Welcome to the Jungle!

[mossytrail (deleted)]

I'm looking back to a yaer ago. One of the best adventures I ever had. I was in Ecuador, volunteering for a nonprofit. My project was to build a gray water treatment system, and I had set myself the task of assessing what local plants of the area could be used. For that, I had to survey along the river. Did I mention this river ran through a jungled canyon?

I started as far upstream as I could go, and explored the river's course downstream. Easy stretches of wading through calf-deep water alternated with series of waterfalls and pools. Climbing down those waterfalls was a suitable challenge for me -- there was one where I had to "rappel" so to speak on a long tree root that grew along the rock face. Others, I had to go away from the waterfall itself and descend the canyon wall through the jungle, as it was less slippery and steep there (adventure is not an excuse for recklessness). At several points, the walls were too high and steep to get out of the water, and the water too deep to wade. At those points, I would have toscout ahead by swimming. Some points, I had to do several back-and-forth: leave my clothes and gear at the ledge; walk naked back to where I could get in safely; swim ahead to find the next ledge; swim back to get my clothes and gear; somehow keep them above my head while I swam them to the ledge; swim ahed to where I could get out; walk naked basck to the ledge to retrieve them.

Is it any surprise I eventually decided not to get dressed every time? To scout several pools ahead, and only get dressed at the last one?

But of course, every river leads somewhere, and in South America, that somewhere is usually out of the jungle. After the last waterfall, I saw signs of civilization, and knew my clothes would have to stay on from here on in. From the village downstream was an entirely different set of challenges. There were points where people had dug out ponds for crayfish farming, with no room to walk on the bank. It was either swim in the by-now nasty river (downstream from the village, with animals, clothes washing, and outdoor toilets), or climb the steep sides to the rim high above. I opted for the climb, although it meant ducking under a number of barbed wire fences. By this time, the jungle had given way to what is called tropical dry forest, so the going was easier in that sense.

If it had all been jungle, canyon, and waterfalls, I would have regretted coming to the end; but after the crayfish farms and cattle pastures, I was just as glad to emerge at the other end.

On my last day with that organization, I overheard the director taking to his assistant. He said that from now on, no one would be allowed to walk the jungle trails alone -- he then mentioned my name as an "exceptional case." I was rather miffed -- I maintained a perfect safety record there, no injuries, no accidents, no incidents; yet still he implemented a new rule, just as if there HAD been a safety incident.

That's who I am: deciding what plants to use in a gray water system requires an adventure.

Live was I ere I saw evil.