Living in a fairy grotto

You might think after wimping out of a jungle walk after only 30 minutes just days previously, the last place that we would be returning to would be the jungle-well we thought we'd give it another chance (prove how hard we are and all!!) - We were on our way to Amboro national park after a late start and possibly the most wreckless driving i have seen so far from our taxi driver (leading us to believe that just maybe he'd had a little drink). Following the rain of the previous night the roads were extremely muddy, so muddy in fact that we were unable to even reach the entrance of the park- giving us and extra 13km walk!
As we began walking through the deep sticky mud and swatting not just the odd mosquito i did wonder why exactly i was paying (again) for this experience. But we applied more repellent and soldiered on bravely to our lunch spot- where to our suprise we found a hut with a table and two chairs (nearly one each then). Our guide however seemed distinctly unimpressed by the fact that we not only had no meat for our sandwiches but no cheese either.
Our suprise for the afternoon was that to reach the campsite we had to walk up a river for about 30minutes- having brought only my walking boots and flimsy flip flops this new piece of information didn't please me. Why hadn't we been told this before we had set off and walked for many hours- i demanded to know from Carlos (our guide), a single shrug was all i got and so (not my finest hour i hasten to add) I had a minor strop on the river bank. This obviously struck home as he changed into his sandals and gave me his shoes fairly sharpish and with me feeling rather sheepish we continued up the final stretch of river and to our camping spot.
On arriving at the campsite, it seemed to be perfect- a small sandy bank beside the river beneath an overhanging rock surrounded by small bushes and flowers. What we realised as we began putting up our tent was that 'our perfect spot' was also perfect spot to about a million bee's!! Also we had no sleeping mats and i, to save weight, had only brought my sleeping bag liner- which made for a not too clod but definately uncomfortable nights sleep. Not a great start to our three day trip.
The following day, we set off to explore the surroundings (me wearing Carlos's shoes again)- they were amazing! we walked up the river hopping from stone to stone wondering at the steep moss lined walls and pretty little flowers (and even better the total lack of mosquitos). We climbed our way up to a view point over looking nothing but trees and mountains. In the afternoon we again made our way up a river but this time to an enormous water fall descending about 100m over totally vertical sheer rockface and best of all we had it all totally to ourselves, or did we?
As we were entering the water Ursula noticed some tiny footprints in the damp sand, heading to the waters edge- fairy footprints! But alas no, after a few minutes of being amazed Carlos informed us that they were in fact monkey footprints; fairly cool but not quite in the same league as seeing a fairy footprint i thought dissapointedly and the water was a bit too painful as it was falling so far onto us.
That evening Carlos was again slightly bemused by our supper (we were also cooking for him) of vegetable soup and asked several times when we were putting the meat in- they really don't get being a vegetarian let alone vegan! But i do think he was pleased with the results and ther was nothing left in the pan by the end of the evening.
Our final day was mostly taken up with walking back to the pick up point for the taxi miles outside of the park for the same mud reasons as before. (same driver but less wreckless driving- supporting our previous theory). After several hours of walking and many many river crossings we were finally leaving the park and as i sat on the muddy river bank and looked back to where i had spent the last 2 nights i was struck by total awe. For as far as i could see were the greenest tree tops leading to steep but still jungely hazy blue mountains and all covered by a pale nursery blue sky filled with wispy white clouds. Totally beautiful. Ursula and Carlos both seemed to think however, that i had taken leave of my senses when i asked them to stop and just look at the beauty for a whole minute. Afterwhich i filled the rest of my memory card taking extreme close ups of foresaid beauty (flowers and pebbles and such like).
It really was lovely.