Tahir's Notes

HOUSE OF THE TIGER KING was a journey into and an obsession of one of the bleakest, most magical and dangerous jungles on Earth. There were dark times on that trip, extreme darkness, but beyond that there was a sense that I and my crew were challenged like never before.

The project was characteristic for me in that it wasn't about giving more than a passing thought to the book I might write at the end of it. Indeed, like so many other quests on which I have embarked, I never really thought about writing it up. When you are shaking each night from dengue fever, the skin on your feet rotted away, and worns boring out from the soft skin of the inner thighs, the idea of a comfortable writing room is a luxury.

My quest for the lost city of Paititi was about keeping myself going, and keeping my men with me. It was a tortuous journey, and one that almost broke us all. I learned that there are far more important things in life than attaining a meaningless prize. I learned humility, that we are all human, and that there is very letter difference between a Machiguenga warrior and someone from our world. More that that, I discovered -- as Pancho says -- there is no reason to strive for a lost city... a place without people, a sloughed huddle of broken homes... the real meaning of a city is in the life people bring to it.

I long since left the jungle, but a day doesn't go buy on which i think of Hector, Pancho and the others. I think of them, hope for them, and try to imagine what they are doing an this very moment.