REVIEW: Charles Brewer Carias found the City of Gold!?!

When you think of a discoverer, Victorian-era brutes with yellow jodhpurs and handle bar mustaches may come to mind. Right out of a story book or history lecture, this image isn't something we equate with the modern man. Except one modern man is just that, mustache and all.

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REVIEW: Charles Brewer Carias found the City of Gold!?!

POSTED: Monday, July 11, 2011, 3:00 PM

Filed Under: Events

Carias in Rio Casiquiare

When you think of a discoverer, Victorian-era brutes with yellow jodhpurs and handle bar mustaches may come to mind. Right out of a story book or history lecture, this image isn’t something we equate with the modern man. Except one modern man is just that, mustache and all. Charles Brewer Carias licked his fingers and twisted the ends of his stache as he took the stage at the Union League this last Saturday. Invited by the wild British adventure group, The Adventurists, Carias was the featured guest at their afternoon tea and gin event. The Venezuelan has been called the greatest discoverer and adventurist of our time. Never having to leave his native country, the now 72-year-old has discovered the largest quartzite cave, largest sink holes, a bevy of new species and quite possibly the oldest organism on Earth — a 1.5 million year old silica. The explorer covered all of this in his lecture as well as his most exciting news: he has found El Dorado.

Since he was a child, his father told him he needed to specialize in something to make a living. That was too limiting for this future explorer, though. “’You must concentrate yourself’, my father would say. But I am an encyclopedist.” It didn’t help that when he was a child, men would come to visit his family home, talking about finding the “lost cities.” Of course, the most famous of these lost cities is the treasure trove El Dorado, the City of Gold. The search for this lost city may be the push for all of Carias’ explorations. It would seem that many of his finds, including ones only yards from his house, happened haphazardly while searching for the City of Gold. At the end of his life, he tells the audience that he has finally found it. Contrary to legend, the golden city is actually a prince who lived on Lake Manoa. Carias’ own shirt is embroidered with the marking of the prized lake. While slightly different than legend would have it, according to Carias and his family, there still is gold there. He confided to me that while he knows where it is, he won’t have officially discovered it until a new Venezuelan government takes over — one he hopes will be less “greedy.” “If I don’t make it, I have put a team of my son and a few friends together to discover the city at the right time.”

Like many famous faces, the Carias name is also followed by scandal. He has been charged with abusing the Yekuana tribe he lived and worked with for years. This scandal was shortly followed by his possible portrayal in the Disney film Up. Though not an official influence for the villain Charles Muntz, many have pointed out the extreme similarities. Carias also has strong political opinions. The grandson of a diplomat, Charles doesn’t think kindly of the newer Venezuelan government. A staunch Capitalist at heart, he made several political points after the lecture when an audience member asked Carias to further explain a comment he had made on global warming. Answering, “Ok, Al Gore…”, the explorer carried the point to say that industrialized countries aren’t to blame for the state of the Third World. While he found an accepting audience at the Union League, it became obvious that this explorer could be a controversial figure.

However, in the light of his family, surrounded by his beautiful son and daughter, it was hard to see him as a Disney villain. At an early age, he took his children to live amongst the Yekuana to teach them about simplicity. Growing up, the two would often bring their father and his self-named species into class Show and Tell. Amongst this family, Carias was a proud and loving father like any other. If there is one thing Carias wanted us to learn this Saturday afternoon, it was to continue the childlike discovery he had instilled in his children. “People want to discover when they are little and then there comes a time people renounce that discovery … [But)]discovery is built in you. Its magical to find something no one has seen before.”

(megan.augustin@citypaper.net)

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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