A Very Hot Night in a Very Dangerous Place

 

It was a hot night in the Colombian jungle. I was at the La Pita emerald mining consortium complex near Maripi Colombia. I had made the trip with an emerald broker who wanted to show me the operation and was sort of training me in the business.

The complex has rooms in a sort of a timeshare type arrangement where relatively successful miners and brokers stay when they come to the mining zone. Up on a hill overlooking the “hotel” was a hacienda where the camp manager lived.

Initially I was in a shared room with another miner, it was kind of like an extended stay hotel room with kitchenette, bathroom, and air conditioning. For reasons that were never explained to me, I was moved out of the “hotel” and up to a private room in the hacienda.

Unfortunately, this room lacked any of the modern conveniences of the timeshare rooms and the heat was absolutely unbearable. All I had for cooling was an old worn out floor fan. In this heat it made little difference, it barely worked and made a terrible racket. I really could not sleep with all the noise it made. I found myself wishing I had brought along the small desktop fan I had purchased from http://www.desktopfan.org. I had made the purchase of that desktop fan right before my trip, but unfortunately it had not arrived in time for the trip and I ended up going off to South America without it.

I ended up virtually roasting at night without the benefit of any kind of fan for cooling off. The room I was in was up on the second floor and thus doubly hot as the heat tended to rise and collect in the poorly insulated old house.Next time I head for the jungle I’ll be sure to bring my own fan.