The Lost World of Quintana Roo

x, 306 pp. Illustrated with photographs, maps and charts. "This is the story of a remarkable true adventure. Michel Poissel, 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 foolhardiness of his plan, he decided to continue his journey on foot. Weeks later, quite miraculously, he 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 500 years ago was the scene of flourishing cities and ports of the ancient Mayan civilization. He could only with difficulty find Indians to guide him on his way, and then only for short stretches. 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 he returned again to Quintana Roo, for further investigations that form the final chapter of this unusual book."