As I push through the swamp, wary of snakes and spiders, I brush against a palm tree. Centimetre long red ants in their tens come rushing out and attack me, biting all over. Their acid enters my skin and a pain much like an electrical current pulsates through my body. I crush them with my open palms but more come to take their place. I drop my guard and waddle through the knee deep water and mud as fast as I humanly can to the dry ground up ahead. I clamber over a toppled section of a barbed wire fence, slide the backpack off of my shoulders, dispose of my shirt and trousers and jump about, swatting away my attackers. Native American dance over, I stand there and rethink the reasons for coming here. Ten days
... read more
