The Rivers Ran East
This is a riveting firsthand account of Leonard Clark's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola - reputedly home to enormous reserves of gold - in the Amazon rain forest east of the Peruvian Andes. En route, he acquires vast knowledge about the lives of indigenous peoples.
A former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Clark is joined on his expedition by Inez Pokorny, a gutsy, multilingual female sidekick and fellow explorer. Their treacherous journey includes encounters with headhunting JÖvaro Indians, man-eating jaguars, forty-foot-long anacondas, poisonous plants, and shamanistic healers.
"An exploration to rival Lewis and Clark's, remarkable both for its sense of adventure and for the breadth of its reporting."
- Joe Kane, author of Savages and Running the Amazon