Quest for the Lost City

Radio and television personality Tom Harmon introduces the explorer husband and wife team of Dana and Ginger Lamb. The Southern California couple have developed survival techniques together since the days of their honeymoon, when they built an ocean-going canoe and traveled along the California coast to the Panama Canal employing early pioneer and Native American skills to aid in their survival. Harmon explains that as an Army air force pilot, he became well acquainted with the Lambs' fortitude and skills through his airmen's kit, in part created by the Lambs, which aided in his survival in enemy territory. Intrigued by Central American legends of a remote and ancient Mayan civilization, the couple decides to return to Mexico and look for the lost city on foot. In addition to their 40 to 60 pound backpacks full of supplies, the couple carry a movie camera, fitted with a delay timer that allows them to shoot the adventure while also being in the picture. After an arduous journey through the United States and Mexico, they finally reach the impenetrable Chiapas rainforest at the Mexican and Guatemalan border, where the city is rumored to exist. Dana, having once worked for an aerial survey company, decides they should search and map the area by plane. A local pilot, although unwilling to fly them, gives them an old plane that the Lambs repair with spare parts salvaged from wrecked planes. Over a period of three months, the Lambs search for hints of the ruins by flying over the overgrown territory. Finally finding a man-made clearing containing ruins of an ancient city, the Lambs take careful compass measurements. Several days later, they head toward the ruins, using machetes to cut through the growth and hunting turkey and deer for food. Along the way they demonstrate the Mayan technique for making chocolate from Cacao tree beans and harvest latex from a rubber tree to waterproof their camera bag. While in the jungle, they find various wild animals and a multitude of insects: farmer ants, beetles, stick bugs, grasshoppers and vicious ticks. After weeks in the forest, the Lambs are about to run out of water when they come across a lake. Rejuvenated by the clean water and a diet of fish, fruits and berries, the Lambs set their course for the ruins. Discovering enormous barrier cliffs, the couple searches the base for a path, but find only an underground entrance. Exploring the cavern with torches made of wood and vine, they reach the other side of the cliffs in six days. Ginger, wanting to clean the soot from their bodies, makes soap from the fat of a turkey Dana has killed. After the couple set up a camp, shy native Mayans approach them with gifts of arrows and sit down to look at the foreigners' gear. The Lambs live with the natives for three months, learning some of their language and skills for fishing, hunting and harvesting maize and tobacco. After consulting with his gods, the tribe's chief agrees to accompany the Lambs to the nearby ruins, which he refers to as the "city of the dead." Arriving at the site several days later, the Lambs are excited by the multitude of objects and architectural remains, evidence of a great Mayan civilization. In addition to large stone walls, they find intricate carvings, large altar stones, ancient corn grinders, a ceremonial blade made of obsidian and human teeth inlaid with jade and turquoise, a sign of Mayan aristocracy. Noticing a cave, the Lambs make torches to provide light, but are forced to exit as a large storm begins to flood the valley. Needing to make a canoe to survive the swelling waters, Dana fells a large tree and carves out the canoe over eight days while Ginger tries to recuperate from a bout of malaria. Despite the swift-moving river that has formed, the Lambs reach safety. As they begin to make their way home, they revel in the thrill of penetrating unknown territory and promise to return to the area to discover the contents of the vault in the lost city of the Mayans.