It's day number five in the jungle for the expedition team, and we're having a heck of a time!

We picked an interesting place to camp last night. Warren, our local guide, chose a location a few hundred yards upstream on a tributary of the Samiria River. He reasoned that since we were entering the heart of the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, we might have to contend with illegal loggers, and that the loggers might try to steal our canoes.

Our "campsite" amounted to a small, heavily forested parcel of dry land. When we landed our canoes, we quickly discovered that some of the trees were crawling with fire ants. Jennifer was especially excited, and celebrated the discovery by doing the there-are-ants-in-my-pants dance.

Warren used his machete to clear some of the brush so we could set up our Jungle Hammocks. Although we didn't make the discovery for a few hours, we were setting up our hammocks directly over a nest of bullet ants! The aptly-named bullet ant is said to cause pain similar to a bullet wound when it bites you. The ant's pinchers are so large, they have even been used as sutures (stitche) in surgery--you just let the ant bite the patient and then kill the ant.

Ruben discovered the ants on his evening walk to the bathroom. One of the ants declared its presence by biting Ruben on the pinky toe. Since Ruben has never been shot, we can't know for sure whether the pain is comparable to a gunshot wound, but he said it took an hour for the pain to subside.

A few minutes after we discovered the ants, Jesse yelled "Tarantula!", and we all rushed over to see if he'd been bit. Jesse had managed to avoid the huge spider, but his cry for help turned out to be quite an understatement. We identified the spider as a type of wolf spider known as the wandering spider, which Ruben said is 16 times more poisonous than the black widow spider. We could see the spider's yellow fangs by the light of our flashlights. One bite from a wandering spider delivers a dose of neurotoxin to the bloodstream strong enough to cause paralysis in a matter of minutes. For some especially unlucky individuals, the dose is fatal.

Not that we didn't love our campsite, but we got up extra early this morning to get back on the river. After an hour of paddling, Warren motioned for the canoes to land on the left side of the river. None of the rest of us could see what he was going for. But, after we ducked under the first layer of bushes, a small road appeared leading away from the river up into the jungle--illegal loggers!

We hiked up the road for about a quarter mile until we saw the stump of the mighty mahogany tree we all knew would be there. We couldn't believe the loggers had constructed a road through the rainforest, cutting down hundreds of trees in the process, in order to harvest one tree. The price for mahogany wood must provide a strong incentive for the actions of the loggers. What do you think?

As we were preparing to hike back to our canoes, Warren and I caught the distinct sound of grunting coming from the woods just beyond the tree stump. Giving chase, we could hear a whole herd of animals running and grunting their way through the forest, but we couldn't quite get close enough to see them. Finally, using a mighty kapok tree to shield ourselves, we were able to catch a glimpse of a few white-lipped peccaries, a kind of wild pig that wanders freely in the rainforest. Warren said they often wander around in groups of up to 70 pigs, and judging from the sounds (and smells) we were experiencing, this particular pack was quite large.

After we tired of the chase, we returned to our canoes for some mundane afternoon paddling. After a night and day filled with spiders, ants and pigs, we were happy to return to our dear friends--the canoe, paddle and river.

-Adam