Valverde's Gold: In Search of the Last Great Inca Treasure - Softcover

Honigsbaum, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 031242518X ISBN 13: 9780312425180

Publisher: Picador, 2005

Synopsis

When Mark Honigsbaum discovers an ancient Spanish treasure guide buried in his research notebooks, he cannot help but be drawn into the legend of Valverde, a conquistador with a treasure trail that has proven fatal for the past 400 years. Undeterred by the cursed history of the gold, Honigsbaum embarks on an epic journey into the last uncharted range in the Andes--the Llanganati Mountains of eastern Ecuador. Valverde's Gold is the story of how the lure of gold intoxicates even the most level-headed of historians, and of how men--and women--are seized with the desire to claim treasure from one of the most inhospitable landscapes in the world. Honigsbaum battles through mountains, jungles, and conflicting stories, and, as he draws closer to the hidden cache, illuminates the allure of lost gold and the hold it has on our imagination.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark Honigsbaum is a journalist and historian. He lives in London with his wife and two children.

From Publishers Weekly:

Journalist and historian Honigsbaum was on a research trip in 2000 to Baños, Ecuador, when he heard an intriguing tale: in a cave somewhere in the mountains northeast of Baños, a hoard of gold originally intended as part of the ransom for Inca emperor Atahualpa was said to have been hidden in 1533, and a document known as Valverde's Guide indicated how to find it. Fascinated, Honigsbaum pored through archives; the more he read, the more complex the story became. His recounting of his journey of discovery, about the guides and maps (there turn out to be many), is deliciously detailed and dense, as satisfying as any mystery, since he's genuinely stymied by the riddles he finds. His cast includes a botanist who harvests microscopic orchids resembling bumblebees, an aging Ecuadoran playboy who drinks and lies, and wary descendants of men who held the original treasure maps in their hands. Despite warnings that the treasure's a chimera and that the mountains are perilously labyrinthine, Honigsbaum eventually sets out to find the treasure. What he finds is a spellbinding climax to this tale of adventure and of the age-old lure of treasure. Maps and illus. not seen by PW.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 031242518X
• ISBN 13: 9780312425180
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368