I am really happy that I visited the Amazonian jungle, but I can rest assured that I will no longer entertain fantasies of running away and living in it.
Our little crew of 4 from our Pampas tour decided to all go to the jungle together. I was happy because one of our crew is from Spain so he is like a walking dictionary for me while trying to learn Spanish .I wish I could keep him in my pocket. But it was a good group with nice people so I was glad to go to the selva with them.
If we thought our pampas camp was basic, it was luxurious compared to the jungle one. Our living area was teeming with cockroaches and all sorts of other bugs and spiders. There was ankle deep mud between the bed area and toilet area and dining area. My pants will never again be clean. But the mosquitoes weren’t so bad. But the other bugs were.
The jungle is amazing. The trees are enormous. They are taller than most buildings. There is so much life crammed into every area of the jungle. I could stare at one small area and still not see everything because the eye has to get used to the subtle shades of green, density of light and movement. There are more colors of green than I ever knew existed, it all depends on how sensitive your eyes can be. It is so beautiful and so immense and so ancient.
Our guide Juan-Carlos was great. I am convinced that there is a cure for everything in that jungle and he knew most of them. He showed us plants and trees to use as mosquito repellent, to put on bites, for diabetics, to help the kidneys, to make tattoos, to shoot poison arrow darts, the Viagra tree, anesthetics, to prevent Yellow Fever, to help with eye-sight, to help with back pain, to help the sinuses, to keep you alert, to help with constipation, to help with sleep. It was endless.
Being in the jungle also felt very vulnerable too. There were jaguars around though unfortunately we didn’t see them. But you do have to be careful. We saw spiders that one bite could kill you, others that you don’t feel bite you but then a year later you start to cough up blood and what western doctor knows how to cure that? We saw crazy looking frogs that looked like the poison arrow frogs that could kill you but my Spanish isn’t up to pare to understand if that is what they were. We saw this amazing yellow snake that was 9 feet long. Most of all, it is completely disorienting. You can’t see the sun, the foliage is so thick that you can’t keep track of where you are going and every step is a battle because there is so much life there.
You definitely don’t want to stand still for long. There are lots more biting insects. There are ants that are bigger than my thumb. I had a nice little group of them, biting red ones in fact, on me. You have to be very careful where you put your hands because some of the trees have dreadfully poisonous thorns or leaves, and chances are, wherever you touch is likely to have insects on it, poisonous and biting or not, but most are biting.
We were standing around this incredible tree, so big that 11 of us wouldn’t have been able to all hold hands and stand around it. I heard this buzzing sound really loud in my ear. Then more. I was attacked by these bee/spider looking hybrids of bugs. They attacked a few of us, they come at you fast and try to burrow into your hair and into your scalp. They are sticky and hard to remove and you hear them buzzing but can’t get at them through your hair. I had a bit of a fit there but I think that was reasonable. Brushed it off and moved on.
Now I love this, Juan-Carlos told us that there are around 30-40 tribes of people that still live in this very jungle that have no contact with the outside world. They are semi-nomadic, only eat raw foods (including meat) and most wear no clothes. I love thinking that still exists in the world and to see a whisper of where they live was just incredible.
That night we went on a night hike. It was amazing and touches all sorts of different senses to go through a pitch black jungle with nothing but flashlights. It was amazing to turn off the lights too and just listen to the sounds.
Everything in the jungle seems to have more depth and texture than I ever thought could be in one place. It is saturated with it. This includes depth in sounds, in vision and in scents. It is an amazing place, mysterious and unforgiving. It would seem soothing at times if it wasn’t for the fact that everything in the jungle seems to want to bite me.
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