ABOUT OTTO & BEAR'S LETTERS

Otto & Bear’s Letters is a mother and son storytelling journey created by Chapelle and Bear; a series of illustrated monthly story letters inspired by their real adventures across Thailand, Costa Rica and Peru. Each letter invites families to rediscover wonder, nature and connection through gentle, heart-led storytelling.

Otto & Bear’s Letters are illustrated story letters for children, sent monthly by post and shaped by ancestral ways of listening to the Earth.

WELCOME

I have always believed that the most beautiful adventures begin with a single breath of possibility.

Mine began the moment Bear was born in 2018, nestled in the English countryside under skies that seemed to whisper of distant jungles and mountain peaks. Something in my soul knew we were meant to explore the Earth.

In 2020, when Bear was just two, we answered that call. We found ourselves deep in the northern jungles of Thailand, where ancient trees became our teachers and fireflies painted stories across the night sky. For four years, we wandered; Thailand's soft and gentle mountains, Costa Rica's cloud forests, brief returns to Canada's vast wilderness and England's familiar countryside.


But it was in the sacred mountains of Peru where everything shifted.

There, among the Apus (mountain spirits) and under the guidance of my teachers from the Qanchis Ylla Lineage, I began to understand that my path wasn't just about adventure, it was about carrying forward the ancestral wisdom that our children need now more than ever. The medicine teachings, the cosmovision of connection, the knowing that we are all part of something infinitely larger than ourselves.

Bear learned languages not taught in schools: how to listen to trees, how to feel the pulse of the earth beneath his feet, how to find magic in the space between sunset and starlight. And I learned that one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is the remembering of who they truly are.

Otto, a magnificent 20-pound jungle cat with eyes that held mysteries still unfolding, arrived on the eve of a supermoon in Thailand. He became Bear's constant companion, and somehow, in the quiet moments of our jungle life, I began to witness the stories they were writing together, not just the adventures we were living, but the deeper journey of a child learning to trust the wisdom of his own heart.

THE HEART OF THE STORY

Otto & Bear’s Letters were created to help children remember what the world often asks them to forget - wonder, belonging, imagination, and their relationship with the living Earth. These stories are invitations to slow down, listen, and feel the quiet magic woven through the natural world.

They are love letters to the wild child in every person; invitations to see the magic that dances just beyond the ordinary world. They are the stories Bear lived, the wisdom the jungle taught us, and the hope that other families might find their own ways to listen to what the Earth is trying to tell us.

BEGIN THE JOURNEY

You can read more reflections and behind-the-scenes stories in The Circle of Quiet Things .

Otto and Bear’s Letters is a wholly independent creation, woven from its own roots and not connected to any other brand with a similar name.