Passage Through El Dorado

Jonathan Kandell explores South America's heartland and finds cruelty and heroism, beauty and menace, as he travels from the petroleum rich fields of Peru to the cattle and cocaine of Bolivia, through inhospitable climate and terrain, piranha infested waters, and dangerously unstable government bolstered by greed and corruption. The cast of characters includes hired gunmen, camp followers, cattle barons, narcotics czars, explorers and presidents, oil executives and road builders - a remarkable modern-day odyssey.