HEADHUNTERS AND HUMMING BIRDS: An Expedition into Ecuador

Readers who think the world a tame place will have their eyes opened very wide by this harrowing true adventure. In company with a team of biologists, the author spent six weeks in a land of of mud, moss and constant rain, of small, beautiful birds and spiders the size of teacups, of guides who disappeared with the expedition's supplies, and hostile confrontations with much-feared local tribesmen. Indiana Jones would have been perfectly at home in the midst of these adventures: plunging down a slippery mountainside and seeing a big root move just as it's being stepped on, finding a human scalp hanging from the roof of a cabin; eating, as food stocks dwindle, meals of ""moldly noodles and bird bodies, mixed in a peanut butter sauce"" (there's actually a picture of this). The book includes dozens of dark black-and-white photographs, most of them portraits, two maps, index and bibliography. A vivid, unforgettable narrative.