In 1526 Cortés wrote a report to Emperor Charles V while off the coast of Honduras, saying that he believed that there were "very extensive and rich provinces". What the map doesn't reveal is that this area that covers roughly thirty-two thousand miles, and that it is a "land of rainforests, swamps, lagoons, rivers and mountains." According to the author, the area was once labeled on maps as the Portal del Infierno, "the Gates of Hell." It is a dangerous place to explore, not only due to the hazards posed by "the thickest jungle in the world" but also because of the fact that, as Preston says, "Honduras has one of the highest murder rates in the world," and that a whopping eighty percent of the cocaine that comes to the US via South America comes through Honduras, "most of it via Mosquitia" leaving "much of the surrounding countryside and towns" of the area in the hands of the cartels.
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