Jungle Sweat

 I was once told by an experienced Panamanian jungle tour guide that sweat is a person's best defense in the jungle--after several days of good sweating, there is a "natural" smell that starts to permeate your being and it will help protect you from catching the attention of would-be jungle predators...or maybe it was the attention of the bugs...either way, jungle sweat is very good.

I believe that during our 3-hour hike in the jungle mountains right on the outskirts of Taichung, I may have reached that "several days sweat status" of which he spoke. I didn't know I had it in me. Literally. I didn't know it was possible to sweat so much in such a short amount of time! If you look carefully, you'll notice a small dry spot on my shirt near my left shoulder. Seeing as how this photo was taken at about our half-way point, I guarantee it soon disappeared.





Here's Ryley dripping sweat and replenishing himself with what our friend introduced us to as the Taiwanese Gatorade. Excellent stuff!















Here are Ben and Theo combining their sweating efforts. Please also note my ingenious set-up of a feeding bag for Theo...just like a little horse.

















Julien can out-sweat the rest of us. His hair gets completely drenched (and not only when he's in the jungle) but he never seems phased by the drips that trickle down his face. Amazing.

But backing up a bit--we took this hike in the Dakun mountains just to the east of Taichung City. We went with our friends, the Baclayons (the president of our little English lds branch out here and his two kids)



Here we are at the bottom of the "easiest" hiking trail. 









After living in the desert land of Utah for so long, it still boggles my mind that plants can just grow like this--all on their own.  No one even has to water them!








Notice the bamboo on the left and Ben's happy, smiling face on the right. We labored up these crazy steep steps the entire trail. Why waste time with switch backs? Straight up is fastest, is it not?








This beast is the biggest, non-hairy spider I've ever seen! We saw several of them on webs right next to the trail stairs. They didn't attack and eat any hikers while I was watching, but I wouldn't put it past them!









Ahhh! How peaceful our city looks from up here.













More green beauty.












Gravity helped the down part be easier. Theo's constant meltdown helped the down part be much harder. The poor kid just wanted the privilege to walk. A reasonable request under most circumstances.









Ryley's "tree" pose: I'm going to add it to my yoga workout routine.















When I was 20 years old I saw oranges growing on a tree for the first time in Arizona--it fascinated me. A couple-few-many years later and I now see how the bananas do it :)