Gran Paititi, the city of the celestial jaguar, was one of the El Dorado myths that lured first the Incas then bands of Spanish conquistadors to the swampy plains and rainforests of Northern Bolivia in search of gold. Neither group were successful. Once they had navigated the raging rivers that poured out of the Andes and trekked through the unforgiving terrain they were then finished off by the warriors of the Moxos people who inhabited the lowlands. By the time Jesuit missionaries finally reached the area, Paititi was no longer to be found. Smallpox had ravaged the Moxos. Their cities had eroded back into the mud they were built from.
This summer, Simon will be searching for Paititi. Travelling by canoe, on foot and horseback, he will be crossing the pampa to Lake Rogaguardo, said to be the location of the Moxos city, where he hopes to find the temple mounds that are said still to dot the area.
The plan is to follow the 1923 route of Leo Parcus a German army officer who, after fighting in the First World War, was determined to find 'wild' Indians while they still existed. The account of his journey is a 'boys own' adventure of encounters with jaguars, hostile Indians and crocodiles that bit his guide in half when they tried to land on the shore of Lake Rogaguardo.
With Irgen Janco, a Tacana Indian guide, and Julian Singleton, an experienced jungle explorer, this trip will be in the spirit of the early explorers like Parcus; a journey through grassland, swamps and rainforests across one of the last savannah wildernesses of South America. One of the main objectives is to observe and track jaguars in the wild.
Simon will be in contact with Knowsley with a satellite phone. Each day during the summer school he will ring in with his map co-ordinates so his progress can be followed on the large scale maps in the classrooms. He will also leave a short voicemail message recounting his adventures and any jaguar sightings!
Simon Chapman (39) teaches Physics in a High School in Lancaster and makes jungle expeditions whenever he can. His travels have taken him to tropical forests all over the world, from Borneo and Irian Jaya to the Amazon. The story of his explorations with a folding canoe in the Bolivian rainforest, 'The Monster of the Madidi' has been published by the Aurum Press (hardback, March 2001; paperback, March 2002). Egmont Childrens Books have commissioned him to write and illustrate four children's books about different types of exploration; these will be published in 2003.
He has also had numerous articles and illustrations published in magazines and newspapers in Britain and the US, including The Independent on Sunday (The Lost World; 9 Sept 2001), BBC Wildlife and Wanderlust, has written and recorded for BBC Radio 4 and lectured on the organisation of jungle expeditions at the Royal Geographical Society, of which he is a fellow.
He lives with his wife and his two young children in Lancaster.
