Bugs and Snakes

Here's the deal, running into snakes and wild animals will happen from time to time, but its a lot like running into a cougar in the Northwest. You know they are there but you need to be looking to find them. The nice thing about the spiders in the Amazon is that you when they try to sneak up on you, you can hear them coming. (A Jungle Joke!)

Snakes are around, keep your hands out of places that you can't see into. Don't swim in areas that you are not sure of. Ask the locals or swim were the kids are playing in the water. Stay out of the water at night, there tends to be more snakes around then.

Most of the bugs you will run into are the ones that you don't see. In the tall grasses and along the river they will make a nice meal out of you. Mosquitoes tend to be less of a problem when you're on the rivers. The wind keeps them down. Once you travel a few feet into the jungle its a different story. They will eat you alive. One word: Deet! You must be prepared with long pants and sleeves once in the jungle. After a few trips to the Amazon your body will start to develop its own protection and it will be less of a problem. Peruvian Joke: How do you call mosquitoes in Peru? You don't need to call them, they come on their own.

Spiders and scorpions are in every dark corner. Check your shoes in the morning and again, know were your hands are.

Sleep at night in netted hammocks or a netted tent or bed cover. My 12 year old daughter an I were sleeping on an open porch one year at a mans house on the Napo River in Ecuador. We didn't have a tent or hammock so were curled up in a blanket. The flying bugs were thick and in the middle of the night we got hit with one that we could hear coming. It hit us like a baseball. I never did see what it was but really didn't want to know either.

We have had snakes cross the trail in front of us, between us and try to get into our boats. Flashlights tend to attract snakes at night.

I was on the Apayacu River below Iquitos on the Amazon and my local host took us Alligator hunting on some back waters. He said to be careful with the lights, the alligators' eyes will reflect the light and glow green. But snakes will glow red. If we see red being reflected back at us to turn off the lights, its a snake and the light will attract the snake and it will come into the boat.