Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival
by Yossi Ghinsberg
from Boomerang New Media
What begins as a dream adventure for four amicable, if hastily met, muchileros (backpackers) quickly becomes a struggle for survival as they unravel under the duress of the jungle. They are an odd mix to be sure: Marcus, the Swiss mystic; Karl, the shady Austrian geologist; Kevin, the well-intentioned American photographer; and Yossi, the Israeli adventurer.
Jungle is the incredible true story of Yossi Ghinsberg's triumph over the most adverse and frightening of circumstances. It is a tale of survival and human fortitude against the wildest backdrop on the planet.
Bolivia (Country Guide)
by Kate Armstrong
from Lonely Planet
Discover Bolivia
Camp overnight on isolated Isla Pariti to watch the sun rise over Lake Titicaca.
Creep through the nighttime jungle to spot jaguars, snakes and colorful tree frogs.
Bite, slurp and scoop our the inside of a savory saltena.
Walk in the footsteps of the ancients on cliff-hugging pre-Inca roads.
Shield your eyes from the blinding white expanse of the world's largest salt flat.
In This Guide:
Three authors, 147 days of in-country research, 35 species of wild animals sighted.
Dedicated Outdoors chapter and frank advice on traveling sustainably.
Insightful coverage of Bolivia's vibrant indigenous cultures.
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews and traveler suggestions.
Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail
by Thomas McFadden
from St. Martin's Griffin
This book establishes that San Pedro is not your average prison. Inmates are expected to buy their cells from real estate agents. Others run shops and restaurants. Women and children live with imprisoned family members. It is a place where corrupt politicians and drug lords live in luxury apartments, while the poorest prisoners are subjected to squalor and deprivation. Violence is a constant threat, and sections of San Pedro that echo with the sound of children by day house some of Bolivia's busiest cocaine laboratories by night. In San Pedro, cocaine--"Bolivian marching powder"--makes life bearable. Even the prison cat is addicted.
Yet Marching Powder is also the tale of friendship, a place where horror is countered by humor and cruelty and compassion can inhabit the same cell. This is cutting-edge travel-writing and a fascinating account of infiltration into the South American drug culture.
Peru Bolivia & Ecuador, 2 (Footprint - Travel Guides)
by Ben Box
from Footprint Handbooks
Gracias: A Latin American Journal
by Henri J. M. Nouwen
from Orbis Books
Travel Diary: Bolivia
by Michael Hilburn
from Trafford
Travel Diary: Bolivia provides all the information you can find from an internet travelogue and puts it into a convenient paperback book. Culture, customs, personal experiences and more.
Lines in the Water: Nature and Culture at Lake Titicaca
by Ben Orlove
from University of California Press
This beautifully written book weaves reflections on anthropological fieldwork together with evocative meditations on a spectacular landscape as it takes us to the remote indigenous villages on the shore of Lake Titicaca, high in the Peruvian Andes. Ben Orlove brings alive the fishermen, reed cutters, boat builders, and families of this isolated region, and describes the role that Lake Titicaca has played in their culture. He describes the landscapes and rhythms of life in the Andean highlands as he considers the intrusions of modern technology and economic demands in the region. Lines in the Water tells a local version of events that are taking place around the world, but with an unusual outcome: people here have found ways to maintain their cultural autonomy and to protect their fragile mountain environment.
The Peruvian highlanders have confronted the pressures of modern culture with remarkable vitality. They use improved boats and gear and sell fish to new markets but have fiercely opposed efforts to strip them of their indigenous traditions. They have retained their customary practice of limiting the amount of fishing and have continued to pass cultural knowledge from one generation to the next--practices that have prevented the ecological crises that have followed commercialization of small-scale fisheries around the world. This book--at once a memoir and an ethnography--is a personal and compelling account of a research experience as well as an elegantly written treatise on themes of global importance. Above all, Orlove reminds us that human relations with the environment, though constantly changing, can be sustainable.
I Am Rich Potosi: The Mountain That Eats Men
by Stephen Ferry
from Monacelli
The magnificent mountain of Potosà in Bolivia yielded more silver than any other mountain or region of the world. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries this wealth flowed through Spain into Europe and played an important role in the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and trade with Asia. Yet the grueling work of extracting the silver was left to the indigenous population of the Andes, who were enslaved by the Spanish and died by the thousands on the mountain.
Today, Potosà maintains this unique culture, based on its epic history. Approximately eighteen thousand miners still work in or around the mountain, searching for trace amounts of silver and tin. Inside the mountain, miners worship their devil, who is represented as a sexually potent Spaniard, lord of the mineral realm. Photographer Stephen Ferry has made many trips to Potosà to document this ongoing drama. His color images describe this world, which echoes back to the birth of modern Europe yet is one of the poorest places in the Americas.
The text by Eduardo Galeano illuminates the complexity of the intersection of ancient rituals and the grandeur of the mountain and complements Ferry's powerful portrait of this fascinating area. Ferry's photographs are divided into four sections: the miners' carnival; work that still takes place in and around the rich mountain; major institutions of civic life in the city of PotosÃ; and the festival of Esprit?, in which miners sacrifice llamas to the devil within the mountain to appease his thirst for blood so that he will not take their lives with accidents or illness.
Whispering in the Giant's Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia's War on Globalization
by William Powers
from Bloomsbury USA
Long the obscure “Tibet of South America,” Bolivia emerged as a world flashpoint during the four years William Powers lived there as an aid worker. CNN and the New York Times have shown images of Aymara women in bowler hats standing down tanks; citizen protests have ousted multinationals and two pro-globalization presidents. In A Natural Nation, Powers breathes life into the recent struggles of the Bolivian people. When he arrives in the rainforest, he meets an extraordinary Chiquitano Indian named Salvador who is fighting the extinction of his people. At the same time, the clock ticks for three multinational energy companies forced to curb global warming. Both goals depend upon the survival of a stretch of pristine jungle. But as Indians and oil giants join to launch the world’s largest Kyoto Protocol project—using forests to absorb dangerous planetary greenhouse gasses—Salvador’s life is threatened by loggers collaborating with a racist Bolivian oligarchy. The quest for a single rainforest is subsumed in a movement of national liberation. A Natural Nation goes beneath the headlines, gracefully weaving memoir, travel, history and reportage into an unforgettable chronicle of a “poor little rich country” attempting to engage the world without losing its soul.
The Rough Guide to Bolivia 2 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
by Rough Guides
from Rough Guides
This thoroughly updated Rough Guide includes significantly more detailed maps and colour photographs than its closest competitor, as well as author picks and new colour sections that beautifully illustrate the countries ancient beliefs and mysticisms and the excellent range of outdoor activities on offer.
An updated history section includes the civil disturbances of recent years, giving you a sound context in which to really get a feel for the country. There is expanded coverage on trekking and Isla del Sol, as well as candid reviews of all the best places to stay and eat, from jungle lodges to colonial mansions.
With expert knowledge from an author who has a deep understanding of the Bolivian way of life, this book is perfect for those independent travellers who want a far more unique and imaginative trip.
Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to Bolivia.
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