Spiders and Snakes

[Chris J. Durden]

How true. The only risky places I have collected in have been populated by
spiritually and nutritionally impoverished, exploited people who had
constant access to to 'gangsta rap' and pseudo-'snuff films' on TV, or
places where people were trying to grow things they were not allowed to.
Unfortunately this seems to be the creeping edge of our material culture.
It is infiltrating once remote aboriginal wilderness. Even in National
Forest Campgrounds in beautiful mountains one can awake at night to the
sound of breaking car windows and the terrified screams of adolescent boys
undergoing gang initiation rites - this in our civilized country.
  I remember one time a couple of hours out on an old trail in central
Rondonia, hearing a mumbling, grumbling conversation, back in the forest,
and following me. As this was less than 50km from Ureu Wau Wau country, I
could imagine two scouts discussing how small to shrink my head. I sat
down, ate my sandwich then headed back, whistling for a while. A year
later, on a subsequent trip to the same area, I heard the same
conversation, traced it down to a tiki monkey in the canopy - fantastic.
  It is not the people who are a problem, it is just that there are too
many, and most are bored.
........Chris

At 10:46  15/02/00 EST, you wrote:
>Mark Walker wrote:
>
>>I've shared many of the hazards associated with butterflying in remote
>>locations before, perhaps in an attempt to offset the image of the wimpy
>>butterfly collector.  When I think of what it took to travel to some of
>>these locations back in the second and third decades of last century, it
>>truly amazes me.
>
>
>
>Mark, a note of caution...
>
>I just read your homage to "wimpy butterfly collectors" who were really 
>venerated explorers in disguise and snickered a bit when you mentioned your 
>inspiration for this thread was partly the half-pint of a spider that stung 
>you.  (Hope you still have the finger, you never said which one it was you 
>waved at the motorists.)
- - - - 
- - - -
> could always run like the dickens to confound any spoilspirits in evil 
>pursuit.
>
>AS I APPROACHED THE RIVER AT 500 FEET, AND NEARED THE TRIBUTARY OF A DIRT 
>ROAD WHERE I HAD UNOBTRUSIVELY CACHED MY VEHICLE ALONG THE OLD HIGHWAY, 
>UNQUESTIONABLY, FEAR PULSATED THROUGHOUT THE PEACEFUL REQUIEM.  WHY?  THE 
>DANGERS OF THE HUMAN RABBLE ONE MIGHT MEET, AND THE PLEASURE WAS GONE.
>
>FAR WORSE THAN MUTATED GIGANTIC ARACHNID RUNNING AMOK, SUPPOSE SOME EVIL MAN 
>HAD STAKED A VIGIL OF MY VEHICLE, MAKING THE SMALL CLEARING WHERE IT LAY 
>DORMANT HIS PARLOR?
>
>I was lucky once again, with my modern defense of a remote key and sprint 
>into the vehicle.  Though, the cakes of mud on the floor remain as a tribute 
>to this sad source of danger.  Sometimes I think one would have better fate 
>if captured by cannibals rather than modern day lurkers.
>
>Best wishes.
>
>Doug Dawn
>Woodland, CA
>Monterrey, Mexico
>
>
>