end of the 1st nite: IN THE CABIN:
Finally settled in for the night and my last 'chore' before going to sleep was to brush my teeth. Then I wanted to rinse my mouth, but had finished the last of of my bottled water. I didn't want to wake any of the guys, so I tiptoed into the into the kitchen..in the dark...& took a swig from what I thought was a bottle of water...... haha it turned out to be the kerosene .. (in what looked like a water bottle)....good thing i don’t swallow!!. .....tasted that for the rest of the night! Glad none of the guys saw me,
2nd nite: WE SLEPT IN THE HAMMOCK THEY BUILT IN THE JUNGLE:
This turned out to be quite an eventful nite..
I went to bed at about 8:30 ...YES ME..who rarely hits the sack before 1AM!! The 3 guides
stayed up another 2 hrs. drinking Tuak..(local homemade rice wine) by the dying campfire..but I was
totally zonked..
Awoke a few hours later cause my bladder was bursting. I knew I had to get up and walk around in the dark to find a bush to hide behind. It was so dark I literally couldn’t tell if my eyes were open or shut!! It was the weirdest sensation. .....
Quietly I crept out of my hammock ( I had the end one) & used my little flashlite to find a spot.. DIDN’T WANT TO VENTURE TOO FAR AWAY...you can’t see a thing in the jungle at night....
Of course I managed to step on a branch which awoke Belansai.. who was in the far hammock.. & who came out
to investigate the noise. I tried to be quiet so he wouldn’t see me.. but he’s a jungle dwelling native & hunter.. of course he’s going to find me!! He was getting closer & closer & my bladder was stilllllll not empty..... finally realizing that I better sacrifice modesty & identify myself before I was mistaken for a wild boar or civet cat and got speared! So I signalled him with my flashlight...............talk about getting caught with your pants down!
Back to bed...to a sound sleep, but was awakened about 1 am by Lemon, the guide from the tour company (in the next hammock) shaking his mosquito net.. along with the entire structure, & cursing in his native language (all 4 hammocks were attached to a single frame).. His flashlight had illuminated the side of my netting which I could see was covered with ants......
Since I was still half asleep & figuring they were on the outside I was thinking: “so what..after all we were in the jungle.. “
I was starting to fall back to sleep....when I realized that he had previously endured bites from leeches & a wasp..without flinching....& maybe I better check to see why he was now creating such a commotion... Sure enuff.............just as I realized a few were inside the netting.. he was telling me to get out fast......I jumped out on the other side with bare feet..(LESSON: sleep with shoes on in the jungle).......stepping on thousands of fire ants ...trying to put my sandals on.. but couldn’t keep a foot on the ground long enough to put on even one ......
Finally, holding my sandals, I just hopped to a spot near the fire that he told me to go to. I could see that all 3 of them were sitting sideways in their hammocks shaking out the netting, smashing ants & stripping the bedding & shaking it out..moving sequentially from one end of each hammock to the other.. 1 hammock at a time..1 guide was putting his bedding back together while the next one was still shaking his out...,left to right.. Janda shone his
light on the ground under the hammocks & I could see a departing river of ants that were travelling from the left to the right & veering off between Lemon’s hammock & mine. He was filling his mouth with kerosene (I know how that tasted!!) and spraying it on the ants..
By this time the other 2 guides were finished & calmly back in bed while I was still jumping around by the fire having finally succeeded in getting my sandals on..but still getting stung by the ants.
NOW I FIRST THOUGHT OF VIDEOTAPING THE EVENT BUT MY CAMERA WAS STILL IN MY HAMMOCK..& PROBABLY COVERED WITH FIRE ANTS....
Without looking at my bed, Lemon told me it was safe for me to get back in the hammock..I made him check it
first anyway.. but it seems that he knew their pattern. They had approached from the left & veered off just as they had gotten to mine... which was when he awoke me. He told me later he felt his hands & face getting bitten &
awoke to see they were all over him...Those things STING like hot needles.
For the next 2 nites every time I closed my eyes I saw a white netting covered with ants...!
Up to that point the adventure seemed contrived.. not real.. Since I was paying for it, it had the feel of a tv script that we were following.. But watching those guys shaking the ants out of the hammock, and feeling the occasional stings on my feet..brought the reality of the situation to me in no uncertain terms. I was REALLY in the jungle & the tour co. was not in total control of the daily events..
This thought also crossed my mind each time I inched my way across a narrow ledge on the edge of a steep drop..where 1wrong step would have been the end of me. And whoever was holding my hand trying to balance me would have gone over also!.....
..........to be continued.......
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