Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston is a true story about a team of modern day explorers who find a lost civilization in Honduras. The story begins with a history of other explorers who heard the stories and went off to Honduras in search of the White City. No one ever finds anything of substance. The author's team, which consisted of Honduran soldiers, archaeologists, doctors, writers, and scientists, use LIDAR (pulsed light that measures reflections) to find areas in Mosquitia that might have once been inhabited. They find many things, including etchings on rocks and a jaguar stone which was later excavated.
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| Jaguar Stone |
His team has so many perils to worry about such as disease, infection, looting of their discovery, and getting lost. When Douglas returns back to the U.S., he and his whole team became deathly sick. Most of them get treated in the nick of time.
Doctors believe they became infected by sand flies with leishmania. There are different kinds of leish. The most severe form eats away your face. The disease doesn't get a lot of medical attention because it's not very common in America nor is particularly a money maker in the medical world.
The exploration team underwent several infusions until reaching remission. Once sort of health, they head back to Honduras again!
My Review: Love all of Douglas Preston's work-he's an awesome writer especially when teamed up with Lee Childs. This book is an incredible story, but at times, very academic and dense. Still loved it, but would only recommend it to people with an interest in archeology. 5/5 Stars
