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I’m taking a flight tomorrow from La Paz to Apolo with three other guys: Kevin Gale, age twenty-nine, American. Marcus Stamm, age twenty-eight, Swiss. Karl Ruchprecter, age about thirty-five, Austrian.

The American and Swiss guys are very good friends of mine. The Austrian is a geologist. He has been working in Bolivia for the past nine years looking for gold and uranium and other precious metals in the jungle. He is coming with us as our paid guide. He has an uncle with a ranch in Bolivia. The uncle’s name is Josef Ruchprecter, and his address is Santa Rosa Ranch, El Progreso, Reyes, Beni.

From Apolo we will walk to a village called Asriamas on the Tuichi River . . .

I am planning to fly from Riberalta, the last place on our route, back to La Paz and take a train and buses from there to Uncle Nello in São Paulo. If I haven’t called home by the first week in January, something has happened to me.

I’m sure that everything will go right, and there’s nothing to worry about. I’m being somewhat melodramatic but wanted you to know all the details just in case. Tell Mom and Dad that I’ve gone to some little island or village up in the mountains for a month. Try to think of something that won’t worry