The Lost World of Quintana Roo Author:Michel Peissel This is the story of a remarkable true adventure. Michel Peissel, a young Frenchman with an international background, was stranded on the coast of Quintana Roo, in eastern Yucatán, abandoned by boatmen he had engaged to take him southward. Not realizing what obstacles he would have to overcome, or the fool hardiness of his plan, he decided to ... more »continue his journey on foot.
Weeks later, quite miraculously, Michel Peissel completed the long and unprecedented journey through dense jungle, mangrove swamps, and along desolate beaches, down probably the most savage coast of Central America, a coast which over five hundred years ago was the scene of flourishing cities and ports of the ancient Mayan civilization. His trek was an adventure not only in survival but also in exploration and discovery. In the course of his lonely and hazardous trip through the bandit-haunted jungles he was to come upon many sites of ruined pyramids, temples, oratories, and other archeological remains of the ancient Mayas, which had lain hidden for centuries unter the thick jungle vegetation.
Vividly and with good humor Michel Peissel tells the story of his adventures on this daring one-man expedition. Ill equipped, wearing only sandals to protect his feet against rocks, roots, snakes, and scorpions, he could only with difficulty find Indians to guide him on his way, and only for short stretches. Plagued by hunger and thirst, hunted by murderous outlaws, his route led through jungle so thick that the way had to be hacked out by machete. It was an ordeal - but an ordeal that was to lead him to lost temples by the blue sea or buried in mysterious marshes and jungle, to lofty pyramids rising over the endless expanse of trees, to a village of the jealously independent Chan Santa Cruz Indians, to the fabulous ruined city of Chunyaxche, and to other temples and ruins at the lonely sites of Chamax, San Miguel de Ruz, Tupak, Rio Indio, and elsewhere, a large
number of them previously unknown to the outside world.
In 1961 Michel Peissel returned to Quintana Roo for further
investigations that form the final chapter of this unusual Book. The Lost World of Quintana Roo is a fascinating true story of exploration in the land of the Mayas.« less