Chemical disinfection. Chemical disinfection is the “nuke” that will destroy any nasties left after filtration. The two most common chemicals are chlorine and iodine. You can find cheap chlorine tablets online or at your local outdoor shop. Iodine is also great, though should be avoided if you have thyroid problems. Both give a specific taste to the water that some people don’t like, so try both before you head out and see which you prefer. The book begins with an extremely creepy and disturbing scene where an anaconda coils around her body as she lies in bed. I have never cared for scenes where an author introduces a sequence which turns out to be a dream. But is it? Later we learn that it may have been a manifestation of the mysticism inherent in native spiritualism which she experienced. Yossi, Kevin, and Karl discuss how they all should proceed. Karl wants to leave the three while he goes and gets help, but Kevin and Yossi disagree with that plan. At this point Marcus walks up, and Kevin proposes building a raft to navigate downriver so all of them can stay together. (This differs from Ghinsberg's actual account, where the four return all the way to Asriamas before deciding to make the raft with the help of the villagers.) Apart from Lily, the story is brimming with interesting and eclectic characters, from For God’s Sake, the crippled riverboat driver, to the “Frannies”, the two missionaries who have settled in the jungle in an effort of converting the tribes to Christianity. There is also Baya, a shaman living alone in the bush and shunned by the villagers, who has a strange affinity to Lily. And because every good adventure story needs some baddies, there are the poachers, out to rape and pillage and strip the jungle of its treasures. In all this, Omar and Lily’s love endures. The next day, the trio meets Karl in a shop while he is gathering supplies for the hike. All three men are surprised when Karl leaves with the supplies and tells them they will pay for everything.

This starts as a slow-paced novel, but gets more thrilling toward the end. It also gets more unrealistic as the story progresses. In addition to the adventure story, there are also moments of magical realism. I wasn’t expecting the magical realism element, but found it enjoyable. For the most part, I liked the story and was rooting for Lily to find her place in the jungle village.My nineteen-year-old self may have found Lily’s story terribly romantic and signed up for the trip. But even living in the land of Oz, were apparently every creature is set to kill you, I could not envisage surviving long in those conditions – and at my age I prefer my own creature comforts too much to envy Lily her great adventure. With good reason, as you will find out when you read this book. This is the story of how hard Lily found the jungle to be! Poachers, Shamans, remote tribes, and killer insects, all seem to be out to get Lily, and she soon has to find the will to toughen up if she wants to call the jungle home.

Yossi is washed away by the river, leaving Kevin behind. Without a knife, tools, or any kind of survival training, Yossi must improvise shelter and forage to survive. He begins to give up hope after losing all sense of direction, wondering if he will survive the jungle. He is alone for at least two weeks, during which time he has several hallucinations regarding his past. INTO THE JUNGLE has evil and deadly creatures, both animal and human, as well as infectious diseases and horrendous weather....with quite a variety of cool and unusual characters. PLEASE NOTE. Seating allocation in certain areas of the venue may be requested but is at the discretion of the restaurant manager on the day of the event.

Tip 2: Look up, look down, look around

Into the Jungle is not a traditional thriller, in that there are no psychopaths running around murdering people in the dark of night. However, Erica Ferencik's novel is just as thrilling but in a totally different way. It is the jungle that presents so many thrills: it is beautiful but at the same time, can completely destroy a person. The animals and plants that Ferencik describes are fascinating in that they have a duality of being beautiful and dangerous. The author completely immerses the reader in the Bolivian jungle, in that I felt like I was there with Lily. Ferencik clearly did her research so that she could create an accurate and complete depiction of the jungle. Some readers may find the descriptions of the jungle and its inhabitants to be long-winded but I enjoyed learning about animals and plants that I knew nothing about before reading this book. Nature becomes a character in this book and it is a character that is absolutely enthralling. The heebie jeebies became much more relative the closer and closer I got to the conclusion, transforming rapidly into pure, unadulterated terror! I'm fairly certain that my heart stopped on more than one occasion, never mind remembering to breathe!