H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

About two decades ago or perhaps longer I flew with a couple of friends to Lima the Capital of Peru in my way to the Amazon jungle. Our destination was to visit a native tribe living in the jungle as an observer mission with a group that consisted of Anthropologists, Medical Doctors, Psychologists and Sociologists. The Peruvian government provided our group with local guides, some military security and shelter for the Group. The USA worked in conjunction with Canadians and French professionals also worked with French speaking Canadians. I was proposed for the job for Psychology and my language skills in Spanish and Portuguese.

Our particular group (USA) had twelve people (Males and females) to spend some time with the natives and collect the most data about their social structure, behavior, physical and mental status, we had jobs for each of our fields. We were assigned to be lodged in a nearby Camp/shelter, a bivouac of sorts made of a rough construction, which consisted of huts built on stilts with thatched roofs and joined together by catwalks all made of wood from felled trees, all the camp was in one horizontal level at about six feet from the jungle floor. It had cubicles with cots provided of nets hanging from above to be used when sleeping at night and prevent insects to be in contact with the people. There was a dinning facility and communal bathrooms. Showers were provided also but it worked filling a tank with buckets of water from a nearby stream or rainwater collected in a large water trough.

Our flight from Lima arrived to Iquitos, a modern city in the middle of the jungle reachable by airplane or by river only. There we met the other members of the groups once we had the head count and the roster complete we were ready to go to the Camp. All the gear and whole group boarded a large ship and we proceeded to navigate the mighty Amazon downriver East direction toward Brazil.

After hours of navigation we reached a port where we unloaded all our gear and supplies we were divided in smaller groups and transferred to boats shaped like large canoes with motor and flat bottom and left the Amazon river and went into a smaller tributary river, looking more like a canal system, but not man made. You only saw vegetation in both sides and these canals wind like snakes cutting through the jungle. We went on those boats for a while until we got to an opening, obviously man made and we docked to a wooden pier. There was a group of workers that helped unload the boat and instructed the visitors to remain together and not to wander around. Once our group was on land we were asked to only carry a backpack or hand carried-on bag. Our guides were carrying backpacks with drinking water and snacks. The temperature was very high and the humidity was atrocious.

The other boats would be coming with more passengers plus all our gear and supplies. All the carrying was done by hired hands that gave service to the Camp. From there on we had to hike across creeks, brooks, and other non comforting paths. In the Amazon jungle things are never easy!. One of the guides led us and another one was behind the last person. We walked in a single line formation following a long path of never ending maze of large trees, bushes, huge vines hanging from above, very impressive amount of vegetation!.

Once in a while we saw incredibly beautiful orchids and weird looking exotic flowers that I’d never seen before. The hike took a while and we made many stops to drink water and rest, the heat and humidity took away all our energy, we’re soaked in sweat but eventually we got to see a grassy opening in the jungle and some thatched huts, we had arrived to the Camp!

Without getting in any details about work. Our days usually started by having a hearty breakfast early in the morning and reviewing the schedule for that day and got our instructions. Then we would get our backpacks with personal and work stuff in them and hiked to the tribe village were we spent hours to do our work and then at certain time of the day we returned to the Camp, refresh ourselves and have our meal of the day, at night some of us would gather and make conversation about any subject, in some occasions someone would produce a bottle of booze for a nice shot of liquor and talk about what we had learned in the morning. We were a nice group of people that loved their work and did not mind the hustle or the uncomfortable moments of living under those conditions. Once in a while you’d hear somebody yelling, mostly because If you didn’t know, bugs love to tease people they have a tendency to spook humans!.

It happened to me one day, I was going to take a shower, for this you had to take a bucket and fill a tank over the shower head and then open the faucet. I was ready to go in, had water in the tank, had my soap in hand when I stepped in the cavity of the shower I see in front of me on the wall a huge black with shiny black eyes and hairy tarantula! Holly crap! I believe that the whole world heard my cursing! I do not like spiders, I not afraid of them but they give me a creepy feeling that I detest!

One day I remember, right after lunch, as usual the guides made some extra money in tips by taking some of us on hikes in the jungle to see animals, insects or plants, anything different from the city’s stuff. This way we would give the guides some money at our return. But some days like when we were near the end of our mission, most people were really tired or exhausted at the end of the work day it was actually justified, we were all tired.

One of our guides asked our group if anybody was interested to go hiking. It was I and two of the girls that agreed to go hiking and maybe find something exciting to talk about later when we returned to our Countries. So we decided to go out there with the guide and explore.

The guide usually spoke to me only and I translated for my friends. The guide spoke a mixture of portuguese and spanish which I could understand and then translated to my friends. We visited different places in one we saw dried patches of mud with bored holes and we were quiet and waited we saw gigantic black spiders come out of the holes! In another place we saw very tall trees with huge vines hanging to near the ground and we could climb them a bit and then swing like Tarzan! Also some other stuff like weird looking fruits, our guide said that we were near a path where he could show us how you could draw and drink fresh water from a tree!.

We headed onto a different direction and soon we found another path. This path was not as comfortable as the previous one, this one looked narrower, our guide had to use his machete to clear the way for us and not brush against the plants. All guides and workers at the Camp always carried a typical machete in the jungle, it’s like the Swiss- knife of the Amazon. He explained that this path wasn’t used for a while, reason why it wasn’t so cleared of vegetation. We continued our way and we found the path blocked by a fallen tree. It was tall tree. The trunk being about thirty inches high lying on the ground.

We decided to go over the trunk and then continue on our hike. Our guide helped one of the girls go on top of the trunk and jump to the other side, I helped the other girl, she did go up and jumped too, the guide was going to help me and I told him to go first and I was climbing it by myself it wasn’t that high maybe three feet at the most, he went over it and then was my turn, I climbed on the trunk and when I tried to jump down to the other side, the trunk broke in pieces and I fell in the hollowed tree up to my knees!

The trunk had been rotten all along but had supported the weight of the girls and the short guide but I was taller and weighed more hence it collapsed! But then, surprise! It was an ant nest! I saw the dark hole become alive with thousands of ants starting to crawling on me! The guide realized that immediately and his reaction was fast! He grabbed both my hands and pulled me out of the hole and pulled me to the ground away from the nest!

While I crushed the ants inside my pants legs, our guide used his machete flat blade side and began to smash the ants on me very effectively, the girls, although being scared they helped me too by crushing the ones inside my pants legs. It didn’t take long and I was cleared from all ants.

When we returned to the Camp, I took my pants off and found that I had hundreds of ant bites! My legs looked like somebody used a shotgun on me! I was treated there for my wounds. This was the news of the day and everybody talked about it! All the bites were bloody and burned like hell. The guide was so concerned about it he said it was his fault to take us to that path, I told him that he shouldn’t worry about in fact I thanked him. He had saved me from something worse if it wasn’t by his fast reaction and pulling me out of the ant nest quickly! Before the group left the Camp I said good bye to the guide and gave him a generous tip! He was happy!

After I retuned to USA I had to be treated by a Dermatologist Doctor, because the bite wounds that were almost infected. The foreign bacteria and the ants saliva, humidity and heat may have contributed to create an infection. Proper medicine helped clear all infections and healed well. For a period of time I had little dots marks in my legs but faded away after near two years.

Those ants really wanted a piece of me!. This anecdote helped me on my social life as a good story for conversation at any friends get-together.

© HJ Ruiz