A Sweltering Night in the Colombian Jungle

 

It was a hot night in the Colombian jungle. I was at the La Pita emerald mining consortium complex near Maripi Colombia. An emerald broker from Muzo had taken me there to show me the operations as a part of my training.

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 some reason, I was moved out of that room into private accommodations up in the hacienda.

The room was decidedly more primitive with no air conditioning, only an old floor fan to help cool the room. 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.

So I spent a sweltering night at the mining camp without any means of 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.