The Bolivian jungle & Arequipa, Peru

Having had our flight to Rurrenbaque (i.e. the jungle) cancelled twice, we were incredibly glad to be at the La Paz airport and checked in onto a flight, even if that did mean we had to be at the airport at 6am. I was somewhat surprised, however, when we actually got on to the plane - it was so small that it was just two seats wide (every seat a window seat!) and about 12 long. Baby plane! We then landed at a baby airport - not a single shop or cafe in sight - just a single room shack in the middle of the jungle. In Rurre we found the company we'd decided we wanted to go onto a tour of the jungle with, and were greeted by an elderly woman with a black baby spider monkey attached to her hip. Anna-Marie is the owner of the company and they rehabilitate stolen monkeys and release them back into the wild.

Our trip began with a three-hour boat ride up the river Beni to take us to our lodge. The lodge was amazing. Our room, if you can call it that, was a huge wooden building on stilts and with netting rather than walls from about nipple height with a huge bed and an en suite. It allowed in all of the noises from the jungle, so was a lot like sleeping outside. Blissful. Casa Grande (the communal areas) was a 5 minute walk up a jungle path (a little disconcerting on your own in the dark) and was a two storey wooden/netting building with hammocks everywhere.

The next three days were comprised of paddling dug-out canoes across lakes and walking through dense rainforest. It was blissful. The highlights included:

• Going by canoe to the place that the rehabilitated monkeys are released and one of them launching themselves onto our boat and onto Rhys and getting him in a vice-like grip and not letting go. Rhys loves animals so a long cuddle from a spider monkey with a baby on its back was just up his street, until we were told to leave at which point he had great difficulty trying to pry her off him, so much so that she ended up sitting on his head!

• Picking grapefruits from the tree and eating their incredibly sweet and flavourful flesh in the middle of the jungle

• Spotting howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys and red monkeys

• Taking photos upstairs in Casa Grande to realise that there was suddenly no noise downstairs and that our group had left without me. After being pointed in the right direction by the chef, finding everyone 5 minutes away staring at a white blob at the top of a tree, apparently at a sloth.

• Making a ring out of a nut, which I'm still wearing :)

• Spotting an ant-eater as Rhys and I walked back to our lodge from Casa Grande on our first night. It didn't seem very bothered by our presence and walked away slowly.

• The three hour boat ride back up Rio Beni to Rurre, this time in the warm sun :)

After three days in the jungle, we went on a pampas tour. The pampas is the wetlands of the jungle region, where there is lots of wildlife, although it is also incredibly touristy. The highlights of this included:

• After a hot and dusty three hour jeep drive (in which we had a flat tire after about 8 minutes) getting to the river and seeing a cayman right on the bank. 10 minutes later we realised that there are cayman all the way along the river bank and it barely possible to have three minutes go by without spotting one, if not multiple.

• Spotting river dolphins as we zoom along and them following the boat for about half an hour. After taking about 100 photos of mainly flat water I think I've got one or two that captured a dolphin (or three)

• The weather - for the first time in 8 weeks we had sunshine and warmth :) Happiness!

• Fishing and catching the largest piranha (or for Rhys, catching the most piranhas) then reading my book in the sun

• Discussing politics and righting the worlds wrongs with Max

• Watching the sunset over the river

• Getting very wet feet when searching for anacondas in a swamp - Rhys' wellies had a hole in and I fell over (not enough to get completely soaked but enough to get water and mud in my boot!)

• Rhys swimming in the water with dolphins - I'd not quite call it swimming with dolphins as they were not really engaging, possibly because of the HUGE black cayman sitting 20 meters upstream

We flew back to La Paz and as soon as we touched down realised that we'd rather be anywhere else in the world resolved to get out as soon as possible. Two hours later we were booked onto a night bus to Arequipa, Peru. Perfect. It did, unfortunately, mean that we arrived in Arequipa at 4am, however, and we spent the next hour trying to find somewhere to spend the rest of the night. We weren't getting very far when suddenly Father Christmas appeared out of nowhere and took us to a hostel which was both open and had space and was only a marginal rip-off. It was surreal, especially as we'd been awake for nearly 24 hours. The following day was spent looking around the lovely city of Arequipa which is warm and colonial in style (i.e. it has lots of nice buildings and a big main square in the middle). It also had lots of chocolate shops and cake shops and felt quite European. After the noise, smell and squalor of La Paz this was blissful. Rhys booked onto a tour to climb Chichani, one of the mountains which overlooks the city is 6075 meters above sea level at its summit. I planned to bum around Arequpia and enjoy the solitude. For dinner we ate on a rooftop terrace overlooking the main square and watched fireworks.

The next day and a half I spent without Rhys, catching up on my diary, sorting out photos, meeting people and going rafting. It was lovely. The rafting in particular was great fun. The river was a constant III with one IV and the sun was shining - the whole morning was thoroughly enjoyable. In fact, the only way it could have been better would have been if it was longer. The people in my group were nice, and it turned out we were not only all staying in the same hostel but also all in the same room. We went for lunch together back near our hostel, and I had some of the nicest Mexican food I've ever had - the food in Arequipa was infinitely better than anything we'd eaten in Bolivia, for which I was eternally grateful.

After Rhys returned from his epic adventure (walking/climbing up a mountain which was mainly sand, followed by snow) we visited the Colca Canyon, which is, at it's deepest point, the second largest canyon in the world, and significantly deeper than the Grand Canyon. Slightly disappointingly we didn't get to see the very deep part, but spend three days walking down into the canyon, along a little bit and then back up, over 1000 meters. This last section we did in just over two and a half hours (Rhys could have done it in two if I hadn't been holding him back) beginning at 5am in the morning - it's far too hot to attempt it while it's sunny. Coincidentally we met a couple that Rhys had climbed Chichani with at the place we had breakfast which was a pleasant surprise. Then as a reward we then spent an hour in some hot springs drinking beer and cocktails respectively. It was then a long bus journey back to Arequipa in time to get on another bus for an even longer (15 hour) bus ride back to Lima in preparation for our 18 hour journey back home.