Customer Reviews

Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's not that I learned a lot about pink dolphins; there actually isn't a lot of info about them here. But I loved this book. Sy writes so poetically and describes the areas where she worked so vividly, that I imagined her every move and drop of sweat in this hot tropical adventure. She does inform us in great detail of many natural creatures and events around the Amazon, and I learned a lot about that part of the world. It was so delightful I never wanted the book to end. Her writing style is memorable and beautiful. I especially liked the description of "man rain" and "woman rain" and have used this concept in my conversations with people.

In reading this book, I feel as though I learned as much about the Amazon and its people and culture as I did about pink river dolphins. Mythology, botany, entomology, anthropology, zoology...it's all there, along with doses of history and present-day conservation and environmentalism.

I love Montgomery's style of writing (and thinking). There were times which were poetic, educational, reflective, and others in which I found myself laughing out loud.

A long-time dolphin lover, I appreciate Montgomery's enormous effort she undertook to connect with pink river dolphins. I'm happy to have found and read this book so she could share them with me...

This was the next best thing to being there.

I can't believe how many people (including myself) had never heard of freshwater dolphins before seeing this book. Why isn't there any information out there about these intriguing cousins of the saltwater dolphins that we all know and love? Well, now there is! And Sy Montgomery takes us deep into the habitat of the freshwater dolphins --- the Amazon (where, as she explains, there are trees and ants that can kill you, among many other things). She not only explores the life and biology of these dolphins, but she also explores some of the myths that surround them. She learns that many native Amazon peoples believe that these creatures can take the form of humans in their efforts to seduce women into their underwater world. She relates first hand accounts of these stories and myths. But the author doesn't stop there, she writes extensively about the atmosphere of the Amazon, the people, the ecosystem, the cultures, the tourists, the industries, etc... She provides alot of interesting information about a very unique subject. As I read the book, I felt as if I was being pulled into the Amazon. Her writing is clear and approachable, sometimes poetic, but other times drawn-out. There are some very insightful passages as well. And fascinating photographs are scattered throughout. I recommend this book to anyone interested in animals, conservation, adventure travel, aboriginal/native cultures and all those intrigued by the idea of a freshwater dolphin!

I loved this book! Sy Montgomery is a talented writer, able to put you in exotic places with vivid descriptions, I almost felt I was in the Amazon. She really brought it to life, I look forward to reading another book of hers I have purchased, "Search for the Golden Moon Bear."

The book focuses on the author's quest for the pink dolphin, but really it is a journey to find not one but two dolphins. I don't refer to the other species of dolphin that lives in the Amazon, the tucuxis (one which she also covers in the book), but for two sides of the same animal. On the one hand she searches for the pink dolphin, the bufeo in Spanish or boto in Portguese, a living animal of which little is known about in comparison with many other dolphin species. Living in the most massive river system on earth, one connnected to innumerable lakes in the rainy season, in waters often black as coffee and infested with caimans, piranha, stingrays, and electric eels, in often very remote regions to which there is no reliable transportation to, it is a difficult subject to study. An example of cetaceans from an earlier geologic era, primitive when compared to modern oceanic dolphins, the pink dolphins preserve something from an eariler era, a holdover in the modern world. Montgomery and her various companions in the book struggle to get good observations of the dolphins, to try and track them, to identify individuals, to observe their behavior. The author finds that even experts who have studied the bufeo for years are often perplexed by them. She has many successes, providing much interesting information on them and a fine series of color photographs of the often startingly pink dolphins.

Montgomery though is also questing for the Encante, the mystical shape-shifting dolphin that is very real to many of the peoples who live along the mighty Amazon. Believed to exist in fabulous cities beneath the surface of the river, the locals speak in conspiratorial tones about the dolphins' magic powers and often lust for attractive humans. The natives often worry that their wives, husbands, sons, and daughters will be stolen about by the fabulous Encante, and speak with awe and reverence about the dolphins. Montgomery continually quests for the natives' views of the Encante, for their "true" tales, and for how they protect themselves against their fantastic attention.

Montgomery doesn't exlusively focus on dolphins though. Her book in part is a vivid travelogue of Amazonia, bringing us to many exotic locations. We visit Manaus, the impossible Paris of the Amazon, home to an opera house right out of a fairy tale. Built upon the backs of native jungle peoples by rubber barons, today it is a squalid city trying to embrace change. She takes us to amazing Meeting of the Waters, where for miles two tributies of the Amazon, the black River Negro and the white Solimoes, flow side by side before forming the true Amazon River. We are taken to two different nature reserves, both with differing strategies, Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo and Mamiraua, where some of the rich life and deadly beauty of Amazonia is preserved against an uncertain future. Montgomery takes us to the impossibly clear waters and white sandy beaches of the Tapajos and Arapiuns Rivers, where she actually swims with the dolphins, something not possible elsewhere in the dark and piranha-infested rivers elsewhere. She undertakes a vision quest by taking the hallucigenic Ayahuasca or "Mother of the Vine," something few Westerners have done (and for good reason).

Further, while the bufeo or boto is the star of the book, many other animals form a rich supporting cast. The odd hoatzin, a bird with claws, seemingly someting out of the Mesozoic. Electric eels, extremely common and suprisingly complex. Caimans, another seemingly prehistoric species. Amazonian manatees, gentle vegetarians that are much more intelligent than often given credit for. The weird side-necked turtle. All manner of insects, including ants. And more are given space.

Some have said that she rhapsodizes too much in the book, but I disagree. She has done her research, the book is filled with interviews with experts, and there is a nice bibliography at the end. She has skillfully combined hard science with poetry, and the effort is very worthwhile. I highly recommend it.

For everyone who cares about dolphins, who enjoys superb natural history writing, who is fascinated by and dreamed of travelling the Amazon - this book is both delightful and insightful. It is also a fast-paced, witty, and racy adventure-travel story that I found entertaining from start to finish. Journey of the Pink Dolphins is not only about a compelling scientific quest but also reports the myths about pink dolphins that the human inhabitants repeat if not believe. The result is a luminous tribute both to the wisdom and lyricism of local Amazon peoples and to this amazing species of freshwater dolphin. Lots of great photos in both color and black and white, along with its easy-to-read style make this book an inspired gift choice for young adult readers as well as one's friends.

As someone who's interested in the Amazon, its people, culture, geography, fauna, flora and other subjects, I read this book for its fascinating topic. However, this is a very mixed bag. There are moving sections, as when she describes the genocide perpetrated against the native peoples by Europeans (you would not believe the atrocities and torture they visited the Indians, whom they considered lower than animals - much worse in its ferocity than the Holocaust of WWII). The writing can be quite bad at times (at one point, her powers of description comes up with a fruit she tried, "bitter as semen"). But the worse is, she seems to be a very bad science writer and researcher. Who edited this book? Certainly not people versed in science or Portuguese. She gets everything in Portuguese wrong. The scientific names and terms are often misspelled. Proceed with caution.

While this book doesn't provide an in depth zoological study of pink dolphins it does take the reader on a thrilling journey through the Amazon. We learn snippets about local legends, colonial horrors, and the rich stew of life that the river teems with. Tarantula's, dart shooting plants, ancient turtles, and of course the enigmatic river dolphins are woven together into a fascinating read. So, if you want hard facts, look elsewhere, but if you want an armchair adventure-you've come to the right book.

Sy Montgomery's Journey of the Pink Dolphins is by far the best book I have read during 2000. It's a unique combination of lyrical writing, high adventure, fascinating characters (cetacean and human), environmental significance, and factual information about the Amazon's past and present. The author was determined to both learn about, and experience the company of, these mysterious freshwater whales. Her quest, ultimately successful, necessitated a rigorous set of travels through the watery world of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon River Basin. Participating in this journey via the author's engaging prose is most enjoyable. I highly recommend this book!

As a huge fan of cetaceans and river dolphins in particular...I just had to get this book. It was full of interesting accounts about the dolphins and the Amazon...but at time the story moved a little slow...and at times the language got a tad flowery and a bit cliche....I'd read it again though if i had to do it over!

I'm a big fan of well written adventure books and books on natural history. The best of them transcend their subject matter to arrive at bigger truths about human nature, the world, and mankind's place in it. Sy Montgomery tries mightily to link her experience up with The Bigger Story, but never manages to do it. Her attempts to be profound become almost embarrassing after a while.


Sy writes a nature column for the Boston Globe and it shows. Everything of interest she has to say in this book could have been said in a column or two. In this book, she's taken that column and simply repeated it over and over and over. Thus we hear narrative after narrative from the locals about how the bufeo live in an enchanted underwater city and come up on land periodically to seduce women. We spend day after day in a boat with her exclaiming "There's one! And there's another one!" After a while I found myself thinking "Sy, you go out in the boat and look for the bufeo. I'll lounge here on the hotel veranda and have some refreshments until you get back. Have a nice time."

Unlike some reviewers, I didn't find anything `magical' or particularly poetic about her descriptions of the environment. It's not that she's a bad writer - clearly she isn't - but she describes things the way a travel columnist would describe an exotic locale for readers planning their next vacation - the size of the trees, the depth of the water, the different kinds of plants and bugs and wildlife you may encounter, with some attempt to make it all sound beautiful.

She does give some superficial history of the Amazon Basin, a little evolutionary history of dolphins, some "highlights" types of descriptions of a couple of towns and villages - everything you need to know to enhance your vacationing experience. She meets a lot of people along the way and dutifully describes the physical appearance of most of them. She tries to instill a little personality in each of them but can't pull it off, so even these encounters take on the quality of "And then I met this tanned woman wearing khaki shorts who was interested in manatees."

In the end, we have gone on a trip with Sy and visited a local market or two, admired the opera house at Manaus, caught some glimpses of the pink dolphins, listened to various natives tell the same legend, gone to the funeral of a drowned child, dodged a snake or two, and gotten sweaty in the jungle. If you had any interest in pink dolphins before you started the book, you'll be over it by the time this trip ends.