A place of death

Full of love for everything I see, I walk straight into the sea. It has been a tough morning: we have been measuring trees positions and taking samples of their leaves. Sounds simple. Is simple, were it not that the sun over here burns through everything I wear. While sampling, vultures (aasgieren) were flying in circles above our heads, waiting for one of us to drop on the sandy rocks, so that they could rip us apart, and spread our bodies back into this deadly foodweb. Now is definitely the time to cool down.
When I walk into the water, over the sand, between two large black rocks, red and blue crabs crawl away, afraid that I might hurt them. But that is far away from my intention. I just want to swim.
The waves are high, and the water is cold, but that does not matter to me. I stare into the horizon while I go deeper, and I feel happy. I am one with this deadly place. When I see a large wave, I dive into it, and feel the heat of my body flow away into the sea. This is beauty.
I stand up, full of enjoyment. All my attention suddenly gets pulled into my heel. Something sharp swiftly moves into it. I jump up, and feel something swim against my other foot. So I jump up with my other foot, but when I land with my first foot, I feel the sting burn worse than before, so I get back onto my healthy foot, trying to keep my balance. That is not easy, because a strong wave tries to knock me down. I stumble back upon the beach, heading to the camp. Every step hurts like hell, but all I can think is, I have to know what stung me. While I m hoping I dont have to go to a hospital (that would include a three quarters of an hour walk over rough terrain under the burning sun), I see lots of skulls and skeletons lying around between the stones. But they dont enter my mind.
When I look at my foot, I see blood flowing out of it, and I start to hope it was a ray that stung me: they are not so poisonous.
At camp, I find Allessandro Catenazzi cooking some spagetti over a campfire. He confirms it was a ray, so Im relaxed again, and treat the wound. But it still stings like nothing that stung me before.
The camp lies in a small little valley between two rocks of about ten metres high. They offer shade and protection against the strong winds at night.
When the moon shines on it from straight above, one of the rocks looks remarkably much like a skull. The others see it too.
Each of my companions is one of a kind. Allessandro is a half italian half peruvian leader type. He is an expert on lizards. This is why Yohani, a pretty active Peruvian girl, is a big fan of him. She knows a lot about him, even though he lives in the states. She refers to him as Don Allesandro. He teaches her how to catch treat lizards. Till now, day two, she caught none, (but she is learning).
Our last companion is Luis. He has been assigned by Milena (my supervisor in Holland) as my protector and guardian, and I can tell you: he is a natural. When I climb a rock, he says cuidado! But I allready know when he is going to say that, so we can both laugh about it. He was gone when I got stung. I guess it wouldnt have happened otherwise. Besides, he is a great cook, even in the field!
The last night, at the campfire, he tells me about a ghosthouse where his now dead grandma used to live. Many of his friends have slept there, but ran away before the end of the night. Im obviously interested, so you ll hear the story of my night in there somewhere next week I suppose.
But the best thing I heard at the campfire, was said by Yohani. As a reply to Allessandros statement that hell might be more interesting than heaven, she said: pero Don Allessandro, en el cielo hay la Biodiversidaaad. She is a very pure girl.
Next saturday, Im invited to a wedding in Piura. Im going to buy a tie for that, coz they say that is normal. And I dont want to fall out of the boat!

I wish you all good luck for now. It is time for me to eat. Stories are comming up!

Ciao!

Gilles