We set up our tents near the shore of Lago Escondido. The three of us had trekked there all the way from Lago Falkner, a strenuous six-hour hike with fifty pounds of equipment and food on each of our backs.

 

After wading through intersecting streams and wearily shooing away persistent horseflies, we had taken out the map and decided that Lago Escondido would be a turnaround point as we circled back north to San Martín.

 

I remember having a weird feeling there.

 

When we arrived at Escondido, it felt as though we were aliens on another planet. After all, we hadn’t seen anyone on our entire hike from Falkner.

 

Besides the various chirps resounding from all directions of the wooded area, the place was exceptionally quiet.

 

We prepared dinner at our campsite, spaghetti cooked in a pot atop a portable stove and served in our plasticware. From a little carton, we poured pasta sauce over the spaghetti, throwing in vegetables we haphazardly cut with our pocketknives.

 

When I finished my dinner, I went down a little trail alone to the rocky shore of Escondido. The sun had just set, so I could still slightly see without my headlight. Beyond the rocks were tall grasses within marshland and beyond that was an indigo blue lake.

 

I remember sitting down on the trunk of a fallen tree and hearing the buzzing of different insects, the croaking of a frog, and the sound of the water occasionally stirring. It was quite an ensemble, inspiring atavistic instincts within me—some sort of mixture of intense fear and extreme wonder.

 

It felt like a conversation, one that continued night after night. That night, I wasn’t invited but I was a welcomed guest, a child who could sit and listen to the grownups as long as he sat still.

 

Eventually, the scene became darker and all I could distinguish were twinkling specks in the sky. The sounds of the ensemble grew louder.

 

And, amid the growing ambiguity of the night, the atavism strengthened.

 

Listening closely, I could hear the wind rustling leaves and branches behind me; it joined the ensemble. Then, I heard breathing, soft and peaceful. It joined too.