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Overview
For centuries, the Andes have caught the imagination of travelers, inspiring fear and wonder. The groundbreaking scientist Alexander von Humboldt claimed that “everything here is grander and more majestic than in the Swiss Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, the Apennines, and all other mountains I have known.” Rivaled in height only by the Himalayas and stretching more than 4,500 miles, the sheer immensity of the Andes is matched by its concentration of radically contrasting scenery and climates, and the rich and diverse cultures of the people who live there.
In this remarkable book, travel writer Michael Jacobs journeys across seven different countries, from the balmy Caribbean to the inhospitable islands of the Tierra del Fuego, through the relics of ancient civilizations and the remnants of colonial rule, retracing the footsteps of previous travelers. His route begins in Venezuela, following the path of the great nineteenth-century revolutionary Simón Bolívar, but soon diverges to include accounts from sources as varied as Humboldt, the young Charles Darwin, and Bolívar’s extraordinary and courageous mistress, Manuela Saenz. On his way, Jacobs uncovers the stories of those who have shared his fascination and discovers the secrets of a region steeped in history, science, and myth.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
The Andes, earth's longest mountain range, spans seven countries, from Colombia to Argentina, include rain forests and deserts, virtually deserted areas, massive cities, Incan ruins, pre-Incan ruins, Spanish ruins, and more. It's a lot to take on, but Jacobs (The Factory of Light: Tales from My Own Andalucían Village), author of numerous travel books, is nothing if not game. He braves high altitude, terrifying bus rides, endless delays, crime-ridden cities, and wackjob mystics. He's read all earlier accounts, from Che Guevara to Mario Vargas Llosa, along with history, geology, and archeology, and uses their work to supplement his own and to show the overlapping routes and varying agendas of Francisco Pizarro, Simon Bolivar, and generations of explorers and scientists. Jacobs is a good writer, balancing different strands—past and present, contemporary politics, the Spanish Conquest, his own history and that of the people he meets—but he's a great traveler: well connected, tireless, enthusiastic, and interested in everyone he meets. While we could use less of his Spanish village and his dog and a few more notes on why he goes where, he conveys the region's difficulties and challenges as well as its beauty and enduring fascination. (May)Alida Becker
…Andes is a travelogue that's scholarly and sociable in equal measure, by an author who's as interested in ferreting out letters from 16th-century emigrants lured by the legend El Dorado as he is in visiting a museum dedicated to Bolívar's mistress or checking out the transvestite bars of Ayacucho.—The New York Times