It was a sweltering night in the jungle. I was at the La Pita emerald mining consortium complex near Maripi Colombia. 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. I was in a second floor room of a old uninsulated house where heat rose and seemed to collect on the scond floor.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.


















