By 8:30am we were already out and about on what turned out to be our most eventful day in the jungle. We were taken upstream by Captain Andres, and immediately set out on our walk, slowed down by the need to clear a path through the jungle. Machete in hand, Jhon chopped and sweated his way through the vegetation like a good Jungle Boy, with the three gringoes behind admiring his skills. No wonder he keeps fit...

Apart from some birds and monkeys we didn`t see many animals, but instead learnt a lot about medicinal, food and utilitarian plants, fruits, trees and so on. I was amazed to learn that almost every plant in the jungle is utilized for some purpose or another by the Hoaranis. Some for building houses, others for making their spears, blowtubes and the poison for their arrows. There are cures for almost any ailment, and raw materials for making the finest jungle jewellery :-) We enjoyed another taste of wild cocoa beans and the sweet fuzzy pod fruits that we had on the lagoon, and had yet another snack of sour ants. Aren`t we brave? haha...

Chopping our way forward, stopping every few minutes for a nature-talk, we came across a gigantic tree with a thick liana hanging from it. It was begging to be swung from, and we didn`t want to disappoint it. After clearing away lots of underbrush, we were soon swinging Tarzan-style while screaming our best jungle-yell. "Oaoaoaooooooo"!

We passed a stream and went on to walk along a ridge. There were beautiful flowers and pretty butterflies everywhere, as well as 3cm long Congo ants whose poison will make you feel very sick indeed... We gathered seeds for making jungle jewellery while listening to the sounds of the insects, birds and the river. It was all very nice and relaxing until we discovered our second jungle-gym with tons of lianas hanging over a precipitous downhill slope. Because they weren`t very thick, Silje, Max and I were a bit sceptical of the lianas at first, but before long our sense of adventure took over and we found ourselves swinging happily out over the void. I would have loved to be a kid living in the jungle!

Because our path was already cleared, our walk back took a mere 15 minutes as opposed to several hours... We found ourselves stuck at the bank of the river waiting for the canoa to pick us up... 1pm became 2pm and 2:30 while we whiled away the time playing games and mind-puzzles on giant palm leaves. Way overdue, we heard the canoa approach and then there was only silence... engine trouble (and not for the first time on our trip...)! Ever the hero, Jhon swam to the rescue, and we were soon on our way back to camp and a long-awaited lunch. We took a nap in the afternoon heat before swimming in the river, convincing Jhon that we had done enough for the day, and spending the evening lazing about and trying to carve palm nuts.