Day 7

Day 7
Cold and stuttering nights sleep, but I still felt ok when we got up at dawn, 5 or 6 o'clock. Breakfast was great (fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, potato cakes and coffee), everything here is great.

Straight after we followed Antonio on a fairly epic jungle trek, starting in a light, low, woody area and progressing into the thick high and near impenetrable stuff. Just as we turned to go back, having seen the odd tucan and macaw, a bushmaster snake tried to bit Antonio. Luckily he was wearing thick leather boots (which we were'nt) and managed to flick it away. He was visibly shaken, these things are nasty and it would have been a severe problem had he been incapacitated a distance from the camp. We walked back in a sombre mood, everyone staring at the floor not the treetops and starting to realise the full reality of jungle life.

All in all today I saw: piranhas, 2 kinds of dolphin, a baby alligator, the bushmaster snake, a giant wasp, an iguana, a turtle, a tucan, macaw, loads of eagles and other birds and bugs. We were also shown the trees that provide the world with: vics vapour, chewing gum, deep heat, quinine (used for malaria and abortions in Brazil), candles and one for fresh water. The Amazon is the world's pharmacy and it was fascinating to see the trees which we have as pills, sprays and home comforts.

After lunch we set off fishing again. Again I just fed the piranhas instead of catching them, they're just too quick for me. This is where we saw the dolphins though, and heard some alligators making a weird throaty, gulping sound. The trip was a relaxed one, settled in front of a mellow sunset, until our guide gave Phil the rudder on the way back and he ploughed straight into a tree, dragging our canoe with him and causing a panicked scene as the motor wedged in a few branches.

We were fed again before the night-time alligator search, speeding over moonlit water, flanked by some of the other guides and staff visiting people down the river. It was exciting, just the atmosphere created by the scene, though this time our guide had a mini crash, temporarily ruining the ambience. Leo warned us about the rain on the way, but the clouds seemed miles away. We quickly caught a baby alligator and Leo told us all about them and the caiman, really interesting. Again we got a real sense of the depth of indigenous knowledge here, as we did on the trek earlier. Leo was keen to impress on us how books might claim one thing (alligators live to 50) but the people know different (60-70 years apparently). But as he said "sometimes it is more beautiful to lie than to tell the truth".

Suddenly, though, the big grey cloud looked a lot nearer and it was accompanied by the odd flash of lightnng. It chased us dramatically, as we sped back along the lake, getting closer and closer. At one point I looked back and the whole black mass was almost on top of us, celebrating the achievement with a bright loud clap of lightning. We just made it back to the lodge and then watched the black and grey gloom haul itself over the lake in front of us, low enough to touch, deigning not to burst there but moving on and leaving drenching the camp to its less imperious, equally gloomy follower.