It was a hot night in the Colombian jungle. We were spending the night in the Colombian emerald mining zone at the La Pita mining camp near Maripi. 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. There was also a hacienda on a hill overlooking the camp.
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 reasons that were never explained to me, I was moved out of the “hotel” and up to a private room in the hacienda.
Unfortunately, this room lacked any of the modern conveniences of the timeshare rooms and the heat was absolutely unbearable. All I had for cooling was an old worn out floor fan. 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 bought the desktop fan shortly before leaving for Colombia but the shipping was too slow to get it to me in time for the trip.
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.
