Published first in Germany as Ins Land der Lacandonen, then in Great Britain as the Jungle Quest, this is an interesting, well-written chronicle by a celebrated world traveler and sportsman. The small expedition meets ten members of the Lacandones. Reduced to 167 people in all, these descendants of the ancient Maya Indians are the purest racially and culturally known to Rittlinger. Pagans still, they practice their colorful ways, but they are in the process of decline through disease, incest, and even murder.
In seeking Mayan ruins made taboo by a massacre over two centuries ago, the four men and a woman journey 48 days, often nude, through a green hell suffering terror, exhaustion, and starvation. The account is a sweat-stained, water-logged, insect-infested, almost yard-by-yard description. They spend thirty-two days traveling 75 miles up the river Azul in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, only to become lost in a poorly mapped region. Once the Mayan ruins are located on an island in the Lake of the Lacadones, they are scarcely noted. Consequently, many more pages are devoted to adventure than to the “Last of the Maya.”
While geographers stand corrected through Rittlanger’s discoveries and through his observations an addition is made to knowledge about a little known tribe, there is relatively little of scholarly value in the work. Far greater is its usefulness as a popular, true adventure story. Recommended with these qualifications to all interested.
