The Virtual Traveller - Amazon trek (long version)

Audio transcript:

It's hard to believe you're in an area that takes up a major portion of the earth (2.4 million square miles) when you're trekking through the jungle. The Amazon has been described as the lungs of the world, providing a major source of oxygen. You can see why. It's teeming with life. When you're actually standing in the middle of it you really realise how precious and vulnerable it is and how vast tracts of it are being destroyed.

The first leg of our trip took us to Iquitos, Peru, the northern gateway to the Amazon, only accessible by boat or plane. Beautiful, old, turn-of-the-century buildings, covered with ceramic tiles, are one of the features of this jungle city. Local arts and crafts are for sale along the riverwalk boulevard and stunning jewellery, blowguns and bows and arrows can be found at the local Bélen indigenous market. From there, we hit the rainforest. Nothing could have prepared me for the experience.

Our tour was a mix of camping, bunking in a jungle lodge, traversing the waterways of the Amazon and a lot of trekking. We travelled in a small 2-decker boat along the river, with its many tributaries, whirlpools and dugout canoes. We saw pink freshwater dolphins, arching gracefully out of the water and small crocodiles called caimans, gliding along the surface. Occasionally, we would come to a village with thatched roof shelters, suspended above the ground by poles. We stopped at one such village and enjoyed a fish dinner cooked over an open fire. It was served with plantain, which I had never tried before.

In this part of the jungle they have fire ants which can devour a carcass down to the skeleton in a matter of hours. Basically, it means you have to cover yourself completely when you go trekking: I very much took this to heart! In fact, there are quite a few things that can eat you in and around the Amazon Basin, whole or bit by bit. Let's not even mention giant anacondas or pirahnas. The variety of wildlife is mind-boggling: howler monkeys, jaguars, giant river otters and an amazing array of birds. The diversity of life here, plant and animal, is so vast that scientists have only recorded a fraction of the species that live in the Amazon.

The lodges were great, essentially mosquito-proof, because, as I discovered when I ran out to the toilet, you're an instant snack for the swarms of mosquitos and other winged and hungry things flying around in the evening air. The night sounds of the Amazon are amazing, an orchestra of bio-diversity. I think I heard the roar of a jaguar, but wasn't sure. Thankfully, it wasn't one of the camping nights - I didn't bring any large cat repellent with me!

The jungle has supplied food and shelter to the peoples of the rainforest for thousands of years. The Incas once ruled here, a complex civilization, remnants of which can still be seen in the Inca ruins. I don't know if I have the words to describe the view of the Inca ruins - a life-changing experience.

To get there, we had to travel to the other end of the Amazon and make our way to Cusco, Peru, from where we departed and picked up our tour along the Inca Trail. The four-day hike took us through mountainous terrain, cloud forest and lush subtropical jungle, leading to our final destination, the sacred Inca city of Machu Picchu. Putting up with the mosquitos.. tropical heat... mosquitos... tropical heat... was worth the experience! I've definitely come back from this trip with a different and vastly expanded view of the world.