Sunday, Sept. 21, 2003 - 12:27 a.m.
I was glad when I awoke that this was the last day in the jungle. I was sick of sunburns, bug bites, being hot, sweaty, sticky & dirty. I was ready for a shower and a big meal, plumbing & flush toilets & a nice cold Coca-cola.
When I awoke, my face, especially around my eyes felt swollen & puffy. I feared to know what I looked like. I knew my eyes were bugging out. I tried to think why. Maybe because I slept so poorly. I had tossed & turned all night. When I laid down to go to sleep the night before I discovered the ground sloped steeply to my right and it took awhile to find a position that I could be somewhat comfortable enough to fall asleep. But even then I kept waking up every couple of hours, at one point (about 5AM) to the sound of rain.
I dreaded facing everyone at breakfast. I heard the others getting up and packing, so finally, the last one to emerge (yet the first to awake), I got up, packed and joined the others for desayuno. I avoided looking at the others, I knew I looked strange, even without a mirror.
Later I realized the cause of my puffy eyes. It was from the DEET bug spray! I'd used DEET before in the past and never had a problem. Now, I realized, for whatever reason, I was having an allergic reaction to the strong stuff. I was just going to have to be patient and let time do the healing. Oshra took one look at my face that morning and told me I looked really weird. I looked at my reflection in my sunglasses and had to agree with her.
After eating and packing up we went on (yet another) hike. I saw an Owl Butterfly & had to take a photo. Later on the hike Ervin caught a cousin of the Owl Butterfly, just like the butterflies at the Tropical Butterfly House at the Science Center. The poor thing flapped its wings uselessly while he held it. The struggle was costly as its wings were then torn and becoming slightly shredded. I felt sorry for it. Ervin let us take turns holding it, I declined, knowing how damaging it is for a butterfly's wings to get shredded like that, knowing it jepardized the life of the insect. I kept saying "Cuidado!" (Careful!) while the others held it. I couldn't help it. It was the #1 rule at the butterfly house; Don't Touch the Butterflies!
We trekked for about 3 hours that morning, hearing a lot of birds, not seeing many animals. Then on the walk back Ervin told us we were going to take a short cut because it was faster & shorter. So we left the path and Ervin used his machette while we traipsed through the thick brush. One thing I hated about hikeing in the jungle is that my legs were still on the mend from being slashed by the barbed wire in the Pampas and were still tender. Sometimes while hiking a lot of branch would snag or slap against my fresh wounds, making it smart. I was trying to keep my wounds clean and covered in bandages, but it was difficult in the jungle.
A couple of times some of us got separated from the rest of the group. We called out to Ervin, our "guia" to reconnect with him. The others, the Israelis felt that Ervin had gotten us lost. It took forever to get back to camp. I'm not convinced that we were lost, but I think Ervin definately underestimated how long it would take us to return to camp. Once we got back we immediately took down our shelter. It was about 1pm, we hadn't had lunch and I was so hungry. We had no time to eat or rest, just pack up, pick up our bags and hit the trail again, back to our first camp.
I was so tired and my water supply was getting so low I had to ration it. The day before had taken us about 2.5 hrs to hike to the second camp. Returning took us about 45 minutes (provided we were sidetracked by the monkeys the prior day). Ervin was booking it, I was struggling to keep up. Being the last in line, I never had a chance to rest. The path was relatively flat, but sometimes we would cross a creek that was often tricky to manuver, crossing a skinny log high above the riverbed or balancing across slippery stones. On one of our hikes Ervin pointed out puma tracks in the muddy river banks. Another time I saw what I think were Tapir tracks (an animal like a 3 toed pig).
When we got back to the first camp I was exhausted and starving. It was about 2;30pm. We had lunch and quietly discussed whether we thought Ervin had gotten us lost or not. Then we took all our stuff and walked to the river to take our boat back to Rurrenebaque.
As our motorized canoe slipped away from the river bank I was glad to not have to hike anymore. We had a nice breeze cruising along in the boat, plus this time we were going downstream.
We got back to Rurre about 5pm. Then we carried our stuff from the river to the office and hotel. Tired, sunburned, bug bit and dirty I arrived at the office to be greeted by Emma and Imke! They had returned the day before, had spent the day preparing for their epic journey and were leaving the next day. It was a nice sort of homecoming.
Emma and Imke had gotten a hotel room with 3 beds so I could share with them. When I went to the room to drop off my stuff I found on my bed my bug spray and a package of cookies. Prior to our jungle trip I'd bought a package of cookies that Emma and Imke ended up eating the evening prior. I had to laugh outloud and then had the most refreshing cold shower I've ever had.
Even though I'd only been apart from Emma and Imke for 24 hours, a lot had happened. They had met an Israeli guy that was also going to join them on their 20 day adventure, Forest, who I got to meet. Forest speaks Spanish fluently, so that was helpful for the girls. Also they told me that they'd learned that Chino had family in the jungle, the farthest community way, the most non-westernized that you can only see on a 20 day trek. Since not many tourists went on 20 day tours, this community has only seen gringos once before. They will probably be very curious about Emma, Imke and Forest, to see white people for only the second time. They told me Chino was really looking forward to seeing his family again. The girls had also bought a lot of things for their trip, including gifts for the people in the jungle communities; Pens, paper, knives, fishing line, etc. And Forest bought a machette. Imke also asked me to e-mail her family for her since she had tried to phone them from Rurre and had been unsuccesful.
We had dinner at a nearby restaurant and then went to the popular Mosqito bar.
