[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-uTkIXy4-PBM/UjUIvWxg6tI/AAAAAAAAW8g/FqfA7fosROQ/s144-c-o/P9010013.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage15VenezuelaBoarderColombiaToCaracas#5923650494535887570″ caption=”Big cactus trees in the dry desert bush” type=”image” alt=”P9010013.JPG” ]

Ants in the pants…

Pos: here
Loc: reefy beach before Velo de Coro
Acc: tent
Dist: 47,4 km
Start: 6:00 End: 15:40

The night had again many thunderstorms minus thunder minus storm, just lightning, and a fat rain shower. I had the choice of maximum ventilation by just closing the inner thin screen over the fly screen, taking in some water with a rain squall, or closing the outer tent fly also and stay dry from the rain, but being soaked in sweat even more. What is good on the water, low wind in the rainy season with those electrical thunderstorms, is tough while camping as it is simply HOT. There is a reason the locals sleep in hammocks, but this is not an option for me.

So I reached out to open and close the outer tent flap a couple of times this night, just opening the upper zipper of my inner fly screen, as I stuff some paper in the small gap of a three zipper sliders meeting point on the bottom of my Hilleberg Allak tent to prevent any tiny crawling critters coming in. I already felt the second last time reaching out, there were some ants falling on my bare shoulders and biting me, and the last time I needed to open the top zipper I thought I was clever enough to shake the tent wall before doing so. The ants took revenge…I may have shaken the wall too much that my paper plug got a bit lose, as a line of tiny ants were finding their way into my inner tent through the plug, and were marching directly to my cook/ eating/ toothbrushing/ peeing pot. They seemed to like the mixture in there and feasted in the early morning hours even trough the obviously not tight enough fitting lid, unbeknown to me.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-MAC2KqKoMP4/UjUIfR6gDKI/AAAAAAAAW8g/m7qblVFdPKw/s144-c-o/P9010014.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage15VenezuelaBoarderColombiaToCaracas#5923650218353495202″ caption=”I think I have seen this huge maybe 25 cm grasshopper alreay in Colombia/ Puerto Bolivar?” type=”image” alt=”P9010014.JPG” ]

When I went for my usual morning pee, still in almost darkness to do the job as usual, I noticed too late the pot was already occupied by hundreds of ants, some of them already drunken and drowned, but most of them very much alive! This means I literally positioned the pot under my bare bum, started the job, but within seconds I noticed the situation, and thought I was in a horror movie! I had to squeeze the squirt off, not able to finish the job, but rather wipe and beat and squeeze all the biting ants off my private parts! Hahaha, you can laugh now…

I quickly dumped the whole pot outside, let the ants have their pleasure there! But sure the long line of traffic left many hundreds still inside the tent, on my body and in my clothing and blanket…yahoo! I became a mass murderer, and was busy for about fifteen minutes killing ants and wiping them off wherever they were crawling on… fortunately mainly in that one corner. Eventually I jumped out naked, donned my paddling clothes, and started to pack each item after carefully shaking it out. Great job in the morning…

For some fortunate reason the bites were not itching yet, but were swollen in big lumps. At night they had blisters on the top I had to squeeze open…yucky…and I had to wipe out the last hundred ants which survived the day in the what I thought was a clean tent stuffed in the bag before I could move in again. I think my body is fighting an ant fever tonight…when I am reaching Puerto Cumarebo tomorrow, I’d really happy to maybe find a place to stay a day to give my skin a rest again. So far neither of my local friends had come back to me about Puerto Cumarebo, although Edgar gave me a contact name there but he didn’t answer. See what happens, maybe some one knows a good place to stay?

[pe2-image src=”http://lh5.ggpht.com/-rh3nO3IAefw/UjUPG5Nc0nI/AAAAAAAAW8g/yBna8ZoI2go/s144-c-o/P9040002.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage15VenezuelaBoarderColombiaToCaracas#5923657495986623090″ caption=”Camp between the reef landing” type=”image” alt=”P9040002.JPG” ]

The paddle today was luckily with low wind, later lightly following, so glad I didn’t stay in Adicora and used this day to get off this long beach stretch. What I saw already on Google Earth I noticed after about half way – the originally flat and wide beach where I was camped with the ants turned into a narrow steep beach and then into a solidly rock reef fringed beach with very few places to land. Otherwise the peninsula wouldn’t be a peninsula for long if the rocky reef wouldn’t protect the long spit! I landed eventually in a very narrow gap of the rocky reef, I had to be able to “read” the water in the low swell going over the rocks. All ok, no humans or animals here bar a herd of goats. Hopefully it stays ant free tonight…