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‘I’ll be at the hotel at six. Put my offer to them, and you’ll see that you won’t be disappointed.’

He held out a warm hand. I shook his hand without looking him in the eye.

I met Kevin and Marcus that afternoon in the hotel.

‘We’ll pay him!’ Kevin said before I even had a chance to bring up my own idea of going without Karl. ‘How much is six thousand bolivianos? One hundred and fifty dollars. Fifty bucks apiece for a guide for a month. He can be a big help to us. There’s an advantage for us in it too. This way we don’t have to follow along wherever he goes; we can decide on the route ourselves and go where we want. We’ll plan a nice trip down a river, and he’ll be our guide and take us wherever we want.’

After some consideration I agreed with Kevin. Marcus also thought this could be for the best.

Karl was on time this time, and we explained to him that we wanted to take a route through the real jungle; wilderness, wild animals, birds, savage Indians, and of course rafting down one of the rivers. Karl looked at the map and made an alternate suggestion. We could fly as planned to Apolo, which was the farthest point accessible by plane. From there we would have a two-day hike to the village of Asriamas. That was, in fact, the entry to the jungle, the last settlement. From there it would be about a six-day walk to the Toromonas Indian village. That would be a real