On the way to Mexico, I finished Ina Garten’s memoir, which I really loved. But it was The Lost City of Z that I could not stop talking about! There were so many parallels to things we learned about on the trip, including how the “explorers” aka colonizers fundamentally misunderstood the native people and their way of life. Percy Fawcett was interesting because I do think he had more curiosity and understanding of the indigenous Amazonians. But he was obsessed with discovering this storied “lost city,” which, much like the Maya, never really disappeared and was surrounding him the whole time.

I could not stop thinking about how, just over 100 years ago, there was so much of the world that wasn’t mapped yet. Now, we can travel from Mexico back to North Carolina over the course of several hours and I can zoom in on the world map and navigate through the snow with a computer in my pocket. Percy Fawcett’s head would explode.