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Back Jungle Up Save as PDF
Chapters (63)
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  63. Author’s Note

Randle, whom I gave my grandfather’s farm to, sent me videos of Harold and May from time to time. Both pigs were now over two hundred pounds, and Randle’s twin daughters treated them like royalty.

“How old is she?” I asked Diego.

“A little over year. I was guiding tour six months ago, and I find her on the ground. She had broken leg.” He lifted one of her small legs and said, “She was in cast for two months.”

Camila inched her head closer my way, as if she knew we were talking about her, then lifted one of her arms from around Diego’s neck and timidly moved it to my left shoulder. She had three little claws coming out of each of her hands and feet, which appeared sharp, though I could hardly feel them. Ever so gently, she eased her way off Diego and onto me. She was surprisingly light and couldn’t have weighed more than five or six pounds. She swiveled her head and stared at me, her large brown eyes unblinking.

“Hello, Camila,” I said softly.

She studied my face with a wry grin of amusement.

I bounced her gently and said, “You are such a pretty girl.” This came out in the high-pitched baby talk that before I had a nephew would make my ears bleed but which now I could do little to control. “You are so beautiful. Yes, you are!”

I could see Diego in my peripheral, fighting back a smile.

“Is she your pet?” I asked him.

“No, no pet,” Diego said with a violent shake of his head. “She belong in the jungle with other sloth.”

He explained that he was planning on reintroducing her to the jungle in the next few months. He brought her along because this was the perfect opportunity to expose her to her natural environment. And maybe see how she reacted if she saw another sloth in the wild.

I wasn’t sure if this particular rescue mission was the ideal opportunity for a wildlife experiment, but I already adored her, and I would do anything for her.

“Here,” Diego said, handing me a plastic bag filled with pink flowers. “Hibiscus flowers are her favorite.”

I pulled one of the red flowers from the bag and held it out. Camila took it in her claws and slowly pushed it into her mouth, then, like someone savoring their last bite of cheesecake, she leisurely chewed and chewed and chewed. Finally, her eyes rolling upward in delight, she swallowed.

12

12

guayaramerín
august 14, 11:36 a.m.
expedition: day 1

“That’s Brazil on the other side of the river,” Nathan Buxton said, sidling up to Andy at the edge of the airstrip and adjusting the wire-frame glasses on his nose.