The Lost City of Z
David Grann - The Lost City of Z
David Grann, New York Times journalist, got interested about the fate of British explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared in the Amazon in 1925 looking for what he thought was a city hidden in the then-unexplored Amazon rain forest. In addition to going through various official channels like the Royal Geographic Society, he managed to contact some cooperative relatives of Fawcett and found what he thought to be the real coordinates of the City of Z. Still, he noticed he was definitely walking on a well-beaten path since there have been numerous attempts to find Fawcett even since he disappeared - in such an extent that some archivists are apparently dead tired of the same requests for the same documents all over again.
Chapters alternate with the details of Fawcett's life and exploits and various attempts to find him and his son and Grann's own preparations to try to follow his path into the jungle. The most amusing chapter, in fact, is the one where Grann visits the backpacking shop and buys all the stuff for ”proper” hiking - which includes lots of hi-tech junk that would eventually run out of batteries in a middle of a jungle. Most of that equipment can take is probably the Appalachian trail, because it's relatively near the population centers.
Eventually Grann manages to reach the Kalapalo tribe, who had been accused of killing Fawcett and his companions, which they had denied years previously. In fact, one of the tribe says that the bones a previous expedition took from the jungle were not those of Fawcett but one of his ancestors. According to them, Fawcett's small expeditions had continued further to the jungle and when the tribe members could not see their campfire smoke any more, they assumed they had been killed.
Grann does not comment the claims by British director Misha Williams that Fawcett would have wanted to create an utopian soiety in the jungle but he does mention the people who think that Fawcett found a portal to another dimension.
It's not much of a surprise to anyone that what Grann found was not exactly Macchu Picchu, even if there are remains of a larger town engulfed by the jungle. But not made of stone, alas. Grann also doesn't exactly claim to have found Fawcett's city - but at least a close fascimile of it.
David Grann, New York Times journalist, got interested about the fate of British explorer Percy Fawcett who disappeared in the Amazon in 1925 looking for what he thought was a city hidden in the then-unexplored Amazon rain forest. In addition to going through various official channels like the Royal Geographic Society, he managed to contact some cooperative relatives of Fawcett and found what he thought to be the real coordinates of the City of Z. Still, he noticed he was definitely walking on a well-beaten path since there have been numerous attempts to find Fawcett even since he disappeared - in such an extent that some archivists are apparently dead tired of the same requests for the same documents all over again.
Chapters alternate with the details of Fawcett's life and exploits and various attempts to find him and his son and Grann's own preparations to try to follow his path into the jungle. The most amusing chapter, in fact, is the one where Grann visits the backpacking shop and buys all the stuff for ”proper” hiking - which includes lots of hi-tech junk that would eventually run out of batteries in a middle of a jungle. Most of that equipment can take is probably the Appalachian trail, because it's relatively near the population centers.
Eventually Grann manages to reach the Kalapalo tribe, who had been accused of killing Fawcett and his companions, which they had denied years previously. In fact, one of the tribe says that the bones a previous expedition took from the jungle were not those of Fawcett but one of his ancestors. According to them, Fawcett's small expeditions had continued further to the jungle and when the tribe members could not see their campfire smoke any more, they assumed they had been killed.
Grann does not comment the claims by British director Misha Williams that Fawcett would have wanted to create an utopian soiety in the jungle but he does mention the people who think that Fawcett found a portal to another dimension.
It's not much of a surprise to anyone that what Grann found was not exactly Macchu Picchu, even if there are remains of a larger town engulfed by the jungle. But not made of stone, alas. Grann also doesn't exactly claim to have found Fawcett's city - but at least a close fascimile of it.