Who: Douglas Preston, 59, lives in Round Pond
What: Journalist, writer of thrillers
What’s up: Talks about his expedition to an ancient, lost city in Honduras, the subject of an upcoming National Geographic story, accompanied by slideshow
When: 6 p.m. Friday, July 31
Where: Maine Coast Book Shop and Cafe, 158 Main St., Damariscotta
Tell us more: In February, I went on an archaeology discovery mission to a jungle in Honduras. It’s a pretty interesting story because there are very few places in the world that are undiscovered. This jungle is so thick you can’t see it from the air. We saw earthen pyramids, earthworks and 52 stone sculptures left at the foot of a pyramid as an offering.
How old is the city? It has not been excavated or dated. But the sculptures have been estimated to be between 1,000 years old and 1400 A.D., during the height of civilization. It was extremely beautiful and extremely dangerous.
How dangerous? We were in the thick of the jungle that was full of deadly tropical diseases. All the ones you can think of like chikungunya, dengue fever and a parasitic disease called leishmaniasis. There were deadly snakes like fer-de-lance in the thick of it.
The upside: I am grateful that I did not get bit by a snake.
The downside: I got leishmaniasis and may still have it. You can’t take a magic pill to make it go away.
What prompted the trip? I explored this area by air for a New Yorker piece: The El Dorado Machine using Lidar. That’s technology that shoots billions of laser beams on the canopy and records bouncebacks to create a 3-D picture of the jungle, a map of the ground. The discovery of the city lead to the expedition. The pictures I am showing will be the first time anyone has ever seen them.
Do you do it for the story or experience? Both. It’s worth it for the story. It was absolutely worth it to explore this ruined city, one of the last unexplored places on the surface of the Earth that’s truly a pristine tropical jungle untouched by human hands. If I could do it all over again I would. If my face falls off I might change my mind.
With such danger involved, why do it? Any real exploration involves risk. Almost inevitably. But I’ve always taken risks, climbing mountains, skiing. As a journalist I’ve done a lot of risky storytelling. The dumbest thing I ever did was when I went to Cambodia to see an undiscovered 12th century Khmer temple while the Khmer Rouge was still active in the ’90s. I went in with 12 well-armed Cambodian army soldiers that we hired on the side.
What happened? Nothing happened. The tiny village near the temple had been victimized by the Khmer Rouge — they had kidnapped three people and were holding them in the jungle a mile or two away for ransom ($81). So the Khmer Rouge were there, but we were in and out so quickly that it doesn’t appear they realized it.
On a more glamorous note, I hear that George Clooney is optioning one of your books? He was interested in “ The Monster of Florence,” a story I wrote with Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist from Florence, who covered the crime beat for the local Tuscan paper, La Nazione.
It’s about a serial killer who murdered younger lovers in Florence, who was never caught. He was worse than Jack the Ripper.
And Clooney? Clooney is no longer involved, but we are still going forward full speed ahead. StudioCanal has optioned it and the the main producer is David Heyman, who has produced Harry Potter movies and the screenwriter is Nikolaj Arcel … It’s a complicated Hollywood story and probably best left unsaid.
