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

Diego swatted away at the ants with a large palm frond until, after a long minute, I was finally clear.

20

20

jungle
august 16, 6:42 a.m.
expedition: day 3

A quick but angry storm had blown in during the middle of the night, and Andy had awakened to heavy drops splattering against his tent. The storm only lasted a short five minutes, but it unloaded enough rain to raise the river by nearly eight inches.

The previous day, after listening to Farah’s recounting of the temple she’d found, it had been agreed the expedition team would head back to the ruins at the break of dawn.

Andy’s alarm had awoken him at 6:15 a.m., and he’d been the last to arrive at the main camp. Everyone else was already there and most had already eaten. Andy had wolfed down two tortillas slathered with copious amounts of Nutella and slugged back a cup of coffee. Now, minutes later, he was standing at the edge of the river.

The sun had been awake for close to ten minutes, but little of its light found its way to the forest floor. If not for the headlamp on Andy’s head, it would have been nearly impossible for him to see the ropes that Holland and Rix had set up.

Andy reached out and grasped the thick paracord. He held tightly to it as he shimmied through the now foot-and-a-half-deep water.

The water swept swiftly just below Andy’s knees as he took the final few steps through the river. He released the paracord, then grasped Rix’s outstretched hand. Rix pulled him out of the water and onto the muddy embankment. The bank was slippery, and Andy pulled himself up the slope with the help of small trees rooted in the soft earth.

The others were waiting at the top of the embankment. Nathan Buxton and Alejándro Cala helped Andy up the last few feet. Like Andy, everyone wore a headlamp, and together they illuminated a five-meter swatch of jungle.

“I’m going,” Farah said loudly.

“Just wait another minute,” Roth said. “We almost have everyone.”

Andy glanced back over his shoulder and watched the Roth’s production assistant, Libby, maneuver her way through the water. Holland waited until she had successfully crossed, then he traversed the river in four quick jumps and scampered up the muddy incline like it was a mall escalator.

“Alright,” Holland said. “Let’s rock and roll.”

The hike took a bit longer than it had the previous day because of the muddy conditions. At one point, Bernita Capobianco, the Bolivian anthropologist, fell into a small sinkhole. It took both Rix and Holland to pull her out of the thick mud.

By 7:00 a.m., there was enough light sifting through the canopy that their headlamps were no longer needed. Andy flipped his headlamp off, and seconds later, Roth said, “Alright, coming up on the edge of the city.”