Quicksand Fans

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston

This is a journalist's account of being with an expedition to explore a lost city in the hostile jungles of Honduras. Snakes, flesh-eating parasites, etc. plagued them on their way to the city.... but what is of interest to us is an account of how they almost lost a lady archeologist to a pool of bottomless quickmud.

The author tells of the incident in this chat with Quirks and Quarks radio show on CBC. I don't have a timing on it, alas, but it is in the first third of the interview. Basically, they are wading through this area of muck when she gets stuck and slowly starts to sink... complete with bubbles forming around her. It is a short bit, but cool to listen to. The whole segment is worth a listen, IMHO.

http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/quirks-a ... t/12240844

Skip to 11:40 for the quickmud story.

Thanks for posting this.

Well, at least the lady seemed very calm about her predicament! Didn't scream or struggle; not all that damsel in distress drama from what I heard in the discussion.

Interesting that he calls it quickmud when just about anyone else would say it was quicksand

quickman wrote:Interesting that he calls it quickmud when just about anyone else would say it was quicksand

Quickmud is likely more accurate to describe what most of us like to wallow in. At least in my case. Quicksand is more difficult to handle.

That sounds like an interesting place to plan a vacation, but unfortunately, the dangerous wildlife (such as the fer de lance, the most poisonous snake in the world) and parasites (like a face-eating microbe that is spread through sandfly bites) kinda spoil things.