River of Darkness - Buddy Levy

Uhh another sleeper. I bet most people have never heard of Buddy Levy’s ‘River of Darkness’, which is a shame because this is one of the most fascinating reads ever for me. It’s about the (mostly ?) true journey of Franciso de Orellana - a spanish conquistador - who is probably the first human being to sail the full length of the Amazon. His journey began with the typical quest to conquer and claim: I think his mission initially set out to gather the valued cinnamon-tree. However, the conditions can be cruel in the 1500s Ecuador and his mission soon turned in a quest to survive, stranded in the depths of the jungle. The few which were left built ships to sail to the ocean. Needless to say, they estimated the size 6'400km long river much, much shorter than it really is. On their way, they hit (understatement of the year) a number of obstacles, the biggest of which were indigenous people (!). This is very, very notable, since the amazon is believed to be mostly uninhabited in these times. Orellana and his priest however, describe advanced communites of thousends and maybe hundred thousends of people living in the forest. Makes you think, you know…