Francisco de Orellana heads down the Amazon River in a bid to return to civilization. Little does he know that he is about to begin one of the most amazing journeys in the annals of exploration.

His epic trek will include a battle with the legendary Amazons, encounters with cannibals, near starvation and much, much more.

• Listen to Francisco de Orellana and the Exploration of the Amazon River Part 2 online.
• Explorers on iTunes.

Journey of Francisco de Orellana 

Sources

The best book I found on Orellana was River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon by Buddy Levy. It’s a well-written adventure that was my go-to source for this podcast.

Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso río grande que descubrió por muy grande ventura el capitán Francisco de Orellana según la transcripción de don Toribio Medina is a version of Orellana’s tale as written by Father Gaspar de Carvajal – the priest who accompanied Orellana down the Amazon. This version is in Spanish (I could not find an English language version).

Wikipedia Links:

• Francisco de Orellana
• Gonzalo Pizarro
• Gaspar de Carvajal

All images courtesy of Wikipedia.