My heart is beating like a jungle drum

by Lisa Ha (Germany)

I didn't expect to find Brazil

Warm leaves rustling in the breeze, mystic birds' songs, monkeys howling to the sky and chirping cicadas…I could already hear the captivating sounds of the jungle when my friend handed me his keys over. He had just got a little house in the Brazilian woods three hours away from Sao Paulo. After having spend several days in that giant 12 million city I was thirsty for nature and ready to get away from the concrete jungle. So though work crossed his plans I still decided to go. The sun was about to set when I jumped off the bus the next day, as the earlier ones had been fully booked. On the dirt road towards the village I entered the little path into the jungle which my friend had described and I repeated his words in my head while walking and comparing it with what I still could see in the dusk: "walk along the river, pass by a little bridge, the dirt road disappears, always keep on walking, when you think that you are lost you reach an iron gate...". In the bushes and trees wild animals were starting their night, reptile-eyes twinkled in the river and I felt as if the mosquitos were laughing because they had found me. I did not really feel like laughing anymore but realized a slight change in my adventurous mood as I sped up my steps. It was almost dark. A breath of relief flooded out of my chest when I finally closed the iron gate and the house's wooden door behind me. I switched on the light. Surprise. The river had visited the house and had left a layer of mud on the floor and the kitchen had been taken over by all kinds of interesting looking insects, and spiders of various sizes which had decided to put their webs all over the place. I tried to relax and to be optimistic about the 2nd floor. Upstairs I found a room directly under the roof into which some mammals had gnawed a big hole and the downstair spiders lived upstairs as well. I inspected the mattresses on the racks and wondered if the river once had come all the way up to the second floor as they were kind of moldy. That was the moment when I really needed a laugh with my friend on the phone to calm down. I watched the display of my phone: no coverage. Trough the window I could not see any lights nor hear human voices. Damn. I felt so ready for wild, so thirsty for nature and so brave. Where were all those feelings now? Here we were: the jungle and me. Why did I come here on my own? My mind started running like a wild horse and played all the option-cards on the musty table: 1. Run back through the woods now and sleep in the village. 2. Try to sleep and leave in the morning. 3. No third option. After putting my backpack up and down my shoulders several times I realized that I was more scared about running alone through the woods at night than staying in this inhabited house. I moved one rack away from the wall and placed my towel on the rotten mattress. As soon as I laid down heaps of mosquitos joined me. "Shroooomp" - What was that? I freezed like a quarry. Above me on the roof something was moving. Something big. A big body. My heart felt like breaking trough my chest. Suddenly on the other side of the roof a loud and furious roaring started. I was staring at the big hole and sweating fear. The big body kept on moving over the roof. The roaring got louder and closer and was accompanied by sounds of some mammals next to the door. With my beating heart I silently grabbed a broom to be able to defend myself somehow… It must have been 3am when I fell asleep. Nothing had happened. With the first sun ray I left the wildernes and ran back to the concrete jungle. I think today I know where it is more dangerous.