In search of the origin

This surprising and beautiful book is not only the discovery of a hidden character in the history of science, but the story of two passions: the one that the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace feels for topics such as biology, biogeography, the evolution of life on the planet—which took him on practically impossible journeys in the mid-19th century—and the passion of the book's author, Felipe Guhl, for Wallace. Guhl's travels began "in the old wooden shelves and field notebooks, drawings, maps, letters and all kinds of original handwritten documents" in London archives in search of the scientist's documents, to culminate by returning to the trip made by Wallace—about 170 years ago along 2,175 kilometers—along the Vaupés and Negro rivers, from the mythical Yuruparí to Manaus, in the company of four other crew members.

Both Wallace and Guhl are part of a long tradition of traveling naturalists of American jungles with the Jesuit Gumilla in the 18th century, Humboldt and Bonpland, von Martius, or La Condamine at the beginning of the 19th century.

So the reader participates in the amazing journey through the natural sciences and the biotic evolution of our planet, accompanied by fascimiles, photographs, drawings, watercolors, inks, diagrams, maps by Alfred Russel Wallace and Felipe Guhl and his companions.