WALKING THE AMAZON BY Ed Stafford

This is a book dedicated to detailing an 860 day journey walking the length of the Amazon River.  Yes this is a first – why? Probably because it would not make sense to anyone but a person like Ed Stafford who is driven by the quest to go where others haven’t to accomplish new things – to get Guiness World Records.

The Amazon and the forest really get very little attention, something I would have liked.  Walking, floating, cutting his way through the forest gave him a lot of opportunity to report on the forest itself or the river.  But this was more of a personal adventure with the focus on him, his trusty companion, guide – Cho, who was contracted to walk with him in Peru and made it all the way to the sea.

Ed allows us to see his mood swings, his conflict with his original partner Luke who leaves before they get out of Peru, his nasty moods with Cho and other native guides.  Ed would not be described as easy going, but then a journey like this needs drive and fortitude.

We know from our own journey that it is difficult to cover all the days and all the experiences.  The journey gets more detailed the first half, but that is natural.  The second half often has repetition and the first half determines the dialogue.

Even in this remote part of the earth, using a machete to get through areas of dense jungle and swamp, it is still a story of people.  The suspicion of some indigenous villages, the threats to Ed because he is a white person and the rumors and actions of other whites have made them untrustworthy.  It is about getting shelter and help from people living their lives in isolation or want providing food and shelter to the expedition, about the little bureaucracies that develop in each community despite the seeming isolation. 

He touches on deforestation, mining, drug running, agriculture, roads... but the tail is more about two people from two cultures walking to the sea.  Cho had never left Peru, had never ridden an escalator, had never seen the sea.  His story was really compelling and happily Cho is now going to England where I hope he will prosper.

It is an adventure that provides entertaining reading.

http://www.walkingtheamazon.com/