On the Banks of the Amazon

A young boy’s voice carries us through the sun‑warmed streets of Quito, where fountains splash beside arches of burnt brick and the Andes loom like ancient guardians. He watches volcanoes such as Pichincha and Cotopaxi belch fire and ash, feeling both fear and wonder at the restless earth beneath his city. The towering peaks—Chimborazo, Tungurahua, Antisana— become the backdrop for his childhood imagination, each summit a promise of a world beyond the courtyard games he knows.

His family is a tapestry of cultures: an English merchant father, a mother with Spanish and Inca blood, and a household that balances Protestant convictions with Catholic outwardness. This blend of identities and the bustling trade routes of the Andes set the stage for a restless curiosity that will soon pull him toward the great river winding through the continent. As the mountains roar and the city sways with the tremors of the earth, the narrator begins to sense that his own journey may lead far beyond the highlands, toward the mysterious banks of the Amazon.