“What happened to your Paititi expedition?”
Many people have written in asking what our status is to resume our expedition to search for the lost city of Paititi, well…to tell you the truth, it’s complicated.
I was first featured in an online Forbes article in 2016 alongside Paititi explorers Thierry Jamin and Gregory Deyermenjian in an article entitled, How the Discovery Of Paititi, The Lost City Of Gold, May Change Peru Forever. That’s when I knew this was something more than just an interest and that I had to approach it through a more serious lens. Looking back, I first caught the Paititi bug in 2008 when I travelled to Peru with my university. I had read many stories about lost cities and the search for hidden artifacts during that time and even heard about it first-hand when I was there studying with the indigenous Q’ero. I later returned in 2013, and went to explore an ancient wall of petroglyphs which many believe held clues to the location of the lost city.
My last expedition took place in 2017, 6 years ago now, which was when we descended into the indigenous Q’ero territory heading downward into the Amazon from the Andes. I later went without my team to do a reconnaissance mission along the Madre de Dios River crossing back and forth between Matsigenka and Amarakaeri lands. Read more about it here. People commented that they wanted to finish watching the Paititi series I had uploaded on YouTube, however, I decided against posting the final video as it covered a lot of sensitive topics (including several interviews and footage of the uncontacted Mashco-Piro tribe).
Why didn’t we just make a run for it? Well, Manuel and myself were unable to enter the deep part of the jungle due to the extremely dangerous conditions. We have tons of maps marking archaeologically significant points but many of them are hard to reach. Not to mention the incredible amount of interviews we have filmed between myself and Manuel. There’s one point in particular where we believe the lost city of Paititi is located. It’s difficult to get to, however, according to an eye-witness, they were able to catch a glimpse of it via a helicopter while working for an oil company at the time. According to their statements, it was larger than Machu Picchu and was only able to be seen due to the extreme dry heat that year that left many mountaintops slightly barren. Very specific geographical features were related to us along with travel times and distances from those said topographical features (which we were later able to verify). Other stories coming from that region were collaborated including that very specific objects were found which were of Incan origins. The most important findings came from anthropologists conducting field research in the region which they were at a loss to explain how Incan tools ended up so far inside the jungle.
After I returned to the United States in 2017 I began looking for a way to fund our future expeditions. It took years of back and forth until we were eventually set up with a production company that had the biggest name in Hollywood to back us up. Likewise, we were teamed up with a famous awesome archaeologist who was going to help support our endeavour. We were going to make this into a documentary-style production and it was pitched to every major network and channel imaginable. This additional back and forth took about two years. Everyone was interested in our project but nobody wanted to fully commit. In the end, it was probably one of the most depressing moments of my life. So close…but no cigar.
So many explorers and random people came close to the area in question, however, none made it to the area. The jungle being so dense you could walk literally 3 feet away from it and not be able to see it. Academic research coming out suggested that the entire Amazon region was completely densely populated, and would match up closely with Spanish conquistador reports. However, due to disease many of these groups perhaps became nomadic as a means of survival after their population fell to illnesses brought over by the Europeans. Thus, the jungle quickly consumed any evidence of these civilizations.
Manuel and myself continued collecting evidence and gathering data. During this time Manuel’s house was raided a few times by people clearly looking for the maps we had in our possession. And we kept hearing stories of different groups being well-funded trying to venture into our specific location, but all were unsuccessful.
Shortly thereafter, I returned to the jungle in October of 2019 to film for a nonprofit. While I was there I would ask people in passing regarding the stories of the lost city. One man in particular was the gentleman who took Father Polentini himself directly to where he claimed the city of Paititi was located. Father Polentini was priest who was convinced Paititi was ransacked by the Fujimori administration before he fled to Japan. According to this gentleman, Polentini was full of ***t, and he was never paid as promised for taking him to the site. Even so, many locals swear up and down that they saw helicopters flying back and forth from some unknown location within the jungle.
Then COVID hit.
Everything came to a halt. My website which was receiving tens of thousands of views every week went down to virtually zero. I fell into a creative depression. I just couldn’t write or research anymore. Nobody was interested in what I had to say…and what made it worse was that Google was purposefully moving traffic away from my site. A lot of collaborations and connections simply vanished overnight. I had so much information to write a full book on the subject, but I just couldn’t bring myself to write an unfinished story. I’m going on four years now since I’ve even been on an airplane, everything seems stuck, like writers block but for life.
Even Charly, our expedition guide from 2017, is having a hard time continuing his work as a guide. A lot of political unrest throughout the country seems to have had an effect on tourism overall. Today Manuel keeps actively researching the subject and continues interviewing everyone. He’s planned about 5 different expeditionary attempts to venture into the jungle with different groups of people, however, at the last minute everyone ends up dropping out. Without proper financial support nobody wants to risk their lives in pursuit of some potential lost city. As before, we continue hearing about different well-funded groups venturing into the region trying to find the same lost city, but alas, we have yet to receive word that they’ve found something.
Many the city isn’t supposed to be found.