Outskirts Press, INC.

This book is a contribution to the amazing history of mapping and intelligence gathering in Latin America.

The major benefit the Inter American Geodetic Survey (IAGS) provided to the U.S. Department of Defense during it’s 25 years of existence was to get American personnel on the ground in 17 Latin American countries to make detailed maps created to U.S. standards. This is a true story written by men and women who worked for the IAGS.

"Our survey crew was dropped off by a helicopter on a cleared 20 by 20 foot pad on top of a peak in the Sierra de San Pablo Mountains. This was our site to observe the second party on top of a peak in the Sierra de Esperanza range some thirty kilometers to the west, as well as the third party to the north of us near the Rio Sico. As we were recording our observations that night, we listened to some jaguars down the mountainside making a repetitive coughing sound, followed by an occasional vocalized mew and grunt. Central America is extremely biodiverse. There are some 378 species in Central America, and the few jaguars are among the largest, with some of the males weighing as much as 350 pounds. For all their ferocity, however, the jaguars were too wary and elusive to present any real danger to us. The dense rainforest was their preferred habitat, but they did wander into the mountains, as were heard from a distance that night." ............ "In 1982, a portion of the Honduras area we had field classified had been designated a United Nations World Heritage Site and named Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve. The reserve protected virtually the entire watershed of the sixty-five-mile long Platano River, as well as major portions of the Paulaya River we had mapped. It was the largest surviving area of virgin tropical rainforest in Honduras. As of 2011, the reserve was put on the United Nations World Heritage Site Danger List due to the encroachment of loggers, farmers, miners, and drug czars."