Yes, I actually read an entire, real, book book. Pretty impressive I know. But enough of my staggering achievement. This book is freaking amazing, and even more so because it is entirely true.
This English gentlemen from the late 19th century, Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett, was the greatest explorer of his time. He is largely responsible for exploring and mapping most much of the Amazonian region. If you have ever seen the Pixar movie Up, the explorer Charles F. Muntz is pretty much the idea you should picture (without the talking dogs of course). Fawcett was this absolutely remarkable man's man type of fellow. During this time there were no vaccines or other amenities of modern medicine. While most people in his parties were overwhelmed by disease and infection during the journeys, Fawcett never got sick. He managed to form close relationships with local tribes that had only showed other parties violent hostility.
Throughout his explorations he began to develop theory based on evidence he had seen that the storys of El Dorado, while exageranted to some degree, were based on an actual, magnificent, ancient city lost somewhere in the heart of Brazil. However despite having come back triumphant in the face of insurmountable conditions in the past, Fawcett, his son, and his son's best friend mysteriously disappear. Because he was such a notable public figure at the time, all of the search parties have gone out to find him over the decades with often similar results that they do not return.
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