Eight billion dollars? worth of Inca gold and silver are rumored to be hidden in an unmapped region of the Andes. This is the captivating story of that fabled treasure and the centuries-old spell it has cast on many, including a young American student, Peter Lourie. While completing anthropological fieldwork in Ecuador, Lourie heard the legend of Atahualpa?s ransom. The Incas gathered seven-hundred tons of gold (Sweat of the Sun) and silver (Tears of the Moon) to purchase the freedom of their king, Atahualpa, from Pizarro and his conquistadors. After the Inca ruler?s murder, the treasure vanished into the forsaken Llanganati range of the Andes. Lourie abandoned his graduate school ambitions to search for Atahualpa?s ransom. His quest for clues and his journey into the heart of the Andes is an absorbing and exciting detective story. Lourie?s account is also unforgettable for its revelations about the lives and characters of seasoned treasure hunters, the obsessed few lured by the siren song of legendary gold.

It is said that every person has at least one book in them. This must be my attempt at fulfilling this aspiration. This book has been brewing for many years and I am thankful that I inculcated the discipline of writing, polishing and saving each poem over the years. This anthology of poems represents snapshots from my life over many decades. It is also a tribute to the girls and women who have passed through my life. But it is not all autobiographical; much of my poetry has been conjured up from keen observation and a fertile imagination.

Ripinsky-Naxon explores the core and essence of shamanism by looking at its ritual, mythology, symbolism, and the dynamics of its cultural process. In dealing with the basic elements of shamanism, the author discusses the shamanistic experience and enlightenment, the inner personal crisis, and the many aspects entailed in the role of the shaman.

The Rough Guide to Ecuador & the Galápagos Islands is the definitive travel guide to this captivating country. In-depth coverage of Ecuador's incomparable wildlife, vibrant indigenous cultures, and awe-inspiring scenery takes you to the most rewarding spots-from the Amazon rain forest to the heights of the Andes to glorious, laid-back beach resorts-and stunning color photography brings the land to life on the pages. Discover Ecuador's highlights, with expert advice on exploring the best colonial cities, participating in ancient festivals, scaling volcanoes and learning Spanish, straddling the Equator, and swimming with turtles, penguins, sea lions, and even sharks. This guidebook includes extensive coverage of the capital, Quito, and the Galápagos Islands, the world's premier wildlife destination. Easy-to-use maps, reliable advice on how to get around, and insider reviews of the best hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, and shops for all budgets ensure that you won't miss a thing. Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to Ecuador & the Galápagos Islands.

This volume deals with the way in which money is symbolically represented in a range of different cultures, from South and South-east Asia, Africa and South America. It is also concerned with the moral evaluation of monetary and commercial exchanges as against exchanges of other kinds. The essays cast radical doubt on many Western assumptions about money: that it is the acid which corrodes community, depersonalises human relationships, and reduces differences of quality to those of mere quantity; that it is the instrument of man's freedom, and so on. Rather than supporting the proposition that money produces easily specifiable changes in world view, the emphasis here is on the way in which existing world views and economic systems give rise to particular ways of representing money. But this highly relativistic conclusion is qualified once we shift the focus from money to the system of exchange as a whole. One rather general pattern that then begins to emerge is of two separate but related transactional orders, the majority of systems making some ideological space for relatively impersonal, competitive and individual acquisitive activity. This implies that even in a non-monetary economy these features are likely to exist within a certain sphere of activity, and that it is therefore misleading to attribute them to money. By so doing, a contrast within cultures is turned into a contrast between cultures, thereby reinforcing the notion that money itself has the power to transform the nature of social relationships.

Limited time offer. In the critically acclaimed The Rope in the Water, Sylvia Fraser described her three-month pilgrimage to India in search of "something larger than myself, something deeper, something more." In The Green Labyrinth, Fraser continues her journey, this time deep into the jungle of the Amazon in the company of shamans, traditional spiritualists practicing ancient rituals. At the heart of Fraser’s quest lies the mind-expanding drug "ayahuasca", a gateway to worlds beyond her own, to a better understanding of the mysteries of existence. Fraser takes us to shamanic sanctuaries that hover at the edge of our modern world, providing a portal to the unknown. Along the way she introduces us to a diverse group of pilgrims searching for their own answers with the help of shamans and ayahuasca. Through meaningful visions and with spiritual guidance, Fraser and her fellow travellers acquire insight into their emotional and psychic lives, and discover that many of the answers they are searching for lie within themselves.