Within minutes of leaving the safe haven of the lodge we were deep in the jungle, a place not for the faint hearted! The high pitched chorus of a 1000 cicadas filled the night air, at every turn there was impenetrable scrub, spikey exotic plants, muddy lagoons, thick spider webs and BUGS!!
"SSHhhh" ....said our guide as she pointed into the dark, we shone our flashlights down and just off the path beside us was the hugest hairiest tarantular you have ever seen! "yikes, gulp, arg" my reply, gripping mothers arm as tight as i could!
Further on and deeper in we went, shining our flashlights in all directions trying to adjust to the dark, and the eerie noises of the jungle... There, another one, even bigger this time, with thick legs stretching the width of a dinner plate, it lay in waiting at the door to its burrow... for prey!
More and more everywhere we turned, black and glistening in the light of the torches. We saw a scorpian spider swaying in its web, a nest of fierce red bullet ants scuttled around our feet and in the water beneath the mangroves a pair of huge eyes shone out, the eyes of a caimen crocodile!
Mother was handling this experience remarkably well, and while her other 60 year old friends probably celebrate their birthdays with a meal down at the local club, this will be a night my mum will never forget!
