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I have to say, I’ve been looking forward to this reading more and more since we began. It wasn’t that I was anticipating not liking the book, but at first it definitely felt more like a “gotta check this off” kind of thing I’d then immediately forget about when I was done. But ever since we got to the Amazon, things have been great; lots of fun characters, a really cool setting. And now we get confirmation of the mysticism mentioned in a previous chapter, with Alex communing with the jaguar. Very neat stuff; I love fantasy, and I was really hoping this would at least dip into the fantastical side of things in a concrete way, instead of “wow, the Amazon sure is mysterious, huh”. I hope this spirit animal business is used in a really cool way!
And now I’m really curious what La Bestia really is…
Enjoyed this week’s chapter. Enjoying the emergence of the magical realism/fantasy elements.
Some lovely Spanish words in the chapter this week, like inexpugnable and azabache. Who knew that medusa in Spanish meant jellyfish!
I don’t like Mauro CarĂas and his interaction with Nadia made my skin crawl. I do like his campamento de remolques, I would appreciate a bit of luxury in the jungle! I also loved the urban legend of his chickens finding gold in the jungle.
Beautiful scene with Alex and the jaguar. No idea what is going on. Six moons? Another world? Loved the connection between the two as he discovered his totem animal. But so so sad when the jaguar was killed seconds later.
I googled garimpeiros and came across this BBC article, which defines them as “illegal gold miners”.
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