by Paul Rosolie
Most people see the jungle as frightening, but I assure you, as a first-time writer the world of publishing seems far more intimidating. Personally, the process has been a wonderful adventure, which is entirely due to the good fortune of having worked with some truly incredible people. For her care, compassion, and support—and for essential, technical help at the proposal—I must thank Linda Carbone. I am awed by my agent, Lindsay Edgecombe, whose renaissance abilities, energy, and dedication to the success of this book at every stage were invaluable. I must thank HarperCollins for believing in this book, especially my fellow outdoorsman and very talented editor, Michael Signorelli, whose care, skill, and understanding helped shape this book into what it’s become.
If it were not for the visionary people who were protecting wildlife and ecosystems long before I was born, an adventure like the one I had would not have been possible. I have written about many of my heroes in this book but in particular must thank Charles Munn, Celestino Kalinowsky, Daniel Winitzky, and the people of WWF, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Conservation International. Also, I thank the people of Peru for the work they have done in the Madre de Dios and abroad. I am indebted to Steve Irwin for his incredible enthusiasm, passion, and skill—which I carefully studied and applied to my own animal interactions, and which has saved my life many times over. To Alan Rabinowitz for making such an impact on this world and on the species I love. To Jeremy Hance and the people at Mongabay.com, who actually report on things that matter, and who have shown such generous support for my work, thank you. A great thank-you to Bill McKibben for the books that I have read and reread, and for going out on a limb for me at a critical hour, when this book was in its infancy. Thank you to Dr. Jane Goodall for the stories my mother read me as a child, and for your kind words of support during the journey of this book.
I must thank JJ and Pico, Santiago and the entire Durand family, for welcoming me and making my relationship with the jungle possible. Yet, above all, my gratitude goes to the Amazon and the creatures within the forest, for allowing me a brilliant dalliance with their world, for shaping my life, and for permitting me to walk in its most removed and shadowed depths.
To my wife, Gowri, for her patience and support, her incredible courage, for more than I could write.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Davis, Wade. One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. New York: Vintage 2010.
Hemming, John. Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon. London: Thames & Hudson, 2009.
London, Mark, and Brian Kelly. The Last Forest: The Amazon in the Age of Globalization. New York: Random House, 2007.
MacQuarrie, Kim. Peru’s Amazonian Eden: Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve. Barcelona: Francis O. Patthey, 1998.
———. Where the Andes Meet theAmazon: Peru & Bolivia’s Bahuaja Sonene & Madidi National Parks. [Spain]: Jordi Blassi, 2001.
McMichael, C. H., et al. “Sparse Pre-Columbian Human Habitation in Western Amazonia.” Science 336, no. 6087 (June 15, 2012): 1429–31.
Mother Nature Network. “Fact or fiction? 7 Eco-Myths Debunked.” http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/photos/fact-or-fiction-7-eco-myths-debunked/the-rain-forest-is-a-nat#.
Pearce, Fred. Deep Jungle. London: Transworld, 2005.
Reuters. “Argentine Zookeeper Dies After Anteater Attack.” April 12, 2007. http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/04/12/us-argentina-anteater-idUSN1235848120070412.
Revkin, Andrew C. “Murder on the Resource Frontier.” New York Times, March 17, 2008. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/murder-on-the-resource-frontier/?_r=0.
Schulte-Herbruggen, Bjorn. Project Las Piedras. 2003. http://www.savemonkeys.org/publications/report02.pdf.
Stewart, Douglas Ian. After the Trees: Living on the Transamazon Highway. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
As I send in the final edits for Mother of God, I find it exhilarating to have finished a project that has dominated the past four years of my life. Yet as this book ends, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that the story of the Madre de Dios is only beginning.
In the Madre de Dios, ensuring that protected land remains so is a full-time job; and on Las Piedras, we are only just beginning to make real strides. While we fight to improve the research station, unite landowners, and create a community of river guardians, we are forever in need of support, funding, and friends. If you would like to learn more about our current progress or how you can help or join our efforts in the Madre de Dios, visit www.TamanduaJungle.com and click on JungleKeepers.
PHOTO INSERT
All photographs courtesy of the author unless otherwise noted.
The snow-capped Andes abutting lowland tropical rainforest. (Renata Leite Pittman)
First views of the Las Piedras River.
An indigenous community on the banks of Las Piedras.
The main deck of the Las Piedras Biodiversity Station.
My first moments with Lulu.
Field notes: walking through the forest with my anteater.
Hammock view of an anteater’s afternoon nap.
JJ pulling the boat past a waterfall, giving careful instructions all the while.
Pico, the mad motorista, with his cane, rifle, and signature smile.
The infection: After seeing my face, I was sure I was dying.
Peccary heads, macaws, spider monkeys, and many other forest wildlife were found dead in the hands of poachers.
The seemingly endless La Torre winding through the surrounding Bahuaja-Sonene National Park.
JJ and me with a heavy female anaconda.
Despite their fearsome reputation, anacondas are quite docile when they do not feel threatened. In this video still, a healthy fifteen-foot female allows me to inspect her.
Field notes: a diagram of the floating forest.
A rough map of the Madre de Dios. Protected areas are outlined in green, and stars mark places of note. From top to bottom: Las Piedras Station, Infierno, La Torre.
Field notes: the mother of them all. On our first night out in the floating forest, JJ and I encounter a massive female anaconda.
Burnt wreckage in the wake of the Trans-Amazon Highway’s creep toward Las Piedras.
The highway grants loggers easy access to the untouched forests of old-growth timber.
The skull of a howler monkey adorned with macaw feathers, in Santiago’s hut. It was there that I first learned of the floating forest, the Western Gate, and the legendary anaconda with horns.
While I was lost in the maze-like swamp, the jaguar came within inches of me in the night—close enough that her breath warmed my ear.
A fourteen-foot female anaconda constricting a peccary. (Gowri Varanashi-Rosolie)
The sweeping bulk of the Tambopata River. (Tom White)
An angry female anaconda twists and turns, throwing Gowri, JJ, and me around as we attempt to measure her. You can see her sinking a few teeth into my elbow.
Gowri’s first time at Las Piedras.
The skull of a black caiman.
Macaws, parrots, and other animals regularly visit the colpa located in Las Piedras.
Video still: a small tributary several days’ journey beyond the Western Gate.
Beyond the Western Gate, alone, in the deepest jungle on earth.
Field notes: seven people versus one anaconda in the floating forest. The giant took us down.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Rosolie is a naturalist and explorer who runs Tamandua Expeditions, which uses tourism to support rainforest conservation. He has worked on conservation projects in tropical ecosystems around the world. His documentary, An Unseen World, won the short film contest at the 2013 United Nations Forum on Forests. Mother of God is his first book.
www.PaulRosolie.com
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CREDITS
Cover design by Oliver Munday
Cover photograph © Nature’s Images/Getty Images
COPYRIGHT
MOTHER OF GOD. Copyright © 2014 by Paul Rosolie. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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* Later on I would learn that it is common knowledge among some people that the iron and other properties in Amazonian trees can render a compass completely useless.
* Although many voluntarily isolated indigenous tribes do use various types of watercraft, usually burn-hollowed logs, the tribes in the Madre de Dios seem not to do so. In the dozens of personal accounts I have noted over the years, no one who has seen the tribes has ever observed them with a canoe or boat.