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Two years ago guards at a ranger station asked a passing boat of community members if they would like a baby peccary. They said sure, brought the baby to the community (four families) to let it wander, live and grow in their midst. Along comes me and a three week trek. On day two my group left the community destined for the foothills of the Chepite mountain range. The pig, to our amusement, followed us. I jokingly called him the "walking meal." By day six, however, he was the fifth member of the group, taking his lumps with us. At one point he was following us through the increasingly sharp hills and valleys, looking for a path down a mud bank, when he slipped and fell some ten feet (three meters) to the forest floor below, quickly re-righted himself and kept on trucking. I thought to myself in amazement "this is one inspired pig." He followed us through hills and valleys, crossed rivers, took baths with us in streams, ate with us. By day seven he was sleeping beside my mosquito net. Realizing he didn't have the least bit of animal scent or smell, that he was exceptionally clean, I increasingly took the time to pet and scratch him. When we hit Rio Honda on day ten he was my best buddy, following me everywhere. Having finished the construction of the balsa raft on day eleven, he saw me standing on the logs and, to the surprise of Silverio and myself, he attempted to board the raft as we prepared for sail. His rafting experience was short lived. Tomba the cook, being the troglodyte he is, jokingly pushed Chancho from the raft. Chancho tried to swim to re-board the raft but could not catch up. The last we saw of him was crossing the river and disappearing into the forest. I said "Adios Chancho," figuring for sure a lone peccary would not last longer than a week in an area of the forest with so many jaguar tracks. By day nineteen, with our food reserves gone, we made the decision to return to the community. A few minutes after greeting us one of the community members says the pig returned some six nights ago by himself. We were stunned by the news. Upon seeing the peccary with my own two eyes it became clear the pig walked three continuous days with his impeccable sense of direction leading him back to the community, all by himself through prime jaguar territory. While the word "chancho" simply means pig in Spanish, like Titi the Tamarin monkey in Peru I adopt the term to be his name. Thus it is for this amazing creature I create a shrine on my website and call it "Chancho, the super-peccary."
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