The harsh and treacherous tropical jungle

I've not survived any disaster, but spent half a decade in the tropical SouthAmerican countryside during the later Nineties before moving to a city in earlier 2000. Me and my family lived outside a rural town within the thickness of the jungle, fairly nearby gold mining activities. We own a large portion of land with anything but bushes, ancient trees and a pair of houses with walls made from bahareque and clay, and a makeshift roof made with Zinc sheet roofing. Still, was a bit fancier than a shanty house at least and it has a simple power grid for a pair of light bulbs. We didn't have direct access to tap water and the electricity was quite unreliable. Our pantry was mostly nonperishable goods and powdered food such as milk or chocolate. Our real food came from harvest and game hunting or fishing. My uncle and some cousins were the ones that went to hunting, I never joined them because I was too young. The game they brought was mostly deer, capibara or tapir. Hunting there was dangerous because is easy to get lost into the vast thickness of the homogeneous jungle if you ever lose your tracking, since the thick greenish foliage could disorient easily the unprepared, not to mention all the harmful bugs lingering everywhere. Also, I remember that They usually went hunting at wee hours in order to reach the desired destination before sunrise to have a better chance of spotting some potential prey. Sometimes We get served even fat worms that are regarded as a local delight among indigenous people. The only thing that I remember is that It was flabby and juicy to taste.

Eventually, after a good while of work focused towards improving our quality of life (built another hut, acquired a rusty corn grinder, a pair of horses etc. ), We got into chicken and hen breeding. From there, our food sources were steadier and there was not a need to regular hunting anymore. Although my uncle was still into it and often dried deer skin to use it as leather.

P.D There is nothing more frightening that finding a centipede inside your rubber boots.

P.D 2 Nights in the tropical wilderness are very dark nightmare fuels, folks got lots of stories about ghosts and other terrors thriving in the shadows. Can't tell how many things made me see my imagination fueled by those stories.

 

We have that here in the mountains although I still have to experience it. But the stories I gathered from my husband's adventure trips make me feel like experiencing it. First in the list is the snake. It is very common in the grassy field. Second are the insects that bite. Campers and hunters don't normally have the insect repellent but my husband said that they are bringing along even the insecticide spray. There is a certain small insect here called "hanep" that makes your skin very itchy when bitten and you would be irritated for at least 5 hours. And what about the scorpion and venomous spiders? That's the main reason why they have a bonfire near their tent. The smoke and not the fire is more important since it drives away tiny intruders like ants.

One time my husband was bitten by a giant ant that we call "hantik." It is a red ant that leaves you with a painful bite. The red mark on the skin would be painful for hours. Fortunately my husband has a vaporub ointment in his kit. At least the mint vaporub deadens the pain of the welt.

 

Tropical jungles can be very exciting as well as intimidating. There is alot of wealth to be tapped from tropical jungles and many communities bordering them don't bother farming since valuable products like honey and building materials are readily available. On the flipside, human wildlife conflict is the norm and people are exposed to dangerous animals like the black mamba and the boa constrictor. People bordering tropical jungles have a wealth of information on wild herbs and natural recipes.