Guest Post – William Petrick

I am happy to have a guest post by author William Petrick. While I have not read the book, It does sound very interesting and I was happy let him write a little something for my blog and share info about the author and the book.

A little about the author:
William Petrick is an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer/director who has created programs for National Geographic, Discovery, MTV, Court TV and many other cable and broadcast networks. He is currently a senior producer with Bill Moyers Journal on PBS. You can visit William Petrick's website at www.thefivelostdays.com.

BOOK SUMMARY:

Struggling documentary producer Michael Burns has traveled to the remote Maya Mountains of Belize to capture exclusive footage of the last surviving curandero. The traditional Mayan healer may hold the key to discovering new medicines among the vast, uncharted flora of the rain forest.

But with a violent civil war spilling across the border from neighboring Guatemala - and Burns inexplicably drawn to the aging curandero's American apprentice - the filmmakers stumble into a more explosive story than they ever could have imagined.

At once an adventure and an exploration into the nature of perception, THE FIVE LOST DAYS
exposes the clash between modern culture and ancient beliefs.

And a little about what the William has to say:

Traveling through the Belize Rain forest can be both exotic and Disney-like. There are tours that take you to over-travelled villages and waterfalls and swim holes that bring in hot, weary eco-tourists by the busload. But you can also easily step away from the tours and find yourself in a land untouched by cell service or websites. There are many tiny Mayan villages where people still spread their cocao beans on hemp to fry out before grinding for chocolate. There are a seemingly infinite number of waterfalls where you're the only visitor outside of the Mayan woman washing her clothes. There are trails for locals that venture into the forest but it isn't long before you're on your own. The simple wildlife, from butterflies to birds, is stunning. Of course, monkies--especially the howlers who earn their name at meal times--are everywhere. In a word, it's rain forests as they have always been. It doesnt' take much to get jungle fever....