had exchanged thoughts with a (gentle) manatee and a (grumpy) giant otter and had had a shocking conversation with an electric eel, whose thoughts zapped and jolted about so fast Evie got a headache. They had:
• visited a nature reserve known as the ‘Jungle of Mirrors’ where the backwaters were so still that they could see their reflections;
• spotted a three-toed sloth in the trees and Evie had mind-chatted sleepily with her;
• met more species of monkeys and birds than even Evie had known existed;
• and finally caught a glimpse of a deadly-looking jaguar between the trees.
The glimpse of the jaguar had been far too short for Evie’s liking, and she hadn’t been able to pick up on its thoughts.
‘I’d love to be face to face with a jaguar,’ Evie said.
Her dad went pale. ‘Maybe we could get a cat when we get home,’ he said. ‘A nice small cat. I mean, cats are cats. I’m sure Scruff wouldn’t mind.’
‘He would mind. He thinks cats are evil. He thinks cats are in a plot to take over the world and then make dogs their slaves. And anyway, I would love to talk with a jaguar.’
‘Jaguars are killers,’ her dad said.
‘But, Dad, so are humans. I mean, technically. And you’re a human and I still talk to you.’
‘Yes. But unlike a jaguar, I’m not going to bite your head off. Even if I got really angry.’
Evie sighed. ‘Dad, that’s prejudiced. Jaguars rarely kill humans.’
Her dad decided to change the subject. ‘Shall we look for some pink river dolphins?’
‘Sure,’ said Evie. ‘It’s a shame we haven’t seen any yet.’
‘There is still time!’ said Gerry, a friendly, twinkly-eyed American man with wild grey hair, who was one of the few other passengers on board the boat.
‘Oh yes,’ said his red-cheeked wife, Barbara, looking through her binoculars across the river. ‘We should hopefully see them as we get closer to Iquitos City.’
Iquitos City. Their final destination.
It is the largest city in the world that you can’t get to by road. You either have to fly there, or get a boat.
The riverboat was captained by a hairy man called Ernesto who drank and passed around a lot of bottles of Inca Kola, a local soft drink – a sweet, slightly sickly liquid that Evie thought tasted like melted ice cream. She liked it and she also liked the food. They had stopped at a hut beside the river that sold something called tacu tacu, a kind of fried dumpling that was sticky and totally yummy.
As Evie bit into the tacu tacu, and wondered why they weren’t sold all over the world, they set sail again. She leant over the side of the boat, looking for amazing river creatures to chat with, in the hope of seeing a pink river dolphin.
The jungle was incredible. The vast, wide brown-green river. The rubber trees lining its banks. The parrots flying overhead. The buzz of insects and the distant squawks and squeals of unseen animals far away in the trees. It felt like life itself.
There were some sad sights along the way, though, as they got a bit closer to Iquitos City. Evie saw stretches of empty dead land where the forest had been destroyed. She saw smoke rising above the jungle where developers had set fire to the trees in order to clear the land.
‘Isn’t it terrible,’ sighed Barbara, ‘what people are doing to this place?’
And then it happened.
Right there, in that moment of sadness.
Gerry pointed to the river. ‘Look! In the water! Just below the surface!’
And Evie saw it. A rising pinkness.
Could it be? Could it possibly be?
Yes.
‘A dolphin!’
Evie quickly realised there wasn’t just one dolphin.
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