The awkward moment didn't last for long, though, and Jenny learned how they were to sleep without the aid of air conditioning. The women of the village invited her to a torchlight swim. She returned wearing a soaking wet towel which Jenny concluded was used as a damp blanket for cooling. Rather than drying off, the idea was to sleep wet.

Then Jed was invited to join the men. With all the glee of a barefoot boy, he dove into the river ignoring the possibility of strange creatures in the dark water. Standing with a back against the current was similar to a tepid Jacuzzi bath. The moon seemed larger than he had ever seen it. The monkeys and night birds chattered away endlessly.

Later, lying on the hardwood planks, with only a thin backpackers sleeping mat to ease the stiffness of the day, they held hands under the single soggy towel used for bedcovers, and chatted.

"They really are very, very nice people, Jed, but why do I want to giggle so?"

"I imagine the Choco´ are doing that right now about us."

"Did you notice, when bathing...?"

"I already knew. But, I must say I was damn curious to see if it was true."

"So were the ladies."

"Well, the presence of body hair must be as shocking to them, as the lack of it is to us. What we are going to have to find is something that will be the key into letting us climb the mountain."

"What?"

"I don't know. We will just have to wait and see. I hate to sound like something out of a Jungle Jim movie but without a bit of magic, we could end up in the pot."

"It wouldn't work if we went on by ourselves?"

"No. The mountain is part of the Choco´ religion. Christianity may have dictated some of their modern social customs, but have you noticed all the carved figures, the devil dogs? That is a very old belief. All primitive societies seemed to have some force of evil, similar to, or even more sinister than our devil. We protect ourselves from Satan's wrath by acting good. These people rely on ceremonial daggers and guard animals. I suspect that the window of death is not something a person looks into, but rather a door that the devil comes out of when bringing sorrow."

"And?"