In the last episode of Mysterious Cities of Gold, The children are caught in a strong current, and finally find themselves at the foot of the waterfall near the High Peak.

After three days' walk through barren country the party find giant bronze arrows of the type used by the fierce giants of the Urubu tribe. Moments later the giants ambush them from the cliff tops. Mendoza leads the others through a cave, too narrow for the giants to fit through, but Weyna and the other Incas are presumably lost in the battle. Our heroes find an unconscious girl, Lana, from the floating village of Tetola. She explains that she escaped from the Urubu, who wished to sacrifice her. She leads them to her village, built on a floating island of reeds on Lake Titicaca. The grateful villagers welcome them, but have no useful knowledge of the cities of gold. The Urubu appear at the lakeside, building rafts to attack the island and retrieve their intended sacrifice. Under Tao's instruction, the party build a small submarine out of old boats. At dawn the following day, the Urubu launch their attack. Esteban and Tao in the submarine cut apart their rafts from below. The Urubu, thinking the submarine is a lake monster, retreat hastily. The captured Urubu chief promises to end the attacks on the village, and points them to the sacred mountain of Pachamama, the earth goddess.

ESTEBAN’S THEME (TRACK 6) 2m 50s

The party walk through rocky desert, towards the mountain. Sancho and Pedro fight over their small supply of water. Finally they stop in the shade of some rocks for a rest and a drink. The children are about to drink their share when the Urubu chief, Karuga, staggers into view and collapses. Esteban and Zia give him their share of the water. He explains that he was banished for his failure in attacking the village, and warns them that the Urubu plan to ambush them and take Zia as a sacrifice. He points them to the Valley of the Dead, the only safe route, then leaves them. Tao feels guilty for not offering his water ration, and shares it with Esteban and Zia. The party continue, unaware of the Urubu watching them from the cliff tops. When they open fire, the party run to the Valley of the Dead, filled with sulphurous gas, which the Urubu are afraid to enter. The gang make their way out of the valley. The rays of the setting sun shine between two peaks, reflecting off something up a nearby mountain. They climb up to investigate, and find a large statue of the earth goddess, Pachamama. Esteban and Zia place their medallions upon the statue's breasts, and the nearby rock face slides open, revealing a hidden, abandoned city. Searching for gold, they investigate a huge temple with a gold sun emblem on the wall. Esteban removes the centre piece. Light shines from the hole he opens, reflecting off the ceiling onto the floor. The room is filled with a brilliant light and a huge gold statue of a condor emerges from the floor.

While the party sleep, a tremor shakes the city. Zia interprets it as Pachamama's anger. Sancho and Pedro are sceptical, and suffering from gold on the brain. The sailors go to look for a passage beneath the temple to see where the condor might have come from, while the kids wait. Tao believes the condor to be a Hiva artefact, wondering if the Hiva people were ancestors of the Incas? Kukapetl finds a quipu in the condor's beak. Esteban climbs up to get it, but has an attack of vertigo and Tao goes up after him. They find a cockpit with three seats and controls like those in Tao's ship, the Solaris. Tao goes to get the quipu, slips, and winds up dangling from the condor's beak. Esteban tries to rescue him but fails, Tao falling from the beak...into the arms of Mendoza, who returned just in time. Zia paraphrases the message of the quipu: "A great danger will threaten the city. All the people have run away to the land of the Maya. In the time of danger the condor is supposed to help them."

Sancho and Pedro return, babbling about a passage under the temple. Everyone goes to look. The passage is hot, with a sulphurous smell. They discover that the city is built in a volcano, which is about to erupt. When the passage begins to cave in, they run back to the temple. Tao warns them that the explosion will be a particularly violent one. They run to the city entrance, but discover that the Urubu giants are coming to kill them. Mendoza grabs the medallions from the Pachamana statue, and the mountain walls begin to close around the city. The party get inside just in time, leaving the giants shut out. The earth tremors get more violent. The party, trapped in the city, seek shelter in the temple. Part of the roof collapses, sunlight shines on the gold emblem on the wall, and is reflected from there to the emblem on the ceiling, to the condor, which glows brilliantly and lowers its head. As the temple collapses they all climb into the cockpit.

THE FLIGHT OF THE CONDOR (TRACK 8) 1m 20s

The volcano finally erupts, hurling the condor into the sky. It plummets to the ground. The controls fail to respond, until they discover that the gold emblem Esteban took from the temple can be slotted into the control panel. The condor, in reality a flying machine, goes into autopilot.

END THEME TRACK 36 1M 50

In our next episode, the children learn more about the Golden Condor and agree to fly in the condor to the land of the Mayas but the Spaniards Gaspard and Gomez are still in hot pursuit. Join us for our next episode of The Mysterious Cities of Gold.