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. I had made the trip with an emerald broker who wanted to show me the operation and was sort of training me in the business.
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. Up on a hill overlooking the “hotel” was a hacienda where the camp manager lived.
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 some reason, I was moved out of that room into private accommodations up 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.I don’t plan on ever returning to the Colombian jungle, but if I should ever find myself having to do so, I’ll be sure to bring my own fan, life without it there would be unbearable.