Roughin' It

Our first evening in the jungle Rebecca and I discovered why Antonio had said that jungle was really hard. The mosquitoes. They are big. They are everywhere. They are fearless. They are immune to insect repellent. Oh, and they can bite through clothes. As soon as the sun starts to drop towards the horizon they seem to instantly multiply until their is a constant black buzzing cloud around you. The mosquitoes did not seem to be too interested in the locals, but were very keen to devour the new foreign cuisine that had just arrived in town.

With nothing to do after dinner we headed off to bed. In hammocks. Again. These were the cheap nylon ones too. Not the nice large comfortable cotton ones. As we lay there, waiting to fall asleep one of the truly amazing things about the jungle became clear. A trip into the jungle is truly and auditory experience. There are always hundreds of different creatures composing a natural symphony of sound. Insects, birds, and mammals all meld together into a continuous dynamic melody. This music changes over the course of time as some animals wake up and others go to sleep. While the musician of each sound was unkown to us, we did come to recognize certain sounds. Eventually we did fall asleep.

Bec and I awoke to a different tune the following morning. The plan for our first full day in the jungle was to head out on a five hour hike deeper into the jungle and away from the Amazon river. We would be staying in a VERY rustic camp site next to a waterfall and we would have the opportunity to see wildlife that had not been disturbed by development.

There is a funny thing about the jungle. While most people think that it is extraordinarily hot, it actually isn't. It is in fact rather temperate on the forest floor due to the shade of the trees above you. What the jungle most certainly is, is humid. Very very humid. I am not sure if it is possible to have more than 100% humidity, but if it is, it happens in the Amazon Rain Forrest. The humidity makes the air very thick and heavy; almost as if it is pressing in on you. The other curious thing about the jungle is that because the vegetation is so dense there is very little wind. It also doesn't help that you have to wear long pants and long sleeves to protect yourself from the bugs.

These interesting characteristics combine in a rather nasty way. As you hike carrying a small pack you quickly begin to sweat profusely. The catch is that because the humidity is at 100% and there is no wind the sweat does not evaporate, which means that you are not able to cool yourself. Your body just gets hotter and hotter.

I noticed the effect and noticed that my brain was starting to get a little cooked. Rebecca also commented that she was starting to get hot. When we stopped about 30 minutes into the hike to refill our small water bottles from a larger bottle. Rebecca became rather pale and shortly thereafter passed out and collapsed. We caught her and set her down gently. She quickly came-to with a very confused look on her face, which was probably only matched by my concerned look. We had some water and decided to continue onwards. Not long after Rebecca fainted again and the hike was called to a halt. Not feeling too hot myself we took an extended rest and ate some oranges to get our blood sugar back up I made the executive decision that we were heading back to the base camp. Continuing back out into the jungle would have violated one of my rules of travel: Do not engage in strenuous physical activities that may result in the need to call a traveling companion's mother from the hospital.

I can only imagine what the locals must have thought of us when we returned back into camp. We really were weak gringos.

After returning to the base camp we took a bath in the stream, had lunch, and took long naps.