It was our first day in the Peruvian jungle and we were slopping through piles of mud in single file. The guide, Victor, had asked us to be quiet so we could pay attention to the sounds of the jungle.

With 15 travellers in knee high gumboots, the sounds of the jungle were dwarfed by squishing, slopping and the occasional thud against a tree for support.

We'd gotten up at 5am and I'd decided to ignore today's symptoms of my stomach bug because I didn't want to miss anymore of the jungle adventures.

But it was fairly hard going walking 5km in the mud with the 'fear list' in the back of my mind.

The list had been rattled off by Victor at the start of our mud mission: Don't touch this type of tree or you'll get bitten by giant, poisonous ants; watch out for tarantulas and other spiders. If you see a snake, don't panic. (I love it when people dish out that bit of advice!)

We trudged along and stopped for Victor to show us a tree which was used for furniture, or how to weave a roof out of jungle leaves. Sometimes he'd point out a particular animal or bird and we'd marvel at it.

When we stopped at the canoe that was going to take us to Lost Lake, we heard furious sloshing from those ahead of us as they bailed out the water. The canoe was sunk by the overnight rain. A great sign.

Luckily, that first paddle down to the lake was one of the coolest moments of my life. There were tall trees on the border and multi coloured dragonflies zipping along the top of the water. There were tropical birds singing and diving in the trees and little bugs playing beside the boat.

The occasion cayman would stare out at us from his patch in the reed and there were huge vividly coloured butterflies following us as we paddled.

I was in love with the jungle and cursing the fact we'd only booked four days there. A longer stay would have been great, but that seems to be the way it goes when you travel.

Next stop: We come face to face with a tarantula as he's coaxed from his hole.

Check out more photos from my trip in my Flickr album.

Find out about Peru.

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