One part of our tour which really appealed to me was a 3 night stay in the Amazon. That truly sounded like a once in a lifetime opportunity and something I really don't think we could do on our own. Of course that was before we started travelling and before I realised how much of an issue I had with cockroaches, frogs and other similar horrible creatures! I really didn't know how I was going to cope in an actual jungle.

We took a bus to the nearest city called Tena. We were advised to get any supplies from the supermarket we may need for the next 3 days because there were no shops where we were going. Of course all the boys went straight to the beer and their faces dropped when they were told they couldn't buy alcohol today because it was a Sunday. From Tena we had a dusty ride in the back of a truck to the jungle homestay where we would be staying. We were introduced to the big family that lived there and were going to be our hosts for the next 3 nights. The star of the family was the cute 4 year old boy. My stomach dropped when we saw our accommodation which was a few minutes walk away from the house. It was a large wooden hut up on stilts with part wall partitions to separate the rooms. The "windows" had no glass or anything to protect you from the jungle outside. To top it off there was no electricity, just a candle. The rest of the group cleverly had torches or headlamps but we had nothing! The only saving grace was that there were mosquito nets over the beds, proper ones so I didn't have to struggle under my travel net. I was dreading having to go to the toilet which was outside but actually they were alright, of course still no lights though so tricky at night! We were hot and sticky from our journey and right next to our hut was a gorgeous natural pool from the river. The water was so clear and we didn't hesitate to throw on our swimming costumes and ... well...tenderly edge our way in because it was ice cold! But it was so nice and we washed in there to save queues for the one shower we had access to!

All our meals were cooked by the homestay and they were usually tasty and extremely healthy using locally sourced produce (banana leaves, eggs from the chickens they kept, fish from the river). On our first night, after dinner, the family did a show for us to show us their traditional customs and dancing. They showed us the dancing they did for courting where the boy beats a drum and picks a girl to dance. Then of course we had to do it individually. Fortunately, there were fewer boys than girls and I begged Bryan not to pick me when he was given the drum so I didn't have to go up! Then they picked 2 volunteers and showed them how a traditional dance for the wedding and explained that after marriage the girl lives with the boys family for a number of years and has to wake up at 3am every morning to make tea for the family to show her commitment. The head of the family, his father was a shaman (witch doctor) so he knew a lot about traditional medicines and demonstrated on Kasper how the shaman would rid a person of demons that were making them ill. He also explained that it was actually cheaper to see a modern doctor rather than a shaman and that they both accept each others medicine practices. For example, if the traditional healing doesn't work the shaman will recommend going to see the doctor or vice versa.

Unsurprisingly, my first nights sleep was terrible. I didn't feel like I slept a wink. All day I had tried to convince myself that nothing could get to me because of my mosquito net but when I got to bed I found a spider on the inside of my net! It was only a small one so I easily got rid of it but I now knew that bugs could get in and I was freaked out! The rain was constant all night and just when I thought it couldn't get any heavier, it did! It didn't help that I could hear everyone from all the other rooms and see the occasional torch light being switched on. Whenever someone got up to go to the toilet the whole building wobbled. One guy in our group woke up in the night convinced a huge spider was in his face an started screaming "it's here, it's here!". I found out the next morning he was just dreaming but I didn't know that at the time! I was also reliving the stories our Mexican friends had told us of their homestay in Sapa where despite their mosquito nets they had bugs crawling over them all night and Raul woke up in the night with a worm stuck to his face! Of course I wasn't the only one, it turns out no one really slept well that night except for Bryan. I was quite miserable about having to put up with 3 nights there.

Our first full day it rained constantly. Well we are in the rain forest so I guess it should be expected. It wasn't going to stop us doing anything and we donned our waterproofs and borrowed wellies to trek down the road the the orchid farm. This is where we found out that nothing is waterproof in the rainforest. About halfway through our visit I realised that my rain mac was no longer keeping out the rain and I was soaked to the bones. Surprisingly I still managed to keep in good spirits despite my lack of sleep. It stopped raining in time for lunch (where we were indoors anyway) and started again just in time for another walk around the nearby jungle for the shaman to show us all the different species of plants. I find all that sort of stuff fascinating and I love hearing about how hundreds of years ago (and still today) people used the different plants around them to treat various illnesses. He picked things like lemongrass and cinnamon leaves for us to smell and taste. We even tried the infamous coca leaves which are used to make cocaine and so are illegal worldwide apart from Ecuador an Peru. Locals chew them or make tea with them to help with altitude sickness and also to give a small high. The shaman also showed us how the family used to pan for gold in the river before they got involved with tourism.

That night the family had lit bonfire for us in a specially made pit on the ground floor of our hut. We had also managed to get them to buy some rum from the supermarket back in Tena so we had a little party that lasted late into the night. We even managed to toast some marshmallows in the fire it was very fun. That night everyone slept a lot better which was good because we had a long day ahead of us.

When we woke up the next morning we soon realised that all our clothes were doomed to be wet and smelly for the entire duration of our jungle stay. Even when it didn't rain it was so humid that nothing would dry. After breakfast we prepared ourselves for the waterfall trek. Fortunately the rain stayed away. Someone had overheard that the other group staying at the homestay had decided not to do the trek because it was too dangerous after the recent rain. This made me a little nervous but we set off regardless. To say it was challenging would be an understatement. It was slippery, steep downhill and uphill and we even scaled up a completely vertical waterfall. The girls wore harnesses but the boys didn't. It certainly wouldn't have passed health & safety standards in the UK! The whole thing lasted around 3 hours and was really very tough, particularly for the girls in the rock climbing parts because having shorter legs was not beneficial, but I felt I had really achieved something afterwards. I have to say our host the shaman and his sons are incredibly agile, like Tarzan. They walk up and down waterfalls like it's flat ground and balance on the tiniest of slippery rocks with no effort whatsoever, it was incredible to watch.

When we returned to the homestay we were exhausted and starving. We were ready for a hearty lunch which we gobbled up. For desert, our host brought us some very special jungle food that he had collected during our trek - witchety grubs. You know the big white maggots they eat on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here where they take a bite and all the puss bursts out. They were barbecued so I thought maybe they wouldn't be so bad and I knew I had to give it a go. Everyone else had a bit and said it was alright so I took a bite trying to miss out the puss but accidentally got a bit of that too. It tasted like crispy puss and I nearly threw up it was totally disgusting! I felt pretty rough because of course spending the day before soaked to the bone and not sleeping very well I seemed to be getting another cold. For this reason I declined the second trek to a lagoon in the afternoon. Instead, me and 3 others from the group watched the family make chocolate from their home grown cocoa beans. It was a lengthy process involving roasting the beans, peeling them, roasting them again, grinding them through and manual grinder and adding milk and sugar before cooking again with cinnamon water. The final product tasted pretty awesome. From what I can gather the others also had a brilliant time swimming at the lagoon and were lucky enough to be treated to some chocolate fondue upon their return!

We were all so exhausted from the trekking and had to leave early in the morning so we had an early night for our final night. I didn't sleep too well because of my cold but, after searching my bed for bugs, I lay there listening to the night time sounds of the jungle and realised I had quite enjoyed my stay. I had sort of gotten over my fear of bugs and even managed to share a toilet with frogs and huge bugs with relative ease. Don't get me wrong, 3 nights was long enough and I wanted nothing more than a hot shower, dry clothes and re-establishing a connection to the world via the internet. A light to see my way to the toilet at night would also be good! However, I'm so glad I was able to experience this and it certainly wouldn't have been something we could have done if we weren't part of the tour.