November 1st, 2nd and 3rd are celebrated holidays in many South American countries and in some cases are National holidays. Where the influence of civilization has reached the Jungle, that Jungle the subject of these posts, November 1st is known as the Day of the Dead. And so the brief period of the return of the rains that happens almost every year around the 1st of November is connected to the holiday or semi holiday of November 1st. When the water level rises briefly one last time before the real dry season takes hold people call it the, “rising or growing of the dead”, because it happens around the 1st of November.
November is the last month till May or June you can count on the river being deep enough to operate the bigger river boats. Usually by Dec. 1st the rivers are too shallow for anything but the smaller craft. There are many dangers associated with navigating the rivers in dry season. Someday I’d like to do a post just about those dangers and how to navigate safely throughout the maze of rocks and sandbars.
In November the brown Pajuil begins to sing in earnest. The Pajuil is a turkey like bird, whose scientific name is “Lesser Razor-Billed Curassow”, just in case you wanted to know. It’s rhythmic singing or humming leads the stealthy and quit jungle hunter right to where the bird is roosting allowing the hunter (if he’s a good shot) to take wild turkey home to his family for dinner.
Toward the end of November is when some jungle dwellers begin to plan this dry season’s “camping out”. You may think of jungle dwellers as being on a “perpetual camp out” but they themselves don’t view their more permanent dwellings as such. When I reminded one Tribal friend, who had been excitedly telling me of his family’s plans to go camping in a certain area know for it’s delicious jungle fruit, that the fruit wouldn’t be ripe for another moon, (his way of saying a month) his reply was “but I just get so tired and bored with seeing this same old hillside day after day”. I guess people everywhere like a change of scenery!
December is coming! December is an important month for all jungle dwellers. For those who haven’t been introduced to quote, civilization, unquote, December is when the rains really slack off for the remainder of the dry season. That means better hunting and fishing, it means it’s time to begin making next year’s garden, many jungle fruits and berries come into season and lots of jungle trees are in blossom which means more abundant honey. For the jungle dweller living within the reach of civilization December means all the above but it includes much more which I’ll address in the December post.
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