📸 Photo

that there was no hope of spotting you, unless you managed to set the whole jungle ablaze.

‘I was more depressed than ever. The pilot made it clear that this was the last search flight he would take me on.

‘I went to the navy headquarters in Rurrenabaque. It was evident that no effort was being made to find you despite all the promises I had received. The commandante was nice enough, polite, full of good intentions, but he explained to me that the navy could not possibly organise a search party, as it was against regulations to take a boat up the Tuichi. The only other option I had, he said, was to find someone who would accept payment for taking me up the river.

““Do you know of anyone who might be willing?” I asked.

““Come with me,” he said, “quickly.”

‘After a five-minute motorcycle ride we were at the house of Tico, the king of the river.

““Would you take me to San José?” I asked him.

““Sure, I was going there tomorrow anyway,” he told me, “with Father Diego.”

‘I explained to him what had happened. “Would you take me on to Curiplaya?”

““I can take you even farther than Curiplaya,” he declared.

““Up to San Pedro Canyon?”

““Yes, almost. But that’s as far as I can go.”

‘On the morning of the eighteenth day it was pouring rain, and we had to put off leaving for