It was January in Chile, I was working for my dad who was the owner of The Expedition Company at the time. I had been running trips for him for about 4 years down there, I loved Chile, I had been a lot of places while employed by my dad Russia, Iceland, Siberia etc. but out of all the places I've been I liked Chile the best. He had a camp located right on the rivers edge of the Figueroa the water was a beautiful turquoise blue and it was surrounded by snow capped mountains and dense forest. The river has some of the best fishing in the world with giant Sea Run Brown Trout, Steel Head and King Salmon. People would come from all parts to fish the river.
My job was to take the people down the river and show them a good time, I loved being on the river, rowing my boat and meeting all kinds of people the best part was watching the joy on someones face when they rilled in the biggest fish they've ever seen. One day I was working in the camp making some improvements in between trips when I noticed a small red spot on my ankle it didn't hurt it was similar to a small pimple I didn't think anything of it little did I know I had been bitten by a spider the Chileans called Arana Rincon which is similar to our Brown Recluse. I went to bed that night feeling o.k just tired from a long day of work, but when I woke up the next morning I felt like I had the Flu and the red spot on my leg was a lot bigger. The cooks that worked on the camp making food for the customers made me some herbal tea and aspirin it didn't help. We were the only Three on the camp and were hundreds of miles away from any major city.
The worst part was the weather it had been raining non stop for a week and seemed like it would never stop. Everyday seemed to go by so slow and I was getting worse and worse 3 days had gone by and I was starting to hallucinate. By this time the once little red spot on my ankle had turned into a big oozing hole in my leg. I assumed I had been bitten by a spider but wasn't for sure. I had no way out, my only option was to wait for my dad who was suppose to be arriving with the next group of customers in a few days, so I waited. I went in and out of chills and fever I couldn't sleep at night cause I was soaked in sweat and was freezing. Finally after 6 days from the day I had been bitten my dad showed up with the group I can only imagine what I looked liked, he was accompanied by a local female guide who after seeing my leg said I had been bitten by the Arana Rincon and needed to get to a hospital soon. She said that spider was responsible for the deaths of lots of children in that region. Me and my dad got in the truck and made our way to the nearest airport which was 5 hours away and a dirt road, and it wasn't much of an airport just big enough to land small prop planes we got there and made arrangements to get back to the states as soon as possible.
After the worst 3 hour flight of my life I was in Santiago the capital of Chile, from there it would take me another 16 hours to get back to Salt Lake City were my mom picked me up at the airport and took me straight to the hospital. When I got there my mom told them I had been bitten by a South American Spider, once the word was out it seemed like everybody who was studying anything that had to do with medicine was in my room asking me questions and wanting to see my leg. After spending 3 days in the hospital on a strong antibiotic I was feeling good enough to go home. Even after that experience I still can't wait to go back to Chile.
But it would have to wait cause 2 weeks later I enlisted with the Army Rangers.
rafting chile [http://www.expeditioncompany.net]
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