The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

A DISCOURSE ON CHANGE The sun, lord of all, occupies the sky. Humans cannot share this space nor emulate this light. They are confined to the earth and consigned to the underworld, that realm of the nocturnal sun, upon their demise. And demise came on a massive scale --not dynastic disputes, or wars of expansion, or trade and tariff discussion, but panic, pestilence and devastation-- with the arrival of the Spaniards, who left entire populations depleted by measles and smallpox among many infectious diseases, to which they had no resistance. With this the local populations, surely those of the White City of Honduras, gathered their treasures and trophies, left a stash that seemed to them well hidden, and abandoned their cities, ignored their crops, departed their deities, and moved on. The cities they left behind concern our author, who has provided a splendid book, an orderly book, exhaustive, meticulous, broken down by topics, concerning a mysterious, still unidentified culture in the world's densest and most remote tropical forest, in Mosquitia, Honduras, Central America. This is a tale of adventure, technology, archaeology, pathology, which aroused more envy and meanness than delight in the professional community. A great read, serious without being overly technical, we travel to pristine nature surrounded by every kind of danger, including drug cartels, land depletion, deforestation, official corruption, tropical diseases and an appalling lack of resources for dealing with any and all the above inconveniences. One issue, however, persists. Our intrepid author insists on dividing the world into Old and New. These are outdated terms and very misleading. He also asks why European diseases decimated populations in the Americas, and not the other way around. Whoops! And syphilis? An American calling card to take home to Spain and Portugal. And yet mestizaje --cross-breeding-- not to be confused with rape, flourished, equally among Germans, French and Belgians, less so among the always racist British. Colonialism was a nasty business. As for diseases, commonly spread to human populations through contact with animals, a curious fact appears, in the paucity of domestic or "farmyard" animals in Mesoamerica, before the arrival of the Europeans. No cattle, no camillids, not even the noble Asian ass, that came to known as a burro. Men carried their own packs, made their way along paths they, themselves forged, and traded, indeed, but on a human scale. There was no animal large or strong enough to share their burden. And another misnomer: back in the seventies a mindless politician referred to the First (or “developed”) World, the second or Soviet world, and the backward or undeveloped, “Third” World. The second faded away, took another form, adopted another name, the first and third remain, while the terms are used constantly and mean nothing, since development, like underprivilege are spotty across the planet. The book is nonetheless riveting, not only for its detailing of the use of Lidar, a laser imaging, in archeological exploration, or the foraging for facts and presence of a “lost city” buried in an impenetrable jungle, or the questions raised regarding the origins and outcome of an unidentified and completely vanished people-- perhaps hiding in plain sight among the present-day population of Honduras--but actually Douglas Prescott's most relevant text is the statement on change. Life is an ever-shifting set of circumstances and their outcome. Survival requires adaptability and awareness. Even the most apparently “established societies”, as the 2016 election in the US revealed, can shift drastically, perhaps overnight. Change is the only constant in the universe.

3.5 stars. THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD: A True Story, by Douglas Preston is a nonfiction account of an expedition to the deepest jungles of Honduras, in an attempt to find the legendary "White City", or "The Lost City of the Monkey God". I am familiar with this author through his fictional works mainly, including his collaborative efforts with Lincoln Child. If anyone could make a true story of this incredible find come alive on the pages, it is Douglas Preston. The author, personally, went on this dangerous expedition, so much of what he tells us is first hand information. "A land of cruel jungles within almost inaccessible mountain ranges." I was glued to this book all day--carrying it with me wherever I went. The parts of the actual arrival into the jungle, the various deadly animals, insects, weather, and elements they faced was fascinating to read about. Coming directly from someone who was there, it was even more impressive. Honestly, I can say with certainty that--lost city or not--I would not want to be caught up in the conditions they were for ANY length of time. Although I only gave this one a 3.5 rating, it has nothing to do with the writing or expedition itself. This was more based on the "history" lesson that started us off. We were tantalized with the building of the team, and then given background information on previous attempts to find this legendary city. At the beginning, this was interesting too, but the further into the book I got, the more impatient I became for them to get into the thick of things, themselves. Overall, the book's section on them being IN the actual jungle was so fluidly written that I felt as if I was watching it on a movie screen. Preston was THERE, this wasn't fiction--it was reality! After the, unfortunately shorter portion of the book that dealt with the discovery, something just as captivating came. Members of the expedition were coming down with a rare--sometimes fatal--disease called leishmaniasis. Of the three different "varieties" of this, the team had contacted the third, and most difficult to cure, form. The descriptions of what this could do--think of it by the nickname of "white leprosy"--were absolutely nauseating. The ending focused on the difficulty of treatment for many, and then a bit of commentary about climate change and other factors that could be contributing to diseases (such as Leish) migrating to other locations. Overall, a lot of history into the past expeditions that eventually failed, but the actual CURRENT expedition, was positively absorbing. Likewise, the thought of diseases like this one that morph over time, and are capable of wiping out a civilization, had me cringing in my seat. "No civilization survived forever. All move toward dissolution, one after the other, like waves of the sea falling upon the shore. None . . . is exempt from the universal fate." Recommended!

Resultó mejor de lo que esperaba, la narración de los eventos es muy buena, mantiene el interés, el contenido es bastante interesante, pues toca diversos campos. Narra la historia de una expedición a una región poco explorada de Honduras en busca de una ciudad pérdida de una cultura vecina a la maya. La expedición ocurrió en el 2015, así que tal vez sea pronto para esperar conclusiones definitivas en este libro. Sin embargo, el autor tiene bastante material que ofrecer respecto a todo lo que ocurrió para que dicha expedición pudiera llevarse a cabo.

You never know what he's going to say, as it's the real experience of a real journey and not structured like a novel. I found it all fascinating and enjoyed the read tremendously, even though of course so much of it is sad, as is the destruction of our planet, but it's not dwelling on that nor hiding from it either. It's honest reporting and so interesting.

A real eye opener into Ancient Cultures and the impact that explorers had on them. Also extremely informative on the change and movement of pathogens on civilizations. Even though this is non fiction its a gripping read

Meticulous detail of the search and circumstances surrounding the expedition, and the aftermath. Exciting adventure story, even though not my usual taste in books.

A lire absolument ! On a des frissons à chaque instant, surtout quand on sait que cette découverte fondamentale au Vénézuela vient juste d'arriver.