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me buoyant. I had taken off my shoes and filled them with wood chips and tied them to my belt. The river was extremely hazardous, and whenever I came to a section where it was possible to walk on dry ground, I got the hell out of it.

‘After a few hours I came to a place where the sides of the river were sheer rock faces and the water was frothy. It looked terribly dangerous, so I decided to climb. I had spent about two hours working my way up the cliff when I came upon a heap of feathers next to a large dead parrot. I touched it; it was still warm. It had been killed just that moment, and I wondered if I could bring myself to eat it raw. I tied it to my belt and started walking. Suddenly an enormous falcon rose up off a nearby boulder and took flight. We looked right at each other. It was angry that I had stolen its prey.

“Thanks for the meal, pal. I may be a thief, but I need it more than you do.”

‘Every time I came to a brook that trickled down to the river, I followed it to see if there was any sign of you. Then I had another surprise: four dry balsa logs. I still hadn’t seen the island and the little shore that Karl had told us about, however, so I didn’t think there was any point in building a raft, since I must still be upriver from the mal paso.

‘I stopped for lunch at noon. I chopped off the parrot’s head with the machete, tore its beak out, and took a bite. I cracked its skull open and sucked