The Adventurers: locating the river of the "Jungle"-subtheme

[The Reader]

I don’t know, if this has been discussed earlier. I tried a search but haven’t found anything. So, I will give it a try. It’s just to add some realistic geographic background to the "Jungle"-subtheme. Don’t take it too seriously ...

 

We all know that the „Desert“-subtheme is located in Egypt (easy thing!). The place of the „Dino Island“-subtheme is obviously fictional – as are the living dinos. And the journey of the Orient Expedition-subtheme is printed on the back of the building instructions.

But have you ever questioned where the "Jungle"-subtheme is located? Set 5986 is named „Amazon Ancient Ruins“. But are Johnny Thunder and his friends really following the Amazon River during their quest for the magical golden sun disk? Well, here is my answer which gives my personal view:

Luckily, Johnny Thunder and his friends have a map showing their way through the South American jungle towards their destination (Bricklink: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3068bpx24&idColor=2#T=C&C=2 ). But which part of South America does this map show?

If we assume that the compass rosette printed on the map is correctly orientated, then the picture on Bricklink shows that north lies in the upper side of the map. Then the land mass we see in the left-hand upper corner of the map can only be the Isthmus of Panama as - at least as far as I can see - no other place in South America would fit this distinctive coastline. So, the map must cover the countries of Colombia and Venezuela.

If we now look for a large river as shown on the map in Colombia, we will find the Rio Magdalena (Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalena_River ) which flows almost vertically from South to North (also as the river on the map) through Colombia. (And here is the only “problem” in my story: The Rio Magdalena flows in the sea East of the Isthmus of Panama, not West of it as shown on the map. But never mind – this is just a negligible mistake made by the cartograph of the map.  ) Because of the distinctive coastline and the size of the river I am convinced, that the map shows the Rio Magdalena rather than the Amazon River.

And there are other “proofs”: Johnny Thunder and his friends are on the quest for the golden sun disk. This golden sun disk fits in some way within the legend of Eldorado (Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado ) which is according to Wikipedia connected in some way with the Lake Guatavita (Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Guatavita ). This lake lies near the City of Bogota and not far from the upper part of the Rio Magdalena. The ancient ruins Johnny Thunder and his friends discover (sets 5976 and 5986 for example) might be ruins of the Muisca people (also called Chibcha people; Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muisca ), an indigenous people which lived in the mountains East of the Rio Magdalena. Perhaps Achu, the ruler of the jungle, is a Muisca chief. 

So, in my opinion and in my personal “Adventurers’ world” Johnny Thunder and his friends are steaming up the Rio Magdalena, not the Amazon River.

I would be happy to read your thoughts about this!

Edited November 7, 2019 by The Reader