The Lost City of the Monkey god: A True Story

 Shirley J.              Adult-Non-Fiction        National Graphic in delivery, anthropological questing in S. America for a lost city/civilization 

The Lost City of the Monkey god: A True Story by Douglas Preston    448 pages

The true story of an anthropological journey into the Honduran rainforest set about by anthropologists, writers, filmmakers and cameramen who experienced far more than the discovery of abandoned, hidden ruins of a lost civilization.  The myths turn into truth when they find out the "cursed" civilization they are in search of suffered a terrible fate first by the killing, raping, ravaging, slavers, greedy gold seeking Conquistadors from Spain that brought with them not only advanced weapons to destroy lives with but also diseases the indigenous people had no medical defense against so what havoc the Conquistadors didn't bring about personally they did as hosts to the germs that finished off a once flourishing settlement.  According to Preston what had originally been estimated as a population of 500,000 people was down to 0 in less than 100 years.  Also, the team that went into the Honduran jungle in search of the lost city returned home with deadly parasites the like of which had not been seen before.  Some died of their infestation, others' bodies were broken so that they never fully came back from it nor did they ever fully recover their health, not to mention the oh so poisonous snakes that were literally everywhere in the rainforest.  A tragic trip documented in the film by the same name.   This is such a fascinating read that I recommend it first of all to those who dream of visiting the rainforest, next to budding anthropologists, and lastly to all who hunger for real adventure in their reading from highschool on up.