Salvation in La Selva

As we landed in Quito, I thought to myself, ´No matter how much I love Ecuador, I am never coming here again'. Dave pointed out the runway and I thought it must be a joke as the plane was already almost touching the ground and we were heading in the wrong direction. This approach is necessary to avoid the various mountains, but the pilot did an excellent about-turn and we landed safely. He deserved his round of applause.

A quick stopover in Quito and we set off for a second, rather more up-market, trip into the jungle. This involved a short flight, a two hour ride in a motorised canoe, a very tranquil paddle boat while our guide, Louis, explained a few things to us, and then a 15 minute walk through the jungle.

I was delighted to see La Selva. We were greeted with mango cocktails in the bar and then shown to our bungalows, which were kitted out with nice sheets and a warm shower. We set off on an evening trek through the jungle in search of insects and then had a lovely dinner and early night.

Up at 5.30am the next day for a trip to the bird tower, where we spent a couple of hours bird watching. I really didn't think this would be my thing, but it was great. Lots of very pretty birds. However the monkey still remains my favourite. We saw a few from the tower, but the little critters are hard to see as they live in the tree tops. But the squirrel monkeys are so light, they can throw themselves from tree to tree and it's awesome to see and hear them crashing about above your heads.

We had some free time before our afternoon trek and were told that it was safe to swim in the lake. Kurt, one of our fellow trekkers, had already been in and survived, so I decided it was safe to swim, albeit that we had been told it was occupied by freshwater stingray, piranhas and caymans. Dave joined me and we swam around without being eaten alive. I even ventured in again the next day, although for a shorter time as I was in there on my own - safety in numbers and all that. But you can see from the pics that the water couldn't be described as clear or blue, and I came out filthy. Headed off for a shower to clean off - not sure why, as the water in the showers comes directly from the lake.

That afternoon we took a paddle boat down the lake and then a night trek looking for spiders, snakes and insects. I concentrated on the glass of wine I would drink when we got back to the bar.

Overnight it tipped it down, so our 4 hour jungle trek the next morning consisted of marching through swamp. We had our very own Dirty Dancing moment as in some places it was too deep to cross, so Louis, our guide, made a makeshift bridge out of a tree trunk. I gracefully pirouetted across, true baby style, but no-one else knew the film well enough, so the joke was lost. However, I knew that Jane, Rilly and Jo would have appreciated it, had they been there.

At one point, while investigating a termite nest, Carolyn, our other trekking friend, spotted an angry swarm of bees and shouted, 'run', which we did and much to the guide's amusement as he informed us that particular type of bee didn't sting. I was relieved as just ahead was more swamp and we would have got totally stuck if we'd tried to run across it, and possibly stung to death.

There's lots more I could say about La Selva, but this entry is already too long. But it was lovely - and thanks to Richie for the recommendation.

Tomorrow we carry on through Ecuador. Stopping off in a few little towns on the way and taking a six hour train ride, known as the Devil's Nose. Popular with tourists, it's an 800m descent down the side of a mountain. Trick is to get a seat on the roof…

ps oh v bad of me - forgot to mention Dave´s fishing conquest, where in a heavy downpour, he caught two pirahna (right from where I´d been swimming earlier).