Ecuadorian Equinox, part 3

José

After many twists and turns on the Andean highway, José made a turn off onto a smaller road into the jungle. About 30 miles later, there was a post with a reflector shoved into the ground for the base camp dirt road and José followed it. Not far from there he parked at the large tent of base camp. The stopping of our Land Cruiser woke me up and Mr. Butterfly was also stirring.

“Are we there yet?”, jokingly asked the young explorer.

“Si Señor, we are there!”

I stretched my legs, which were a bit cramped from sleeping curled up in the back seat, and got out of the vehicle. Everyone got out. We headed for the tent and were greeted by a large soft spoken man. When we got close enough, he put his index finger across his lips to signal for quiet, and whispered to us, so as not to wake up those who were sleeping in the tent.

“Hi. My name is Peter Beck, but you can call me Pete. You must be Dr. Sue Fairview and…”

“Yes, let’s not stand on formalities Pete. You can call me Mr. Butterfly and call Dr. Fairview, Sue.”, whispered Mr. Butterfly cutting him off.

“Thanks. I’ve met José. We all shook hands. I don’t want to wake the others. Welcome to our little expedition. I am head of security and the boss of the men who will be your guides. If you have any questions, I’d be the guy you want to ask. Let me just review some basic stuff. Water, we have iodizing pills available in case you didn’t bring any. Food, we supply rice, the jungle supplies fruit and any meat or fish you can catch. Toilet, just make sure you pick a spot away from others. Bathing, there is a river not far from here that we all use.”

“I have a question.”

“Yes, Sue, go ahead.”

“I am ready to bathe naked if that is what everyone else is doing.”

“That’s great Sue. But, there are a few of the guys that might get the wrong idea from that. As it is, we are not all bathing naked now even though we are all men. So I suggest wearing a swim suit for now, at least with the big group. Okay? Sleeping, everyone uses sleeping bags. Look out for snakes, scorpions and bees. So, for tonight, just pick a spot on the floor of the tent and get some rest. You’ll meet everybody else in the morning. Can I help anybody with their stuff? No? Good night then.”

Then he turned around and walked back to where he was sitting guard. We went back to the truck and got our sleeping bags and brought them into the tent. The tent was big enough to walk into upright and it was filled with sleeping men. We picked out spots at the back that were empty and unrolled our bags. We stretched out on them and were asleep in no time lulled by the sounds of the jungle.

* * *

I awoke and the sun was already up. I sat up slowly, and looked around. All of the sleeping bags were empty except Mr. Butterfly’s. He was snoozing away.

“Wake up sleeping beauty.”, I said as I nudged him. He woke up and opened his big eyes to look at me.

“Where’s the fire?”

“Ha ha! Get up lazy bones! It’s time to make scientific history or meet your mystery date. I can’t remember which.” Then I smiled.

He had the grace to laugh.

“Christ, where the hell are we?”

“Some god forsaken jungle in some god forsaken country, that’s where.”

“Why ever did we come here?”

“For science.”

“Oh yeah, that.”

Then he slowly got up. We got into our swim suits; mine was a brand new Speedo Endurance Camouflage one piece.

Speedo Endurance Camouflage Swim Suit

We wandered out of the tent and made our morning ablutions in what we hoped was a remote enough spot. Then we headed back to base camp and met up with José, who was there to lead us to the river. The air was already warm like summer.

The river was not far and it was an easy hike. It seemed as if our site had been used before for a camp and the path to the river was worn in. We could even have gone bare foot, but we had our hiking boots on. The river was moving along pretty swiftly, it would have been great for tubing, and had a stony bottom. It was maybe three feet deep in the middle and all of the men were in it bathing. We took off our boots and joined them immediately.

Introductions ensued.

We met Chuck, who was bathing naked. He was slender and muscled with brown hair and hazel eyes. His dick was average and cut. He was a bit too friendly with me. He might have been one of the men that Pete was warning me about.

Chuck

Austin was next. He was bathing in Marine Corps issue nylon shorts. He was muscular and business like and still wearing his dog tags.

Austin

Marine Corps issue nylon shorts

Dr. William Brandtley III bathed in top of the line racing Speedos made with Aquablade fabric (guaranteed to slice through the water). He was the orchid specialist heading the expedition and would brief me later. Blond with blue eyes, he was also muscular. He seemed a bit uptight. Maybe it was because he was nearly naked.

Dr. William Brandtley III

Pricey Speedos

Also bathing in the nude was Oscar. Oscar was hung and uncut. He wasn’t as well endowed as Volchuk though, but still I thought Mr. Butterfly’s eyes would fall out of his head. He also had brown curly hair and brown eyes and was really cute. Oscar was the other native guide, but had lived in California for a while. So he spoke both English and Spanish easily.

Oscar

The other lepidopterist was Dr. Allen Wise. He was wearing an Aussiebum Wonderjock in ice blue and was just really open and friendly. He had light brown hair and eyes and was really magnetic. What a casual ease he had about him. I got the feeling that Mr. Butterfly was going to have a good time on this trip.

Dr. Allen Wise

Aussiebum Wonderjock in Iceblue

Pete was also there. In daylight I could see that he was older, hugely muscular and had buzzed brown hair with steely blue eyes and a salt and pepper beard. He was also wearing Marine issue shorts, just like Austin’s.

Pete

He came over to check with us and see how we were doing. We said we were fine and thanked him for asking. We then continued our chat with Allen and William.

After our swim and bath, everyone gathered water from the river to iodize for drinking and cooking and headed back to the tent. Apparently, Oscar had caught some fish earlier and grabbed those for our breakfast. There were passion fruit back at the tent. The only thing missing was coffee. Coffee made with iodized water. I wonder how that would taste?

Photo credits: José, Chuck, Austin, Pete, William from Brawny Stud Allen & Oscar from So Slowly