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...

Born as a mountain brook, the Hudson River courses through dangerous rapids and waterfalls in a dramatic plunge of 4,000 feet. Then, remarkably, the river slows and widens, becoming over the next 154 miles a massive arm of the sea, with saltwater and powerful tides. One summer Peter Lourie set out to explore this extraordinary river by doing what no one had ever done: he canoed the entire 315-mile Hudson, from its source in the Adirondack Mountains to its mouth at the southern tip of Manhattan, where it meets the Atlantic. This exciting day-by-day account of Lourie's journey, complete with...