Klaiskah. To get to Volker Lehman's compound in the Amazon, he kept to really want to get there.

For me, that involved a red eye from Miami to Santa Cruz, Bolivia's biggest city, then a puddle

jumper to a town called Trinidad, a sweaty night there, and then nine grueling hours

in a collectivo taxi,

squeezed between farmhands and crying babies,

hammering over washboard rows at 30 miles per hour,

which is about 20 miles per hour too fast.

At last, I got dropped off in Volker's place.

Hello?

Hello?

It's changed since if I visit 12 years ago for our river trip.

Volker's built himself a crazy new house. this by visit 12 years ago for our river trip.

Volker's built himself a crazy new house, all screen, no walls.

A few feet away there's an outhouse with tree frogs in the toilet, a workshop with a generator,

and a big greenhouse for for fermenting cacao.

There's papay trees and bananas and a tiny white local chili called Guzanita.

It looks like little worms.

They're brutally hot, but Volker munches them like popcorn. like

the brookly hot, but Volker munches them like popcorn. Surrounding it all, of course, are the cacao trees,

500 acres of them.

Volker calls the place Tranciladad.

It means Tranquility in Spanish. And most of the time, the name fits.

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