Pacaritambo

ANCIENT VOICES: The Search for El Dorado (VHS)
by Time Life Video and BBC. Color. 50 minutes run time. Condition: Gently pre-viewed 1998 VHS tape from private collection. Tape is in excellent condition, but the box does show some light edgewear at the corners. Content: The New World at the dawn of the 16th century. A place where native armies wer led by divine mummies. Children were sacrified to the sun. And men were worshiped as living gods. Amid this realm of wonders, one tale fired the imagination of the newly arrived conquistadors like no other. The story of a kingdom of solid gold: El Dorado. Now trek into modern-day Columbia in the fevered footsteps of seekers from the earlilest Spaniards to the treasure hunters of this century. Find clues ranging from stunning re-creations of tribal temples and villages adorned with gold to ancient traditions and glittering wealth of one remove tribe - the Muisca. And see how their most sacred ritual has tragically convinced the conquistadors and others that followed that the golden dream the sought might in fact be real. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 2.50 + shipping

ANDEAN CULTURE HISTORY
by Wendell C. Bennett & Junius B. Bird. B&W drawings & photos. Condition: UNREAD 1964 Natural History Press paperback (257 pages), second & revised edition. Problem: previous owner did not read the book, but he put his name everywhere and then used a dark marker to mark them all out. Content: Of course, some of this material is dated, but some isn't. From the early migration to the Andes through the Cultist Period, the City Builder Period and ending with the Inca Imperial Period, this history is readable and detailed. Wonderful maps. It is still worth reading. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 6.50 + shipping

ANDEAN CULTURE HISTORY
by Wendell C. Bennett & Junius B. Bird. B&W drawings & photos. Condition: UNREAD 1964 Natural History Press paperback (257 pages), second & revised edition. Name on loose endpage, light tanning to white cover edges with light tanning to interior page edges. Content: Of course, some of this material is dated, but some isn't. From the early migration to the Andes through the Cultist Period, the City Builder Period and ending with the Inca Imperial Period, this history is readable and detailed. Wonderful maps. It is still worth reading. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 6.50 + shipping

ART OF THE ANDES: From Chavin to Inca
by Rebecca Stone-Miller. Beautiful color photos of artifacts plus B&W photos & De Poma drawings. Condition: NEW 2002 Thames & Hudson Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: This wide-ranging survey has established itself as the best single-volume introduction to Andean art and architecture. Now fully revised, it describes the strikingly varied artistic achievements of the Chavín, Paracas, Moche, Chimú, and Inca cultures, among others. Their impressive cities, tall pyramids, shining goldwork, and intricate textiles constitute one of the greatest artistic traditions in history. For the second edition, Rebecca Stone-Miller has added new material covering the earliest mummification in the world at Chinchorros, wonderful new Moche murals and architectural reconstructions, the latest finds from the Chachapoyas culture, and a greater emphasis on shamanism. Throughout, Stone-Miller demonstrates how the Andean peoples adapted and refined their aesthetic response to an extremely inhospitable environment. 185 illustrations, 35 in color. . A complete resource! Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 9.39 + shipping

BETWEEN THE LINES:
The Mystery of the Giant Ground Drawings of Ancient Nasca, Peru
by Anthony F. Aveni. B&W photos, drawings, and charts illustrate. Condition: NEW 2000 University of Texas Press (Austin) Trade PB, first edition. Perfect condition. . Content: The Nasca Lines are one of the world's great enigmas. Who etched the more than 1,000 animal, human, and geometric figures that cover 400 square miles of barren pampa in southern Peru? How did the makers create lifelike images of monkeys, birds, and spiders without an aerial vantage point from which to view these giant figures that stretch across thousands of square yards? Most puzzling of all, why did the ancient Nasca lay out these lines and images in the desert? These are the questions that pioneering archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni seeks to answer in this book. [3 copies available]
$ 9.49 + shipping

BEYOND DEATH: The Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile
by Bernardo T. Arriaza. Foreword by John W. Verano. B&W photos, drawings, maps. Condition: NEW 1999 Smithsonian Institution Press hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, first printing. Content: Thousands of years before ancient Egyptians mummified their dead elite, the South American Chinchorros performed elaborate mummification rituals for deceased members of every level and age of their society. They are exceptional for the sheer number of known mummies (nearly 200) and the variety and complexity of their mummification techniques. Although first discovered in 1917, the mummies are little known throughout the world and most literture about them is in Spanish. This book brings to light these unprecedented remains, offers new interprettions of the mortuary practices, and reconstructs the culture's daily life of 8,000 years ago. [An exceptional book, IMHO.] [1 copy available]
$ 12.50 + shipping.

CHAVIN AND THE ORIGINS OF ANDEAN CIVILIZATION
by Richard L. Burger. B&W photos, drawings, maps. Condition: Gently pre-read 1992 Thames & Hudson (London) large hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first impression. Content: Burger (anthropology, Yale) presents a synthesis of Peruvian prehistory of the millennium B.C. Toward the end of this period there appeared in the highlands an art tradition centered around the depiction in sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, and cloth of an anthropomorphized feline--the Chavin style. Chavin is the first of ancient Peru's many famous art styles, such as Mochica and Nasca. With detailed descriptions and abundant illustrations of artifacts and sites, this book carries the reader from Chavin's roots in the third millennium B.C. to its florescence between 900 and 300 B.C. It is an engrossing account of prehistoric culture that ranks with the Sumerian, Shang, and Olmec as one of the world's earliest civilizations. While much new information has come to us since the publication of this book, it is still a valuable resource for Ancient Americas students & historians. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 14.50 + $ 3.49 media shipping..

THE CITIES OF THE ANCIENT ANDES
by Adriana Von Hagen and Craig Morris. 147 wonderful B&W and color photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 1998 Thames & Hudson hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), asssumed first edition. Content: Reviewer: "he authors provide a stimulating introduction to urbanism in the Precolumbian Andes. The only problem with this book was that it left me wanting more. Since the book covers the entire history of the Ancient Andes, it cannot devote much space to any specific city or civilization. Nevertheless, there is still more than enough to enthrall. At the start of each chapter on a civilization, there is always a short description of what life would have been like for some inhabitants of a city of that civilization. This provides some extra colour to the book though some technical readers might not appreciate it. My favourite portion was on Tiwanaku, the largest city of the altiplano around Lake Titicaca. The pictures and maps were excellent and greatly enhanced to the book." [This is one of the best books on the ancient Andes, IMHO.] [2 copies available]
$ 26.49 + shipping

THE DESERT KINGDOMS OF PERU
by Victor W. Von Hagen. 2 B&W photo sections. B&W illustrations by Alberto Beltran. Condition: UNREAD 1968 Mentor paperback, first printing. Tiny edge wear. Content: A unique reconstruction of the extraordinary lost nation of the Mochica-Chimu, an ancient pre-Columbian culture that antedated the Incas, and flourished from 3000 B.C.E. to 50 years before the Conquistadors. No written word remains to document the remarkably high levels of art, achitecture, agriculture and social structure attained by the Mochica-Chimu. But their tombs, and the articles within, reveal their intimate family and erotic life, the houses they lived in, the food they ate, and the gods they worshiped. Anthropologist Victor von Hagen re-creates the lives and character of these pre-Columbian people through his own expert observations, the commentaries of King Charles III's Spanish emissaries, and a wealth of fascinating photographs. Breaking taboos, Mr. von Hagen has included photos of Mochica-Chimu pottery previously stigmatized as erotica. The real Moche warriors. Wonderful book that is, of course, somewhat dated, but a classic in the field of the ancient Moche - Chimu and worth the read. [1 copy available]
$ 4.49 + shipping

EMPIRES OF MYSTREY: The Incas, The Andes, and Lost Civilizations
(Museum Exhibit Book)
by Frederico Kauffman-Doig. (Transl. Eulogio Guzman). Beautiful color photos. Condition: NEW 1998 Florida International Museum/Lithograph Publishing large softcover, no edition given. Stunning color photos of Machu Picchu and other Andean prehistoric sites and maps. Content: This book was published to compliment the Florida Museum exhibition in 1998. All facets of ancient Andean civilization covered: pottery, religion, history, cities & sites. Beautiful and educational. Oh - evidently this shares an ISBN number with another, newer book. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 14.50 + shipping

THE GOLD OF THE GODS
by Erich Von Daniken. Translated by Michael Heron. Illustrated with drawings, maps, and photographs. Condition: Pre-read 1974 Bantam paperback edition, first printing. Spine crease with tanning to interior. Content: Von Daniken explores the vast mysterious underworld of Ecuador - caves filled with gold and and writings in solid gold that go back in time to the Great Flood to bolster his theory of a prehistoric earthly "era of the gods." Why this is considered as "archaeology" escapes me, but . . . . it is interesting. [1 copy available]
$ 1.50 + shipping

THE HUAROCHIRI MANUSCRIPT: A Testament of Ancient & Colonial Andean Religion
by Frank Salomon and George L. Urioste. Condition: UNREAD 1991 University of Texas Press large hardcover [11.8 x 9 x 1 (273 pages)] & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, first printing. Light tanning to DJ edges. Content: Annotations & Introductory Essay by Frank Salomon. Transcription by George Urioste. "This book takes the reader back to the beginning of the 17th century and tells the customs and believes of the Yunca people. The unknown editor of the Huarochirí Quechua manuscript was an Andean person, well-versed in scribal writing, and recruited by Father Francisco de Avila to document non-Christian practices. Avila's biographer Antonio Acosta thinks Avila wanted this data in order to blackmail discontented parishioners, who had mounted a lawsuit against him in 1607. The Quechua writer was apparently a convinced Catholic in the mold of the Third Council of Lima, and an enemy of the ancient gods. But he also seems interested in demonstrating that the ancient cults had a coherence comparable, albeit adversely and dangerously, with that of Christianity." This was my personal book and I just never got around to reading it. No library sales on this book - I don't want to see it marked up. Questions welcome [1 copy available]
$ 139.50 + shipping

I AM RICH POTOSI: The Mountain That Eats Men
by Stephen Ferry. Wonderful color photos with colonial era maps. Condition: NEW 1999 Monacelli Press large hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), assumed first printing. Content: This mine has been continually mined since precolumbian times. The magnificent mountain of Potosi in Bolivia yielded more silver than any other mountain or region of the world. In the 16th and 17th centuries this wealth flowed through Spain into Europe and played an important role in the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and trade with Asia. Yet the grueling work of extracting the silver was left to the indigenous population of the Andes, who were enslaved by the Spanish and died by the thousands on the mountain. Today, Potosi maintains this unique culture, based on its epic history. Approximately 18,000 miners still work in or around the mountain, searching for trace amounts of silver and tin. Inside the mountain, miners worship their devil, who is represented as a sexually potent Spaniard, lord of the mineral realm. Photographer Stephen Ferry has made many trips to Potosi to document this ongoing drama. His color images describe this world, which echoes back to the birth of modern Europe yet is one of the poorest places in the Americas. The texts by Eduardo Galeano and Marguerite Holloway illuminate the complexity of the intersection of ancient rituals and the grandeur of the mountain and complement Ferry's powerful portrait of this fascinating area. Ferry's photographs are divided into four sections: the miners' carnival; work that still takes place in and around the rich mountain; major institutions of civic life in the city of Potosi; and the festival of Espiritu, in which miners sacrifice llamas to the devil within the mountain to appease his thirst for blood so that he will not take their lives with accidents or illness. Questions welcome [1 copy available]
$ 12.50 + shipping

KON-TIKI AND I
written & illustrated by Erik Hesselberg. Clever & fun B&W illustrations by the Author. Condition: UNREAD 1993 Harcourt Brace hardcover (pictorial boards - no DJ issued), first printing. Content: Reviewer: "Kon-Tiki and I is out of print! Agh, that's appalling! It's one of the best books a kid could ever read. Hesselberg was Thor Heyerdahl's navigator on their voyage from Peru to Tahiti on a balsawood raft. Hesselberg is a great storyteller and caricaturist, and his illustrations of the trip are perfectly integrated with the deft, simple narrative. He's much more modest about it all than Heyerdahl--so much so that you may forget how unlikely it seemed to everyone but the crew that this absurd handmade craft would ever survive the voyage. Hesselberg's account is, among other things, very funny--and his illustrations make it even funnier. His sketch of himself dancing a hula in sheepskin pants makes it easy to see why the watching villagers were, as he tells it, reduced to gasping and moaning with laughter. One of the few truly joyous books in the world. Get a copy if you can. If you have any kids, get them a copy at all costs." [1 copy available.]
$ 5.50 + shipping

LORDS OF SIPAN: A True Story of Pre-Inca Tombs, Archaeology, and Crime
by Sidney Kirkpatrick. B&W Moche drawings and a color photo section. Condition: NEW 1993 Owl Henry Holt Trade PB, first thus, first printing. Tiny edgewear. Content: In January 1987 a group of tomb robbers at Huaca Rajada on Peru's north coast had their dreams come true. They stumbled on a pre-Inca tomb of unsurpassed wealth (read: gold) at a site everybody else had written off as already having been plundered. Unfortunatley, for them, greed was their undoing. This is the story of Dr. Walter Alva's fight to save the" King Tut of the America's" tomb. Although the book was written by a screenwriter with a tone of fiction, it is a true story of archaeology in South America. [2 copies available]
$ 12.50 + shipping

THE LOST TOMB OF VIRACOCHA: Unlocking the Secrets of the Peruvian Pyramids
by Maurice Cottrell. Two color photo sections and B&W illustrations throughout. Condition: NEW 2002 Headline Books (London) Trade PB first printing. Content: Inca mythology (actually throughout all of the Ancient Americas) tells of a tall, white leader who wandered along the coast performing miracles, a man they called Viracocha Pachacamac, which means “God of the World.” Centuries later another great miracle worker, similar to the first, appeared and wandered the countryside, healing the sick and restoring sight to the blind. He, too, was named Viracocha. These accounts have long baffled scholars, as have the carvings left by the people of Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, who preserved these legends. Now Maurice Cotterell, who cracked the codes hidden in both ancient Maya carvings and the treasures of Tutankhamun, unlocks the secrets concealed within the treasure-filled tombs of Viracocha Pachacamac and Viracocha. His investigation of these tombs, held within the long-lost pyramids of Peru, proves that these two figures were not myth but actually existed 1,500 years ago. [1 copy available]
$ 11.50 + shipping

MARKHAM IN PERU: The Travels of Clements R. Markham, 1852 - 1853
by Charles R. Markham. Edited by Peter Blanchard. B&W maps and illustrations from Markham's journal. Condition: NEW 1991 University of Texas Press Trade Paperback, first edition, first printing. Tiny edge wear. Content: Clements Markham had his own ideas about what his life's work should be. In 1852, Marhkam left his father's choice, the British Navy, and set out for Peru to study the ruins of the Inca empire. His ten-month sojourn in Peru produced this journal, one of the few surviving accounts of Peru at mid-nineteenth century, and launched Markham on a career that led ultimately to the presidency of the Royal Geographical Society. His journal captures Peru in transition from the colonial past to the modern ear. He was one of the first English travelers to visit Cuzco and he also witnessed the waning of slavery on the great cotton and sugar plantations as modern machinery and Chinese coolie labor were introduced. He visited with all classes of society, from the Indian peasants, who still lived much as their Inca ancestors had done, to the Spanish-descended elites, whose Europeanized lifestyle was underwritten by fortunes made in the guano industry. Fascinating! Questions welcome. [2 copies available]
$ 9.49 + shipping

THE MYTHOLOGY OF SOUTH AMERICA
by John Bierhorst. B&W drawings. Condition: NEW 2002 Oxford University Press Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: More than any other continent, South America "has preserved the conditions that allow mythology to be freely produced." Dividing the continent into seven carefully mapped regions, John Bierhorst shows how South America's principal myths can be traced from tribe to tribe and how each region has developed its own unique oral tradition. Generous samples from the stories themselves introduce the female creators of the northern Andes, the male gods of the ancient Incas, and the Brazilian tricksters Sun and Moon. Originally published in 1988, Bierhorst has updated the text to reflect the abundance of new information that has become available since the mid 80s and written a new Afterward in which he emphasizes the durability of Indian mythology. Illustrations of native artwork and chapters devoted to special topics--including the connections between myths and politics--help to provide a well-rounded overview of this fascinating and little-known lore. Detailed maps show tribal locations and the distribution of key stories and samples of differing narrative styles add enrichment, as some of the world's purest and most powerful myths are made more accessible-- and more meaningful--than ever before. [2 copies available]
$ 12.50 + shipping

PERU (Ancient Peoples and Places series)
by G. H. S. Bushnell. Large B&W photo section. Condition: Very good 1966 Frederick Praeger Publishers Trade Paperback, revised edition, second printing. Spine creases and tiny edgewear yet the interior is clean & tight. Content: Attention has long been focussed on the Incas of Peru for their spectacular buildings and great Enpire, but they cannot be correctly appreciated without a knowledge of the civilizations that went before. This book presents, for the first time, a conspectus of the whole of Peruvian history, from the time of the first primitive hunters to the conqueset by Pizarro, and in so doing reveals much that is not yet generally known. 71 photos, 11 line drawings, 1 map. The photos in this book are some of the most clear, clean, and detailed in publishing, especially an unusual view of Machu Picchu. Dated in some respects, of course, but worth the read and the photos. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 8.50 + shipping

PRECOLUMBIAN GOLD: Technology, Style and Iconography
edited by Colin McEwan. Spectacular color photos, B&W photos, and maps. Condition: NEW 2000 British Museum Press large softcover. Perfect. Content: Pre-Columbian Gold is a compilation of 13 essays by leading international scholars (archaeologists, art historians, metallurgists, etc.) that presents the latest research into the technology and iconography of pre-Columbian goldworking; areas covered are Peru, Bolivia, and Chile; Ecuador and Colombia; Central America and the Caribbean. Essays include discussions of gold offerings from excavations at Batan Grande, Peru; a description of recently discovered Malagana goldwork from Colombia; and an account of gold found in archaeological contexts from Panama. The results of analytical work on these finds have yielded new insights into Pre-Columbian social organization and beliefs, which are complemented by breakthroughs in iconographic interpretation of Nasca gold masks. The essays are comprehensively illustrated with 209 black-and-white photos and 37 color plates. Pre-Columbian Gold is the first interdisciplinary volume of its kind to cover a wide range of the principal Pre-Columbian goldworking cultures in the Americas. Both authoritative and accessible, it will be an important reference work for scholars but equally of interest to the non-specialist. [1 copy available]
$ 33.49 + shipping

RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS
by Ake Hultkrantz. Translated from the Swedish by Monica Setterwall. B&W era photos & art work. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1981 University of California Press Trade Paperback, third printing. Although unread, thre is a name on the frontispiece. The rest of the book is clean, tight, perfect. Content: A clearly written, sober, comprehensive survey. Hultkrantz is a notable Swedish scholar, active int he field for over 25 years. Here he summarizes the gigantic corpus of modern anthropological scholarship on Amerindian religion (of both continents, but primarily North America), dealing first with tribal religions, and then with the religions of the "American high culture" (Incas, Mayas, Aztecs, and related peoples). A highly useful and reliable guide. - Kirkus Reviews. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 11.69 + shipping

RITUAL SACRIFICE IN ANCIENT PERU
edited by Elizabeth BEnson and Anita Cook. B&W drawings and photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 2000 British Museum Press large softcover. Perfect. Content: Propitiating the supernatural forces that could grant bountiful crops or wipe out whole villages through natural disasters was a sacred duty in ancient Peruvian societies, as in many premodern cultures. Ritual sacrifices were considered necessary for this propitiation and for maintaining a proper reciprocal relationship between humans and the supernatural world. The essays in this book examine the archaeological evidence for ancient Peruvian sacrificial offerings of human beings, animals, and objects, as well as the cultural contexts in which the offerings occurred, from around 2500 B.C. until Inca times just before the Spanish Conquest. Major contributions come from the recent archaeological fieldwork of Steve Bourget, Anita Cook, and Alana Cordy-Collins, as well as from John Verano's laboratory work on skeletal material from recent excavations. Mary Frame, who is a weaver as well as a scholar, offers rich new interpretations of Paracas burial garments, and Donald Proulx presents a fresh view of the nature of Nasca warfare. Elizabeth Benson's essay provides a summary of sacrificial practices. Questions welcome [1 copy available]
$ 20.49 + shipping

SONS OF THE MOON: A Journey in the Andes
by Henry Shukman. B&W photo section and maps. Condition: Gently pre-read 1989 Charles Scribner's hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Light edgewear to DJ. Content: The author, a Cambridge-educated journalist, travels by himself from Argentina through Bolivia to Peru. His purpose is to seek out the ancient Aymara and others whose history and culture predated that of the Incas, who conquered them. The trip covers some of the most isolated and harshest regions on the continent--primarily the Altiplano, the plateau between the eastern and western cordilleras of the Andes. Shukman hitches rides, walks, travels in lorries, pitches his tent, and meets people. The author has a poet's eye; his vivid descriptions of the scenery, the villages, the ruins of this unvisited and largely unknown area dance across the pages. Interweaving a little history and myth along with the sights and sounds, Shukman has succeeded in producing one of the most enjoyable travel books in years. [1 copy available]
$ 4.49 + shipping

TEXTILE TRADITIONS OF MESOAMERICA AND THE ANDES: An Anthology
edited by Margot Blum Schevill, Janet Catherinei Berlo, and Edward B. Dwyer. B&W photos, drawings, & maps illustrate. Condition: NEW 1996 University of Texas Press Trade Paperback, reprint edition. Content: In this volume, anthropologists, art historians, fiber artists, and technologists come together to explore the meanings, uses, and fabrication of textiles in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia from Precolumbian times to the present. Originally published in 1991 by Garland Publishing, the book grew out of a 1987 symposium held in conjunction with the exhibit "Costume as Communication: Ethnographic Costumes and Textiles from Middle America and the Central Andes of South America" at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University. Questions welcome. [2 copies available]
$ 9.49 + shipping

TIME DETECTIVES: How Scientists Use Modern Technology to Unravel The Secrets of The Past
by Brian Fagan. Illustrated with B&W drawings, maps, and photographs. Condition: NEW 1996 Touchstone Trade Paperback, third printing. Tiny edgewear. Content: This exhilarating mix of high adventure and serious scholarship explores how modern archeologists are using techniques like computer imaging, infrared photography and pollen analysis to reconstruct ancient cultures. Fagan, an archaeologist, describes Tiwanaku, a vanished city on Lake Titicaca's Bolivian shore (A.D. 5th-11th centuries), where Andean farmers used crop cultivation methods that are now being copied by modern villagers to increase yields. He visits enigmatic Flag Fen in eastern England, where an enormous Bronze Age timber platform rose amid uninhabited wetlands, the site of sacrificial offerings. He combs Wadi Kubbaniya, an obscure Egyptian valley, home to hunter-gatherers 10,000 years before the pharaohs-possible ancestors of ancient Egyptian civilization. He explains how excavations of the mansions and gardens of 18th-century colonial Annapolis, Md., are revealing class divisions between a white elite and African Americans who comprised as much as one-third of the population. Fagan also explores multistory New Mexican pueblos of the Anasazi, a Sumerian temple complex, Blackfoot bison hunt sites on Canadian cliffs and remnants of the Natufian culture-some of the world's earliest farmers - discovered in the 1930s in what is now Israel. [Whether you agree or disagree with Fagan, he always makes you think.] [1 copy available]
$ 8.69 + shipping.

TRAIL OF FEATHERS: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru
by Tahir Shah. Two color photo sections. Condition: NEW 2002 Phoenix (UK) trade paperback, first thus, first printing. Content: Enthralled by the chronicle of a 16th-century Spanish monk, which said that the Incas 'flew like birds' over the jungle, and by the recurring theme of flying in Peruvian folklore, Tahir Shah set out to discover whether the Incas really did fly or glide above the jungles of Peru. Or was it flight of a different kind, inspired by powerful drugs? After gathering equipment in London the long quest begins, in the mountains of Peru, with a trek to Machu Picchu, the Incas' most sacred city. Then on to the mountain city of Cusco and a mysterious island on Lake Titicaca, before the trail of clues leads to the coast and through the desert, to the immense animal-like etchings which form the Nazca Lines and a remote burial ground for 30,000 mummified corpses. And finally to an epic river-journey up the Amazon to discover the secrets of the Shuar, a tribe of legendary savagery. Even for a traveller so used to surreal adventures, there are many strange encounters - some gruesome, some hilarious - among madmen and dreamers, sorcerers, con-men and jungle experts, before he can at last discover the truth about the Birdmen of Peru. Questions welcome [2 copies available]
$ 10.00 + shipping