Review by Booklist Review
In his third walking release, following the award-winning Walking the Himalayas (2016), British travel writer Wood pulls the reader along for a thrilling narrative trek through towns, back roads, and natural wonders of Central America, all on foot. He elevates this already fascinating landscape with lively prose that combines travel journal with history lessons, memoir, and survivalist handbook. This skillful weaving of genres creates intensity and suspense chapter to chapter, keeping the reader's interest piqued and the pages turning as Wood pays deep respect to a dangerous and extraordinarily beautiful part of the planet. A renowned world explorer and photographer and the only person ever to walk the entire length of the Nile River (4,250 miles), Wood has been featured on Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel, and fans of such popular programs as Discovery TRVLR and Naked and Afraid will find this book packed with the sorts of adventures they love to safely experience from the comfort of their favorite reading spaces.--Tempone, Frank Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
British explorer Wood (Walking the Nile, Walking the Himalayas) narrates in lamentable fashion another formidable trek, this time his travels across Central America-a journey that spans eight countries and includes the harrowing jungle of Panama's Darién Gap. Wood's subject matter is fascinating, but the prose often ambles into cliché (he is caught "sweating buckets" or worrying that his crew had "bitten off more than we could chew"), and though he offers historic asides and insights into the politics of the region, these don't offer much depth. At times his descriptions of the locals become caricatures: he imagines a Mayan man's "forefathers, naked except for a jaguar skin and a bow, perhaps a feather in. [their] hair." As Wood hikes southward, he sees migrants making the treacherous journey north toward America and Canada, but misses the opportunity to offer anything beyond a passing glance. Wood's crossing of the Darién Gap with his support team of indigenous locals and a clearance from Panama's border police is anticlimactic. The narrative feels tired, but fans of Wood's previous books will certainly welcome another journey with him. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The focus here isn't really on how the author accomplished such an incredible feat but, rather, how he enjoyed and appreciated each step of his journey and the remarkable landscape that surrounded him. British explorer and photographer Wood chronicles his trip with traveling companion and guide Alberto as they attempt to walk through Central America. While they certainly faced struggles along the way, including snakes, torrential rain, and drug smugglers, the potential dangers they feared they might encounter during their journey were mostly avoided, even in the dreaded Darien Gap, which they passed through relatively unscathed. Wood spends most of the time describing the culture, people, and natural wonders that he experienced. He weaves into his work brief history lessons of the areas he visits so listeners can better understand the present-day conditions, affording listeners unique insight into the Central America that tourists rarely get to see. Barnaby Edwards narrates, bringing Wood's passion for travel to life and adding flashes of humor to the story with his portrayal of the good-natured Alberto. VERDICT Recommended for fans of travel writing and those with an interest in Central America. ["He focuses on the people and places he and Alberto encounter, which makes for great reading": LJ 2/15/18 starred review of the Atlantic hc.]-Theresa Horn, St. Joseph Cty. P.L., South Bend, IN © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The British explorer's latest trek takes him by foot from Mexico to the edge of Colombia.The book's title might be misleading, as Wood (Walking the Himalayas, 2016, etc.) notes in the introduction: this trip was "solely a journey through Central America." The author was joined by Alberto Caceres, a recently divorced Mexican friend who had "never been in a jungle, or walked further than a few miles." Despite a few blisters, however, and more than few complaints, the chatty Caceres, who could "charm the hind legs off a donkey," kept up the pace. Sometimes on uncharted paths and often on major highways where the main obstacles they faced were drunken drivers and thoughtless truckers, the two covered 1,800 miles in a little over four months. Wood excels at verbal snapshots of the differences among the countries, and he avoids dwelling on the monotony of many of the days in favor of describing more exciting ones spent diving into caves where they discovered Mayan skulls, climbing unnamed pyramids, eating termites ("bitter and woody") during a lesson on jungle survival, getting caught in quicksand, and being escorted through the gang-ruled barrios of Honduras' San Pedro Sula, which until recently "held the dubious honor of being known as the murder capital of the world." While this means that readers only get tantalizing glimpses into the author's experience, it also makes for brisk reading. The narrative culminates with a trek through the jungles of Panama's Darin Gap, an area ruled by drug lords that has, during the past 20 years, "swallowed up more people than perhaps anywhere else in the western hemisphere." Fortunately, Wood and Caceres made it through the "brutal, skin-tearing, lung-busting jungle climbs" with nothing worse than some nasty spider bites.A jaunty glimpse into the cities and countryside of Central America from the point of view of a traveler well-equipped to compare life there to other countries around the globe. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
