The Lost World of Quintana Roo Author:Michel Peissle This is the story of a remarkable true adventure. Michel Peissel, a young French-man with an international background, was stranded on the coast of Quintana Roo, in eastern Yucatan, 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 unprecendented journey through dense jungle, mangrove swamps, and along desolate beaches, down probably the most savage coast of Central Americal, a coast which over five hundred years ago was the scene of flourshing 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 archaeological remains of the ancient Mayas which had lain hidden for centuries under the thick jungle vegetation.
Vividly and with good humor Michel Piessel 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 thiick that the way had to be hacked out by machette. It was an ordeal - but an ordeal that was to lead him to the lost temples by the blue sea or buried in mysterious marshes and jungles, to lofty pyramids rising over the endless expanses of trees, to a village of the jealously independant 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 again 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