Why We Still Can’t Explore Honduras’ Lost City Jungle

Why is Honduras' Mosquitia jungle so hard to explore? In February 2015, a team flew by military helicopter into a remote valley in La Mosquitia to check what a lidar scan had revealed beneath the rainforest canopy. A fer de lance appeared the first night, and something far smaller followed them home. This documentary explores the roadless Mosquitia region of eastern Honduras, the legend of Ciudad Blanca, the lidar survey that exposed an ancient settlement, and the leishmaniasis outbreak spread by sand flies. It also covers rare wildlife, the debate over the term lost city, and the illegal road now cutting into the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve. Subscribe to Real Destination for more documentaries: www.youtube.com/channel/UC0j_Hjb14fKYtPWp1_KLmig Become a member to support future Real Destination documentaries: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0j_Hjb14fKYtPWp1_KLmig/join Watch Next: https://youtu.be/Zxn1h4zzAkY Chapters: 0:00 A Snake, a Laser and a Hidden Valley 1:37 The Legend of Ciudad Blanca 2:56 How Lidar Saw Beneath the Rainforest 5:11 The 2015 Helicopter Expedition 6:44 52 Stone Objects in the Mud 8:00 The Sand Fly Disease That Followed Them Home 9:32 Rare Wildlife in an Intact Forest 11:02 Was It Really a Lost City? 13:07 The Illegal Road Into Rio Platano 15:11 The Communities Guarding La Mosquitia Sources and further reading: UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, state of conservation reports". Christopher T. Fisher and colleagues. "Identifying Ancient Settlement Patterns through LiDAR in the Mosquitia Region of Honduras". PLOS ONE, 2016. Trond H. Larsen (editor). "A Rapid Biological Assessment of Ciudad del Jaguar, Ciudad Blanca, La Mosquitia, Honduras". RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment 72, Conservation International, 2019. Douglas Preston. "The Lost City of the Monkey God". Grand Central Publishing, 2017. Maryn McKenna. "Pernicious Parasite Strikes Explorers of 'Lost City'". National Geographic, 2015. Mongabay. "In the Honduran Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, an illegal road for cattle and drugs". 2021. Image credits (Wikimedia Commons): "Lutzomyia longipalpis sandfly" by Ray Wilson, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Creative Commons Attribution 2.5. "Leishmania mexicana promastigote SEM" by Zephyris. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0. "Muelle de Puerto Lempira" by Jag22green. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0. "Cessna 337A Super Skymaster" by ZLEA. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0. "Patuca medio e indigena Miskito", "Sobre el Patuca", "Zona nucleo de la RHBRP, sitio Tilopo" and "Sistema de humedales y sabanas" by Marcio Martinez. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0. "Rio Platano" by Hjvannes at Dutch Wikipedia. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0. "Atardecer en Callos Miskitos" by El arzobispo. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0. "Miskito People" by Natox. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0. "Green stone bird Trujillo" by Culmi02. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0. Public domain images: Hernan Cortes portrait by Jose Salome Pina, Map of the Mosquito Shore by David Lamb and John Christopher, Copan Stela B by Alfred Percival Maudslay, Miskito family on the Prinzapolka River by Allen Drebert, and NASA ISS view of Honduras. Maps: NASA Blue Marble and Natural Earth. Stock footage, music and sound effects licensed from Envato Elements.