It was January in Chile; I worked for my father, who then owned the Expedition Company. I drove him for about 4 years, I loved Chile, I had a lot of places when I worked as my dad Russia, Iceland, Siberia, etc. But from all the places where I loved Chile the best. He had a camp located right on the edge of the Figueroa rivers, the water was a beautiful turquoise blue, and it was surrounded by snow-capped mountains and a dense forest. The river has some of the best fisheries in the world with gigantic sea brown trout, a steel head and king salmon. People came from all sides to fish.
My task was to take people along the river and show them a good time, I liked being on the river, rowing my boat and meeting all people, the best part was looking at the joy on someone's face when they grew up in big fish ever seen. I once worked at a camp, made some improvements between trips, when I noticed a slight red spot on my ankle, it didn't hurt, it looked like a small pimple, I didn't think I was bitten by a spider, which Chileans called Arana Rincón similar to our brown hermit. I went to bed that night, feeling fine, just tired of the long working day, but when I woke up the next morning, I felt that I had the flu, and the red spot on my leg was much larger. The cooks who worked in the camp, made meals for customers, made me herbal tea and aspirin, it did not help. We were the only three in the camp and were hundreds of miles from any major city.
Worst of all was the weather, which rained non-stop for a week, and it seemed that it would never stop. It seemed that every day was going so slowly, and it became worse and worse for 3 days, and I began to hallucinate. By this time, once a little red spot on my ankle had turned into a big leaky hole in my leg. I assumed that I was bitten by a spider, but was not sure. I had no choice, my only option is to wait for my dad, who would assume to come with the next group of clients in a few days, so I waited. I walked in and from chills and fever I could not sleep at night because I was soaked with sweat and froze. Finally, after 6 days from the day I was bitten, my dad appeared with the group, I can only imagine what I liked, he was accompanied by a local female guide who, seeing my leg, said that I was bitten by Arana Rincon and needed It was soon to get to the hospital. She said that the spider is responsible for the death of a large number of children in this region. My dad and I got into a truck and headed to the nearest airport, which was 5 hours away, and a dirt road, and it was not a very big airport, big enough to land on small support planes that we got there, and agreed to return 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 took me another 16 hours to return to Salt Lake City, my mother picked me up at the airport and took me straight to the hospital. When I got there, mom told them that I was bitten by a South American spider, after the word was similar, everyone who studied everything related to 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 felt good enough to come back home. Even after this experience, I still can’t wait to return to Chile.
But I would have to wait, because in two weeks I was enrolled in the Rangers army.
