Manolo and his men expertly produced a filling breakfast and while the Finleys were eating broke camp. As Randall finished his coffee, Manolo’s men doused the fire and packed the final items.
“We are ready to go, Dr. Randall,” smiled Manolo. Manolo loved the jungle and always seemed to have a wide smile on his face.
“Manolo, what would we do without you?” chided Randall. “You are the best!”
Manolo gave a wide grin and turned to his men. After a few short words the crew hoisted their loads and was ready to move.
“Which way we go?” Manolo asked.
Randall checked his map as Dana stood beside him. He looked at his GPS and rechecked the map.
“We go this way, Manolo. We go this way,” said Randall pointing to the northeast.
The troop headed off for another day’s trek.
The Finleys were experts in early Amazonian history and the tribes therein. It was important to them and to Princeton that this expedition be successful. The study of the indigenous tribes led them here; the people, their customs and their artifacts. They knew humans thrived in these ghastly jungles for centuries, but little if anything was known about them. No white man ventured this far back into this part of the jungle. The Finleys felt they were groundbreakers and indeed they were.
While exciting, it also carried huge dangers. Not only the normal dangers of walking through a dangerous, wild jungle thousands of miles from home but also the danger of meeting tribes of natives that may have never seen a white man or, for that matter, a white woman. One’s mind swirled with the images of being captured by natives, enslaved or worse, being killed either via a ritual execution or simply for dinner.
After several hours the troop came to a garden-like open area with a small lake fed by a beautiful waterfall on one end. It was about ten o’clock in the morning but this idyllic setting was too good to pass up.
“Randall, let’s stop for a while. We can bathe and enjoy the water. We haven’t had a bath in weeks and I’m tired of washing myself from a bucket. We have the time.”
Randall could see Dana was clearly enamored with this oasis-like place in the Amazonian jungle. Why not stop at least for a while and enjoy some downtime. They were technically ahead of schedule as if any research expedition could ever be considered ahead of schedule.
“All right,” Randall huffed, acting as though he thought he wanted to keep moving. But the cool, clean water did look very inviting. “We can stop for a few hours but then we need to keep moving.” Inside he was already wondering how the water would feel. “Manolo, let’s stop for lunch and some rest. Tell everyone to just break out what we need but be ready to go again in two hours. I want to make another several miles before we set camp for the night.”
“Yes, Dr. Randall,” answered Manolo. “I get lunch ready too.” He hustled off barking instructions to his men.
There was no stopping Dana. In her excitement she started scouting about the lakeside looking for a secluded place to bathe away from the immediate camp.
Dana Finley didn’t look like the stereotypical university scholar. She was one beautiful lady. At twenty-nine she still held her teenage figure very well. Her once long blonde hair had been cut short for the expedition and made her look even younger than her age. At five feet six inches her athletic build made her a very sexy-looking university professor, and Randall loved it. She possessed the wonderful Scandinavian beauty that came from her parents. Born in Washington State, she and her brother, Dane, grew up in the outdoors. Trekking through the jungles of Brazil came natural to her.
Dana had met Randall when they were freshmen at Princeton. Dana was the demure young lady with enough natural good looks to drive all the guys crazy. Randall was a studious, somewhat shy guy from Chicago. But his love for sports caused a happenstance meeting between the two at one of Randall’s Kappa Sigma frat parties. He invited her to come to one of his lacrosse games and they had been together ever since.
Even though Randall spent many, many days and nights in Princeton’s libraries it never stopped him from playing the sports he loved. He excelled at baseball, basketball and lacrosse in high school but concentrated on lacrosse at Princeton. He played for Princeton all four years of his undergraduate time. He also played freshman baseball but gave it up due to the sheer number of games each season. His six foot one lean frame showed his love and dedication to sports even though he had little time to participate over the past two years. But he kept fit at the gym and by running each day. The Finleys could have been a cover couple on any fitness magazine.
Randall saw that Manolo had everything in hand so he decided to follow Dana. He walked about forty yards from the camp where he found her standing barefoot in her underwear on a small sandy beach on the lake. She was struggling with the back catch on her bra.
“Need some help there, lady?” he called, startling Dana, who turned seemingly ready to pounce. He grinned and stepped back, throwing up his hands in defense. “Whoa, who’d you expect? Who can find us out here?”
“Isn’t this fabulous?” she asked excitedly as her startled look turned to glee. Randall stepped behind her and unsnapped her bra. “I can’t wait to get into this water,” she said, dropping her bra on a small bush and using her thumbs to pull her panties to the ground. She flicked them over to the same bush and stepped into the water up to her ankles. She turned. “You are coming in, aren’t you?” she asked.
He stood there marveling at her. She was beautiful. She looked like she had not aged a week since their marriage. She looked so happy… and so naked! He felt himself getting excited.
“Hell, yeah, I’m coming in,” he cried as he began to shuck off first his boots, his shirt and then his pants. He hesitated a second, realizing he was out in the wild jungle, and then dropped his shorts, hanging them on Dana’s clothing bush.
Dana was now in the water, waist deep. “Ooohh, looks like somebody’s getting a bit excited,” she cooed. “C’mon in, big guy. The water’s nice and cool.” She slowly sank down to her neck.
“See any piranha?” Randall asked just to pick at her.
“What! You mean there are piranhas in here?” she gasped, popping up out of the water like a cork, her small white breasts heaving.
“Just kidding,” Randall laughed, although the sight of her naked in the water did have him wanting to steal her away into the bushes. “They usually inhabit the rivers where there’s more food, not these smaller ponds.”
“Damn you. Get your ass in here and quit scaring me.”
The water did feel fine. Neither had bathed properly in over two weeks. A bath was a washcloth and a bucket of water. This was a real treat! About fifty yards away, they heard several big splashes and laughing. It sounded like Manolo and his guys were enjoying the water as well.
Dana and Randall swam around for about thirty minutes; half cleaning, half playing in the water. Both were giggling and playing like two kids. Sometimes the jungle was great!
They both helped each other out of the water, clearly refreshed.
“I see shrinkage,” she giggled as she noticed Randall coming out of the water.
“Oh, and I see little miss iron nipples,” joked Randall, reaching over and tweaking Dana’s hard left nipple. They continued to giggle and laugh as they redressed and returned to the campsite. The simple swim did wonders for both of them. They were refreshed and ready to tackle the jungle again. The rest of the group had returned from their swim and were busy setting out lunch.
Manolo was smiling ear to ear. “This water is very fine; yes, Dr. Randall?”