October 15th, 2010

I would apologize for the delay, but I spent all yesterday in a valley and we’re too far away from the city at this point to have much of a chance at reception. I’ve been sticking with Adamson just like you asked and so I’ve been slogging through the jungle. Away from the ocean it’s like a whole different world. It’s hotter, or it seems to be, and everything drips even on days it doesn’t rain.

The bugs crawl over everything.  I find them in my shoes, clothes, and bedding every morning, even though I keep everything under my fine mesh net. The more miserable I get, the happier Adamson seems to be. I don’t know if he’s delighting in my suffering or just enjoying the journey. My money’s on the former. You never know though.

Here is a mostly accurate transcription of what we’re looking for. My notepad got wet as I was writing and we were moving through the undergrowth the whole time, so I couldn’t even read everything I’d written

“The thing you’ve got to realize, my man, is that all life is connected. That’s not the right word. Intertwined. That’s why I chose this place. There are obvious gaps in the ecosystem that current taxonomy can’t explain.”

“So you’re saying that you specifically targeted this area? What are you looking for?”
“I’m not sure, but there are definite gaps in the food chain. A lack of large predators in the area. At least documented ones.”

“What are the possibilities?”

“We’re too far south to be in the normal range of the chucacabra, but I did a projection a few years back based on shifts in oceanic wind patterns that suggest they could easily make it down into the Amazon.”

At this point I was so winded from the hike that it was actually easy to hold back snide comments. Half of the next few notes were illegible, so I’ll summarize. He was also looking into the potential for either a giant anaconda or a couatl, which is some kind of flying snake with feathers. He based these ‘hypotheses’ on the lack of prey carcasses in the area. Of course that couldn’t have anything to do with the already noted lack of predators

I don’t know the next time I’ll be in range to send you an email. I had to send this three times before it went through. From now on I’ll try letters. Just thinking about it makes me feel a bit more like an explorer.

José