I can understand why Paddington Bear needed a duffle coat in England if he was used to the heat of the Amazon. We stepped off the plane and instantly felt the muggy love.

The boat ride to Explorer’s inn was already amazing. We saw turtles on the Tambopata river bank and macaws and other wonderful things. I’d be uploading photos right now except that my computer decided to die about an hour ago, possibly due to getting wet, but that story comes later.

Walking from the boat to the lodge we saw a family of red howler monkeys overhead, which was just incredible. They had a little baby with them too.

After sunset, we went for a night walk (mmm, DEET) and listened to the sounds of the jungle and saw a tarantula and heard wonderful local ghost stories from our guide, Milthon. We were glad of our yellow fever and typhoid vaccinations. The number of insects out there is intense!

We ate and then went to bed around 9.30pm, exhausted from our early start and with news from Milthon that we had to be up at 4am to walk 5km to the lake. Eep!