Customer Reviews

Through Jaguar Eyes: Crossing the Amazon Basin

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English explorer Benedict Allen decided sometime in the early 1990's to attempt a crossing by foot of the entire Amazon Basin. Starting his journey high in the Andes, he proceeds to walk, ride, float and, at times run for his life hundreds of miles all the way from Ecuador to the coastal plains of Brazil. Allen has a loose style somewhat reminiscent of Bruce Chatwin, and is refreshingly free of the obsessive need most writers of these types of books have to categorize every single plant, animal and insect he encounters.

Like Chatwin, he is more interested in a little bit of history and the modern people and places he encounters. And he does meet numerous outrageous characters and gets himself into some interesting jams. In fact it's not much of a stretch to say he's probably lucky to be alive. Close scrapes with drug runners, guerillas, lonely homosexuals and just plain crooks are a reoccurring theme here. Allen seems to escape by the skin of his teeth, at times literally with only the clothes on his back.

Armed with his relentless optimism and little else (including, amazingly, a compass) he manages to achieve his goal of meeting and studying with members of an jaguar worshiping Amazonian tribe and using his newly learned skills to navigate the jungle like a native. Altogether an exhilarating read, proof there is still plenty of adventure out there for those who wish to find it.