on me every 5 minutes! However by 5am the jungle is a very noisy place with all the cockerels, dogs and birds going full pelt! Watched the dramatic sunrise then got up and went for a run. Killed the romance of the place a wee bit as there is actually a back gate to this place leading out to a main road and a village! Still, very nice to be running in the early morning past all the locals houses. Was quite hard work on this run - we are only 600m above sea level but you can definitely feel its that little bit harder to run and swim. Had breakfast at 8 (with Marco of course!) which was again marvellous with a huge array of tropical fruit and pancakes! Filled ourselves up before heading out on our first excursion which was a rainforest trek. We met with a local guide called Klever and picked up on our way down to the canoe a pair of wellies and a rubber tyre each - very ominous!Started our walk which was lovely - Marco told us all about the various birds/plants/trees etc around us. Klever got some conga ants out of their nest -they are about 2 inches long and apparently 10 of them biting you can be fatal so they are respected creatures! Klever also found a poison dart frog which are safe to hold, the poison is inside them so whatever eats them meets an untimely end. We saw lots of interesting trees that have 'air roots' as the area of the Amazon we are in only has a metre or so of soil which isn´t enough for a tree so they grow roots upwards for about 2 metres first. Some of these roots have spiky bits on them to deter predators and the local people, the quichuas, use these as graters.

Marco then showed us the symbiosis of the ´'lonely tree' - it grows small capsules in its branches in which small ant colonies live and these particular ants secrete acid which then stops other plants growing near the tree hence the name. The ants supposedly test like lemon so Marco ate a mouthful as did Tim - I passed!

We then had to pass a gorge by sitting in a metal chair attached to a zipwire, great fun but not if you´ve no head for heights I can imagine. There was also a big tarzan-style swing off the edge of a ravine which Klever and Tim got stuck into whilst Marco and I watched - was sure I would have lost a welly!

Klever was trying to find a tarantula for us (you can imagine how excited I was about that) but none wanted to play as they´re nocturnal. We then found a recently dead one which had its legs scattered about - looked like it had been maimed by a bird which was actually quite sad to see.After the walk we discovered what the rubber rings were for - our ride back to the lodge! Tim, myself and Klever got in the rings and I was expecting us to be towed back by the boat but know, this journey was by arm power and the current on the river. Was very nice but hard on the arms to keep moving! Took about half an hour but good fun.

At 4.30 Marco then took us on a tour of the local community. First we saw a family where they make ceramics so we watch and learn how this craft was passed down through the generations. Then we are invited to look around her shop and buy something if we so wish... so we bought a small bowl. Turns out afterwards that that woman was Klever´s wife! Then we see a guy´s workshop who makes models of all sorts from balsa wood - we watch as he literally carves a parrot out of wood with just a stanley knife in about 5 minutes flat. Again, he has a shop that we are invited to look around but we buy the parrot he has just carved for sentimental value!

We get back and have dinner and see a few more guests arrive - interesting to see that none of the other couples/groups sit with their guides so Marco either really likes us or thinks he is a class above the other guides haha. The other good thing was that Davide was back! He had driven another group up and he will be driving us back on Thursday which is good news.

Day 5 - Wed 17/12/08

Again a lovely sunrise over the Napo followed by a huge extravagant breakfast with our new best friend Marco. We then took a canoe along the river for half an hour to the Animal Rescue Centre called AmaZOOnico. They have loads of birds/cats/turtles/snakes/monkeys that have been rescued either because they were abandoned as pets or the police catch smugglers etc - some of the stories are very sad. But its a great place for these animals and is run entirely by volunteers - mostly people on long travelling trips who stop for a few weeks to work here.

On the canoe ride back Klever spots some fruit overhead - I forget the name but its like a very large cucumber which you open up and find little banana-type pods which you can eat - delicious! Had another large lunch and swim before Marco took us to see a local Quichua family (again, the family of one of the guides who works at the hotel). Klever shows us several fruit trees, one called ´jungle candy´ because its flesh is very very sweet so all the kids like it and another one called ´kissing fruit´ because the pith is quite sticky so your lips do stick together!

We have a go on the blowpipe which the Quichuas use to catch monkeys and other small creatures. I was terrible but Tim managed to hit the targets - he was chuffed at beating me haha!The house that this family live in is basically a wooden hut built on bamboo stilts (to avoid the river flooding) and is one large room where 8 people sleep, eat etc. There is a fire in one corner where all the cooking takes place and also they burn termite nests (after feeding the termites to their chickens) as these repel mosquitos, spiders etc. Marco explains that their diet consists of yuka - a sort of potato plant, bananas, eggs, the occasional chicken, plantain, sweet potatoes and as much fruit as they can fill their bellies with - makes you wonder who is poorer, these kids who eat all this healthy stuff and climb trees all day or the ones who live in built up areas in tiny flats eating chips in front of the TV...One of the kids, a girl, shows us how they make their staple drink called chicha which is mashed yuka, water and some sweet potato. When left to ferment for a week or so this becomes alcoholic so is used in vast quantities when there is any cause to celebrate!

Day 6 - Thurs 18/12/08

Last night was amazing - there was a tropical thunderstorm of which I had never seen the like! It was raining torrential rain nearly all night and there was thunder and lightning until about 3am. Our little jungle cabin was not quite as sheltered as we´d hoped as of course there are no windows, only screens, so the wind was whipping through it! Still, was amazing to listen to even though we only got to sleep after it stopped.Got up at 6 and had our last run in the jungle and then had our last breakfast (so I ate far too many pancakes). We packed up and went down to the jetty to get our boat and we were a little apprehensive as the river had risen so much from the night´s rain. Even so, Tim, myself, Davide and Marco along with another group of 3 guys got in one canoe and started off - it was hair-raising to say the least! I was gripping both sides all the way as I was convinced it would topple over! Once we got to the other side Tim asks Marco if those canoes ever capsize and he said they do, and had the river been much higher we would have been stranded at the lodge as the canoe drivers can´t navigate! So seems like we had a lucky escape.The drive back was pretty uneventful - we talked about Marco´s family and stopped a few times for the occasional cow, dog etc.That night we went out to explore Quito properly and got down to the old town which is gorgeous - lots of old colonial buildings and fantastic views as the city is surrounded by mountains. Had a nice dinner and then got a taxi back before turning in.