After some busy weeks implementing my first project, the BioCreative MetaServer, I am finally getting close to some big vacations after a few years without! The plan is to go to Columbia, first a few days enjoying beach life in the Caribbean, Cartagena, to acclimatize to the heat, and then moving on to Leticia, in the south-east corner of the country, and in the middle of the Amazons. There we will have a few trips around the place, getting acquainted to the jungle. Then, the plan is to take a boat down the river to Manaus in Brazil, enjoying real wilderness detached from civilization (a bit, at least). From Manaus we will have another four-day trip into the jungle. Finally, it all rewinds going back to Spain by plane. I will be accompanied by Mayte, the Mexican girl who introduced me to Madrid when I arrived here, plus four other pals from Columbia, Spain, Italy and, I think, South Africa - so we will be quite an international group! Mayte has become a very good friend of mine and as she constantly works in very remote locations I am really looking forward to see here again after such a long time only communicating via chat.
So what to take? Well, I packed some light equipment, most clothes are made of thin cotton with long sleeves, tons of DEET (anti-mosquito spray), a serious medical and first-aid-kit, and some nifty little extras I do not want to miss like soft, European toilet paper, bite relief, iodine-based water purifier, a Leatherman, orange-redish sunglasses (contrasting to the jungle's green!), or a headlamp and candles. All that stuff is contained in dry bags, which are then stowed in a water resistant rucksack/bag. I hope I will not need every last piece of stuff, but I just want to bet on the safe side rather - yet, after some discussions with Mayte, I did remove some hardcore survival gear from the list (like a water filtration system, an epinephrine-pen, or the Sawyer pump (for snake bites)). Actually, the most annoying part so far was getting all the vaccinations, six injections in total. As I had five of them at once, I was feeling rather dizzy for a few days after - so don't believe the doc if he tells you it does not matter if you take them all at once or not! And then you're not even protected from Malaria, the most severe problem in the jungle...
Well, I'll be leaving on friday next week, and will be back in April, when I will let you know what it was like and what is really important (and what I forgot...)!
