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I carried. Ultimately we travelled through ten similar communities. Never had a gringo lived in any of them.

Back in Azángaro I sought out the local priest, who ministers to all sixty-eight communities in the province of Azángaro. He had never encountered a foreigner in residence nor heard of hermits living alone in the mountains.

Karl and Marcus's disappearance remains a mystery. It is difficult to imagine what could have become of them. Karl was tough and strong and knew how to take care of himself in the jungle. He could have survived even without food and equipment. He had had a shotgun, which made it almost unthinkable that they had fallen prey to jaguars or wild boars. The village of Ipurama was only four days' walk from the point where they'd set out. Kevin had been back and forth over the route without finding a trace of them. What had become of them?

I can think of two possibilities. One is that Karl might have been seriously injured, perhaps in a fall. Marcus, who had been ill, thin, and down-hearted, would never have made it out of the jungle on his own. The other possibility is falling trees. On rainy nights, as I had seen, trees uproot themselves and topple over, taking other trees with them. A tree could have fallen on their campsite, crushing them as they slept. To this day the mystery remains.