Welcome to the jungle!

So while I was working away at the school and planning my travels for my last 2.5 weeks in Ecuador, I started thinking it would be fun to go the jungle. The Amazon... how can you not go to such a famous, exciting, exotic place when it is so near... think of all the amazing animals and plants you could see... so I plan at the last minute to visit a place called Sani Lodge, in one of the deepest part of the jungle you can get to in Ecuador bar chartering a helicopter. I decide to splash out on taking the plane part of the way, saving myself a gruelling 10 hour overnight bus ride from Quito. The little plane takes me to Coca, a hot and humid town of little interest other than being the stop off point for most of the jungle tours. At Coca I am met by my guide (an english-speaking guide who has been begrudgingly cut his holidays short just for me, as the travel agency forgot to ask if I actually spoke Spanish) and we get on a motorboat for a 3 hour ride down the mighty Napo River, a big murky swirling mass of water most definitely home to man-eating hypnotic anacondas and other bugbears, nearly 1km across, always the fear that if you fall in if you don´t get eaten by something you will float through the wilderness and wash up months later in the Atlantic.... After this we transfer to a little motorized canoe, leave the big river and head down a small waterway for about half an hour to the lodge... en route being involved in a CANOE CRASH, don´t worry nobody was hurt, I captured it all on video but sadly will not be able to upload until back in the UK!
I arrive at the lodge to discover that I am the only tourist there... that my sleeping arrangements (I chose the much cheaper camping option over the private cabin) is literally a 1-person tent on a raised platform with a palm-thatched roof. The campsite is on the other side of the lagoon from the main lodge are and I have to be rowed across the black-caiman infested lagoon in order to get there. We go out on a night hike the first evening - a walk from the lodge after dark, with flashlights, to see all the exciting night activity... the first thing we have pointed out is a big hairy tarantula... we also see some tiny frogs, a psychadelic caterpillar, some very impressive stick insects, a few less-threatening looking but more dangerous than tarantula spiders, and lots and lots of huge millipedes. I return to my tent a little shaken.
The next day we are up at the crack of dawn to visit the canopy tower, a 30m wooden observation tower built around a giant capoc tree. We go up with the telescope and spend about 2 hours watching parrots, macaws, toucans, and many other really beautiful birds.
We then take a hike through the jungle with the guides pointing out all the insects and birds and explaining all the medicinal plants they traditionally use. We eat some lemon ants which unsurprisingly are little tiny ants, which taste like lemon. Hear a few stories about anacondas and their hypnotic powers. Just like in the jungle book... I am not sure if this is actually true... if anyone can shed any light please let me know!

We take another hike in the afternoon and go and wake up some noisy night monkeys. The guides know exactly which trees they live in and take the telescope, so we get fantastic views of two little yawning monkeys.
In the evening we go hunting for black caimans in the lagoon. We see one about 3m long... they are apparently scared of humans though so not so dangerous. They hang about at the edge of the lagoon waiting for fish or something to swim into their mouths and they have reflective eyes, so you can shine your torch around the lagoon and see all these red eyes staring back at you...
The next day we canoe right to the other end of the lagoon, through the mangroves, and take yet another hike. It is raining when we set off so we take rain ponchos, mine comes down to the ground and I look like the worst witch. We see yet more plants and insects and the biggest giant capoc tree ever with buttresses about 6m high.
On our return to the lodge our guide suggests a swim in the lagoon. Ok so I know there are black caiman there... but have been reassured they are scared of humans, not the other way round. However then one of the other guys starts asking him "So are there anacondas here?" Guide replies "...yep."
"Are there manta rays?"
"Yep."
"Piranha?"
"Yep."
"Electric eels?"
"Yep, and a local boy was killed 2 months ago by one".
(Liz moves swiftly out of lagoon).
In the afternoon our guide takes us to his house where we try some traditional jungle food (fish and plantain wrapped in banana leaf and smoked over a fire), play with his 2 pet black tamarind monkeys and observe 2 tiny feruginous pygmy owls which are living in the roof of his kitchen.
Another night hike in the evening and we see the BIGGEST TARANTULA EVER, about 20cm across and with huge grey hairy legs. Very happy to get back into my little tent all zipped up and safe.
The next morning there is a tiny frog in the shower as a huge thunderstorm outside has forced it to seek shelter from the rain. I am wondering how frog and I are going to shower together then fortunately discover there is no water, so problem solved. (It was my last day and I had been wearing the same clothes for 4 days... decide I will just wash back in Quito!)
The boat rides back to Coca are less eventful but I am still fairly unnerved when we set off in the middle of a big electric storm. No-one has ever been struck by lightning, gracias a dios, the guide says reassuringly. At Coca I get the plane back to Quito and have the 2nd most appreciated hot shower of my trip (no. 1 was following the cold and wet ascent of Puñalica). I have never been so happy to get back to civilisation.