TR in Brazil

My late father once said that if he had it all to do over again, he'd be an archaeologist.

He was on to something. Lost civilizations wait in the South American jungle to be found:

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - An ancient walled city complex inhabited some 1,300 years ago by a culture later conquered by the Incas has been discovered deep in Peru's Amazon jungle, explorers said on Tuesday.

U.S. and Peruvian explorers uncovered the city, which may have been home to up to 10,000 people, after a month trekking in Peru's northern rain forest and following up on years of investigation about a possible lost metropolis in the region.

The stone city, made up of five citadels at 9,186 feet above sea level, stretches over around 39 square miles and contains walls covered in carvings and figure paintings, exploration leader Sean Savoy told Reuters.

"It is a tremendous city ... containing areas with stone etchings and 10-meter (33-foot) high walls," said Savoy, who had to hack through trees and thick foliage to finally reach the site on Aug. 15.

Covered in matted tree branches and interspersed with lakes and waterfalls, the settlement sites also contain well-preserved graveyards with mummies with teeth "in almost perfect condition," Savoy said.

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Theodore Roosevelt said: "I am always willing to pay the piper when I have a good dance; and every now and then I like to drink the wine of life spiked with brandy in it."

TR came close to paying the piper when his pursuit of the strenuous life led him on a jungle expedition to explore the uncharted River of Doubt in Brazil in 1913.

His resulting account, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, is online at Bartleby.com.

Another TR site has images of his South American trek.

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The jaguar makes the front of Time this week in a cover story on endangered big cats.

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Sounding on the drums: "Jungle Jamboree," by the Jungle Band.