Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon: A Chronicle of an Incan Treasure by Peter Lourie

From the Publisher

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 vanished into the forsaken Llanganati range of the Andes.

Lourie abandoned his graduate school ambitions to search for Atahualpa's ransom. His quest for clues and his journey into the heart of the Andes is an absorbing and exciting detective story. Lourie's account is also unforgettable for its revelations about the lives and characters of seasoned treasure hunters, the obsessed few lured by the siren song of legendary gold.

Newhouse News Service

Lourie's book is a wonderful and enthralling story of the way a dream can take hold of people and both sustain their lives and destroy them. Lourie has created the small, intense and obsessive world of the treasure hunter in such detail that the reader has become a part of it.

Publishers Weekly

The lost treasure of Atahualpa, the Inca king murdered by Pizarro in 1534, continues to lure gold hunters to the distant, almost impassable mountains of Ecuador, where, legend says, it is hidden. Lourie, a graduate student in anthropology, succumbed to the legend and set off on an expedition to separate myth from fact. His journal captures the quixotic path he followed, often with laughable unreadiness and the self-delusion that propelled many fellow-travelers he encountered en route. In the end, ironically, Lourie concluded that he had no desire whatsoever to disturb the Incas' gold. His journal is a captivating, if meandering adventure. (Apr.)

Library Journal

The Llanganati is a remote, high Andean area of Ecuador that has long been rumored to contain a fabulous gold collection hidden by the Incas when the Spanish conquistadors swept through. Over the years it has attracted a colorful variety of treasure hunters, some of whom the author got to know in the early 1980s. Lourie decided to make the expedition himself, but not in search of the treasure so much as the experience of the journey. In doing so, his first book is a rich tapestry of characters of several nationalitites that often reads like fiction. The title is a reference to the Incan imagery of gold and silver, respectively. The only major drawback is an absence of maps, yet this is ultimately a fine treasure-hunting book.--Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland

What People Are Saying

Joseph Heller
The farther I read, the more deeply engrossed I found myself in this straightforward tale of treasure. No wonder people keep looking, and always want to learn more.

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