📸 Photo

scraped the scales off the fish with my fingernails and gutted them using a spoon I had sharpened against a stone. I tossed the minnows into the boiling water and added some spices and salt. Three minnows and three quarts of water aren’t exactly a recipe for the most delicious soup in the world. Watery, bland, and disgusting would be a more accurate description, but I drank it down to the last drop, even munching the crunchy bones. I was proud of myself for not having used up any of the rice or beans. I would keep them for an emergency. I no longer thought I was saving them for Kevin, though I did harbour some hopes of meeting up with him in Curiplaya.

The X that Karl had marked on the map appeared to be right on the bank of the Tuichi just past its junction with the Turliamos. I would surely make the camp the following day. I grew impatient. My clothes were completely dry, and the skin on my feet was healthy. Only the flies and mosquitoes pestered me. At the outset of our journey we had taken pills to ward off malaria, but they had long ago run out or been lost, and I hoped I wouldn’t come down with the illness here. The mosquitoes sought out every bare patch of skin showing through my tattered clothing and attacked mercilessly. Since my encounter with the jaguar I was out of repellent and had no defence but swatting them with my hands. The mosquitoes were determined, however, and I gave up first. Then I had an idea. I would sew my