In the remote Mayan jungle, I learned an ancient secret of how to combat attacking insects and I am going to share it with you!

Mosquitoes and sandflies (nature's vampires) sucking all of your blood out of your body? Not anymore!
Let me share with you some traditional wisdom I learned under the vast canopy of trees, when I was living in Central America, studying plant medicine for over a year.

First, I'll start off with a story, if that’s OK with you (you know me- I just love telling you wild tales of my travels!) ;)

If you’d just like to know the recipe, skip down and you’ll find it waiting for you (but the story is the best part!)

I am dipping into an unshared chapter of my travel series I started "Confessions of a Vagabond" before finishing my run in with Dominican Republic however, fear not! This is just to get your toes wet. This is only one small (very important) part of my journey.

Without further ado here it goes:

In 2014, I decided to move to Belize, Central America and fully committed to it. I sold all of my belongings and I took off for the South. At the time I was filled with vigor, a strong sense of environmentalism and an insatiable desire to learn plant medicine.

I found myself situated in what seemed to be a great arrangement (more on that later), I was happily telling friends and family about my newfound success in life and everything was falling into place for me.

There was a really big problem however- I was getting attacked by bugs and my skin was turning to itchy, red dots everywhere.

Itchy doesn't work for me because I am an itcher. I itch and I scratch until I am left with big nasty scars. Given that the sand-flea or "no-see-ums" (as they were called there) were unruly and feating off of my skin and blood... I was getting discouraged about living there for fear that I would be only bones in not too long of time!

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At this time, I was having to decide between covering up my body and sweating like I was sitting in a sauna on full blast in a snowsuit...ohhhh even the sweat was sweaty...gross... orrr I could have my skin slowly but surely ripped from my bones my the tiny invisible insects that were preying on me like they would never have another dinner.

What would you choose?

Desperate, I began my search for a natural way to defend myself against the blood sucking demons which eventually lead me to what you might call a 'shaman' though, she would prefer to be called a 'medicine woman' or a 'traditional healer'

Through my exchanges with her, she found a solution to be quite simple. She told me:

If you eat fresh chillies grown from the climate, the Earth, the soil around you... the spice would mix into your bloodstream and as such, your blood would become one with the environment. Then, the bugs would no longer suss you out as 'fresh meat', as you would be emitting the local scents from your pores and so they would know you and leave you alone.

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Through further conversation with her, it seemed to me that through eating their spices, your body could acclimate to the environment, granting you a kind of local status with the climate around you.

This was fascinating to me and of course I was willing to do whatever it took so I got myself a couple of bottles of hot sauce that she suggested from a company in town and I began dousing everything I ate with it.

The way I understood it was the 'hotter' my blood was, the less 'sweet' it would be and my problem at that time was that I had what all of the locals referred to as 'sweet blood.' I was getting completely ransacked by bites and I need you to understand these bites were not kind of itchy, they were peel my own arm off itchy! I was ripping my own skin off trying to make the irritation go away.

So I began making my way through the levels of 'hot' in the sauce collection. It didn't take me long to max out as I was determined as hell fire to get the pests to stop pestering me! On almost every table in every restaurant, the famous brand of hot sauce sits for you to jump on your food. I found myself asking for the secret stash, the good-good, the hot-fire that was always behind the counter out of unsuspecting and untrained tourists' reach.

I would always be met with a scoff, a 'you-can't-handle-the-heat' type of conversation and then a quick retraction and slap on the back, high five and applause for my new party trick. Not too many people can put down the kind of heat I was drenching my poor tongue in but I was making it happen. All for the sake of my sanity- surely those bites were going to cause me to lose my mind.

Guess what? It WORKED!

I have always been a teeter-totter on anything that seems weird, strange, out of the ordinary... one half of me rejects it and will research it to the highest mountain and back before believing anything but the other half... the other half loves a bit of the unknown.

When she first told me that eating chillies would save me from my imminent death by insect-vampirism, I didn't believe her but now, look at me, my blood so hot, nothing would want to eat it and I was feeling like a million bucks.

The other part about this was that I was no longer so bothered by heat (probably because my insides were burning lava.) Of course she wasn't surprised when I told her the good news! Just another secret the Earth has to offer us.

Given that this was so effective, I have created a bit of Mayan inspired dish using chillies and hot as hell sauce to keep the skeeters at bay, especially since it's summer back in North America and I know that's when they are out for battle.

Try this recipe out to drench your blood in fire, rejecting anything from wanting anything to do with it ;) Don't forget the garlic! It'll serve as multi-purpose because, you know, vampires ;)

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Ideally you want to collect peppers fresh from the garden or get them from a local gardener!

(Locally grown peppers= more effective! Grocery stores' ingredients are often imported, though any pepper would be better than no pepper!)

• Peppers (your choice of how hot- mine are really intense so I have used 3 for a 2 person meal)
• 1 onion
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 handful of shallots
• 1 bunch spring onion
• Coconut oil
• 7 small tomatoes
• 1 package of mushrooms
• 1 cup of cooked beans (I used 5 color beans which I soaked the night before and boiled after to prepare for making this!)
• 1 piece of firm tofu (did I tell you that vegans/vegetarians get bit less?)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)
• Cayenne (or local crushed peppers)

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Let's get you armed against your insect enemies, shall we?

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Get your garlic, onion, shallots, spring onions, peppers and spices (I am using salt and pepper) and fry up in coconut oil for a few minutes to let the flavours combine.

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Blend your tomatoes until they become liquid-like and add them into our potent mixture!

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Let that all sizzle together for a couple of minutes then turn down heat, let simmer and cover! We want that heat to permeate the whole concoction. This is medicine after all!

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Now, we want to add in some beans as this is a Mayan inspired dish, it wouldn't be reasonable to have it without beans!

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Stir the beans into the mix, cover and let simmer.

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Next, put some coconut oil in a pan and take your tofu, mushrooms, shallots, salt, pepper and cayenne and add them in! I have some crushed cayenne that was made here by my local farmers...
I was going to shake some over the pan but I tried to snap a picture of the process and 'whoops!'

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A LOT (I mean A LOT) more came out than I meant! I thought about taking some out but I have a pretty fierce tolerance (now) for fire so I decided to commit to it! (Wish me luck, we already have peppers in the sauce!)

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The air was choking with HOT! My eyes were burning, nose twitching, my throat kept getting clogged and I was very fearful that this was going to be way out of my league spicy! So I made a side of spicy almond cheeze! Wait... why did I make it spicy as well? Habits...

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Here we are! A recipe built to fend off critter annoyance! May your blood become one with the pepper!

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Yeah... that would have to be described as slightly more than spicy. Wooo-ey! I'm positive they are going to stay away now!

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This recipe is just something I whipped up (that's yummy-in-the-tummy) as a way to get peppers into my system.

This recipe exactly to form is not necessary, eating the peppers raw (which I do often), or in any other dish is perfectly acceptable, the story is the key component here! I hope you decided to read it! ;)

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During my time in Belize and Guatemala, I learned much more in those jungles that I am excited to share with you in future posts so if you liked this one stay tuned ;) I hope this helps you stay clear of unwanted itches and that you have enjoyed the cultural walk we went on ;)

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As always, sending you love through food and wild, crazy, exotic experiences!

I have seen and as such, I believe we can achieve amazing things through our diets- this is a great example of just that! Check out my blog for more travel stories, healthy recipes and inspiration from around the globe! I hope to see you around and am looking forward to connecting with you in the comments below! =D

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XO,

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