We discover that de-mystifying the jungle does not make it less interesting. Traveling back in time as far as the 1500s, we see the Brazilian forest through the eyes of German explorer Hans Staden, held captive by cannibals while a fellow European is roasted and eaten. Moving forward to 1914, still in Brazil, we rifle down monkeys from the canopy with the inimitable Teddy Roosevelt. Then we journey to the Caribbean in 1956 with conservationist Archie Carr, studying with fascination the secret lives of sea turtles. We then share the amusing disillusionment of modern-day explorer Eric Hansen as he witnesses the birth of capitalism and materialism in the remote jungles of Borneo.
Every account offers another facet of rainforests and, equally important, of history.
No matter which facet one looks at, it is clear that the rainforest can never be fully conquered or tamed. Rather than pure Heaven or Hell, this writer offers a symbiosis of the two. Tales from the Jungle allows us to explore this frontier, converting our fear of the jungle to respect, our romance to realism. The integrity of the largest biological corridor in Central America is in serious danger. The new migrants will not find any available land there, but would have to invade the nearby reserve, he explains.