Completely rewritten and researched firsthand by a lifelong resident and serious outdoorsman, this detailed guide packs in all the diverse adventures waiting for you in Northern California: skiing Tahoe, hiking the backcountry trails of Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon, road biking in the Wine Country and along the coast, sea kayaking amid otters and sea lions, tidepooling, and teeing off at some of the country's best golf courses. Whatever your skill level and interests, you'll find an array of outings just right for you.

Frommer's Great Outdoor Guide to Northern California

Travel

Rice, Andrew

Herman, Marc

United States

Frommers

The real land of El Dorado, deep in the Amazon rainforest, is a far cry from the mythical city of gold: though its soil could potentially yield billions of dollars, Guyana is a nation of “gilded paupers,” one of the very poorest countries in the western hemisphere. In this adventure-filled narrative, journalist Marc Herman takes us down a supply road in a limping cargo truck, treks into a muggy and muddy mine on foot, and soars above the forest canopy in a skittering plane. He falls in with a rowdy crew of gold miners who measure manliness by the number of times they’ve had malaria, and wear their life savings in the form of oversized rings and huge gold necklaces. He also penetrates the corporate façade of international strip-mining operations, which despite tremendous technological and political power have failed to alleivate the area’s poverty. Searching for El Dorado is an eyeopening look at the scandals, the business, the mythology of gold—reaveling a fascinating, contradictory part of the world and of the human psyche.

Searching for El Dorado: A Journey into the South American Rainforest on the Tail of the World's Largest Gold Rush

Reference

Vintage

The search for the lost City of Gold in the Amazon basin has inspired adventurers since the days of the Spanish conquistadors and Sir Walter Raleigh. Intrigued by the cultural, economic, and environmental fallout of a five-hundred-year gold rush, journalist Marc Herman traveled to the rainforests of Guyana, where he joined up with a rowdy crew of local gold-miners as they pursued their dreams of riches. In an adventure-filled narrative rich with humor and empathy, Herman brings to life the group of miners. They are independent prospectors who wear all their earnings on their fingers and around their necks -- their bank accounts are oversized rings and huge gold necklaces. But yards away from the mines where these men seek their fortunes with techniques reminiscent of California’s forty-niners -- dynamite, tin pans, and wooden sluices -- there are mines run by international corporations that fail to alleviate the area’s poverty despite their tremendous technological and political power. Searching for El Dorado is an astonishing achievement, a lively, humor-filled adventure full of colorful people and incidents wrapped around an eye-opening look at the contemporary colonialism that is enough to make you question the value of gold.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Nan A. Talese

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Books by Herman, Marc