March 8th - A serene view for a crazy day

We had a lovely breakfast of mango, banana and watermelon before we had a morning split into two groups. Pablo took me, Tara, Mia, Sara, Christine, Josefine and Louise St kayaking (with Sophie and Camilla watching) while Tomas and Hilde took the others Caving. Christine, Mia, Louise and Tara were the first four to take the river. It looked difficult but it was good fun chilling on a rock just take photos. One of the photos was so close to being blip - it was of Mia looking at her paddle bemused and confused and is awesome - but I could not resist a photo of the jungle looking, well, beautiful.

When they finished it was time for me, Sara, Josefine and Eric (Tomas' son) to have go. I got in the water (dragged there by Pablo) and was feeling confident. Unfortunately, I was terrible. Whenever I tried to go upstream I just started going round in circles. Gradually I just moved further and further downstream with the current, struggling in vain to battle the water but either my technique was all wrong or I was caught in the currents of a different stream compared to the rest of the group as I just kept drifting away from everyone else.

I needed to be saved before I was committed to simply drifting for eternity. And I saved in the most embarrassing way. My hero swam towards me, grabbed my kayak and dragged me upstream. It was Eric. He couldn't have been over ten. I waved at the girls signalling my relief at being saved and then Eric fell over. I could do nothing but watch this kid get himself up and continue to save the 22 year old he was heaving back. What a little legend.

Our turn ended but we stayed by the stream, shooting an awesome sun lotion commercial and just messing and splashing about. We headed back to the hostel, eventually, to be met with burger and chips for lunch - gorgeous with a bit of salad and mayo - before getting a pick up to Caving, although Camilla, Tara and Sophie couldn't come with us for various reasons.

Caving was a wonderful experience, a lot easier than when I did it n Budapest - I didn't even get stuck this time! After some posing at the cave entrance we headed in to be met with bats flying around our heads. The cave were wet, dark and muddy but beautiful in their own way. Every time Tomas' headlight flashed around I witnessed an environment moulded over thousands of years. Tomas told us of some of the caves deep history with stories of how indigenous people would hide in them for weeks to evade Spanish conquerors.

We climbed waterfalls, waded through water, ducked through small tunnels and under rock ways and constantly stumbled over the uneven ground. Eventually we came to the mud room for our beauty therapy needs. Every pore was filled with mud until we all looked our sexy best. Or so we thought, when we emerged into the sunlight we actually looked like swamp monsters before the stunning landscape!

We bathed in the river when we got back but a nice shower and a little rainstorm allowed all of the mud to be got rid of before I updated my journal. After a gorgeous three course meal a few of us more sturdy of stomach set off to watch a cock fight. We set off in a pick up to a place in the middle of nowhere and I thought how this could have been the scene in the horror film where we are disposed off not so quietly. But there was Tomas and Pablo waiting for us to join them and fears disappeared instantly.

As we entered there were cockerels on our left in cages and men gambling on tables to our right. Ahead was a little wooden seating stand surrounding the ring. We watched two fights and they were not as I expected. They seemed more tactical than I had anticipated, with little pecks to the head as common as wild flurries. It was also quieter - more noise came from the crowd than the birds. In the second fight the bird did actually die in the ring. I was glad for the experience and would have actually liked to have stayed longer to properly soak up the atmosphere.

The plan was to then hit a karaoke bar and be joined by the others, so eleven of us piled into Tomas' pick up. Maïté, Sally, Louise and I were squashed in the back with Pablo sitting on the edge with the boot up. Suspect this behaviour may have got a ticket or something in the UK. DJ Hilde started spitting some tunes from her iPod and we all enjoyed a rather random drive through Tena.

All the bars were closed by the time we hit town so Tomas brought some beers and the party to us by blasting music out of his speakers. The others joined us and we started having a random street party. We played some football with an empty beer bottle, had our photos taken by a random family who took a shine to us (they were travelling too and wanted individual photos with all of our group) and then those of us who stayed kept on partying to such tunes as 'Barbie Girl', 'Mambo no 5', 'My Girl' and 'Since U Been Gone'.

Today was an amazing end of our Jungle experience with some experiences that you just don't get everywhere else. I could have posted a blip for every hour but chose one to showcase the beauty of the Amazon instead of the random, crazy but amazing day I had.