Casually in the Amazon Rainforest

.After a traumatic night for Shauna...and Keelin by default, Birmingham uni decided for some unknown to take Shauna as an undergaraduate starting in September...Woop woop. From Jeri we flew to Manaus which is the hub for Jungle tours into the Amazon. We booked ourselves on a 3 day tour leaving the next morning,

On our 1st day in the Jungle we met our group amd canoed down the Amazon river...as you do. We got to our camp which was pretty ladsy, although we were informed there would only be electricity from 6-10....back to basics. After a little bit of a chill we went back out on the river with our guide Mateus- who we can safely say is an absolutel ledge- and the only guide that didnt feel the need to carry a machete! We did some nature and bird-watching, but so far no sloths however we did see lots of pink dolphins...and rescued a commonpond duck. After some dinner back at the camp it was time to do some caiman hunting....(crocodiles, for those of you who like us did not know what that is) By some terribñe twist of fate/a cheeky night out Shauna has lost her memory card which contained the hard earned evidence of us holding the crocs. The worst thing is, you will now never see Keelin´s face looking like she´s about to poo her pants. Leader was a wuss, Thing 1 and Thing 2 stepped up to the plate.Although under pressure Keelin did man up and hold both baby and normal caiman.

Our first sleep in the jungle was interesting. Under mosquito nets we were quite safe from risk of malaria....however with no electricity Keelin was desperate for the toilet so ventured out with a trusty torch. Whilst on the bog, upon her head landed a frog. The torch was thrown, screams were heard as she ran back to her jungle bed.

Day two in the jungle saw us carrying out some exercise and sweating away our body weight in some seriously sexy jungle outfits. With Keelin dressed like a netball pro... which we all know is a lie, Shauna a rainproof cocker spaniel dog and Eleanora the explorer. Matteus took us on a jungle tour where we got to see tarantulas, posoinous frogs, many an exotic bird and Shauna was crowned Princess of the Jungle.

A really cool part of the afternoon was  canoeing through The Flooded Forest, and despite Matteus´skills, Eleanor bore the brunt of an attack of slimy tree.

Our second activity that day was Piranha fishing!!! Keelin and Eleanor find Piranha fishing a sore spot as they did not prove themselves naturals.... Shauna however did, catching 7 Piranha. If Birmingham doesn´t work out Shauna is now considering a serious carreer in professional Piranha fishing.

Catch 1!!!!!!!

Catch 2!!!!

Catch 3!!!

Catch 4

 And then KeelinCam resigned, believing it was hindering my own fishing skills

Us with Matteus

Sunset in the Amazon!!

Eleanor is also not too happy to talk about Pirnaha fishing as she faced a traumatic ordeal when in excitement of catching her third pirnanha Shauna accidentally threw it into her lap. This was proceeded by screeches which we can only think to compare to a bear attack. As Keelin and Eleanor sulked about their lack of skills on the way back to camp, they were highly amused by Shauna´s encounter with a cockroach before bed that night. The night time creature antics were a little less eventful with us only sharing a shower with a frog or two.

The third day we saw quite a few monkeys and it seemed Shauna was going to have to leave having NOT hugged a sloth. We said our goodbyes to Matteus who gave us all jungle bracelets made from jungle palms and boarded our canoe back to civilisation. Once back in Manaus we set off for Venezuala to the Angel Falls on a 48 hour bus journey.
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