Customer Reviews

Tschiffely's Ride

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An Argentinian by the name of Tschiffely travels by horseback across South and Central and North America 3 years from Buenos Aires to Washington DC. He was very famous in his time, meeting with President Coolidge, articles and speeches in National Geographic, newspapers, etc.. every country along his path gave him golden receptions. I'm sure most peoples grandparents remember him (although he is probably mostly forgotten today!). Parts of this book were printed in National Geographic Magazine (in the 1930s).

Written in a straight forward but very readable and enjoyable style, it is one adventure after the next, each page is literally a new encounter. It can be an exhausting read at times. One admires Tschiffely's physical strength and morally strong character (not withstanding the opium den experiment). As well as his affection, bond and care for his horses and all living creatures (this is also a horse lovers tale).

Latin America in the 1930s was a time when cars, electricity, TV's and radio, phones, etc.. existed only in isolated pockets, when Spanish conquistador history still lay heavy over the land. Brilliant first person encounters and observations of the individuals and cultures that history books would not as well convey, and that are now lost to modernity. It is also interesting how nearly impossible it was to travel north/south in Latin America even just 70 years ago due to geography (by comparison travel by horse east-west across America would be a less interesting story being done so often).

Overall a very good book. At times things seems to repeat (another town, another fiesta) and the authors ability to keep things new escapes him toward the end (perhaps due to his malaria) so it starts to feel like a journal, but that is a minor quibble for a classic travel adventure book.

Wow. What an adventure. For those who want to travel dangerously but vicariously, pick up this book. Well written riveting adventure.

well okay maybe not but I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. Despite, or maybe because of, the simple matter-of-fact writing style this tale of an amazing, yet true, journey held my interest and I enjoyed every page.

The book is basically a diary of Tschiffely's ride from inception to end, he writes simply of the trails taken, the hardships and joys and the people he met along the way. This is a tale of a bygone era when great adventures were undertaken without enormous budgets or near hysterical live reportage. Pages describe what must have been terrifying events with endearing understatement and the sort of modesty that most modern day heros cannot muster.

Not only does this book put you into a different time and place but it encourages you to consider the possibilities within yourself.

It is 1925. A man and two horses set out to travel from Buenos Aires to Washington, D.C. -- 10,000 miles. It takes them over two years. This is the tale of their trek. TSCHIFFELY'S RIDE supposedly is one of the classics of travel writing. It got that reputation in an earlier generation but, given the passage of time and changes in styles and tastes, I don't think it still deserves such status.

A.F. Tschiffely, of Swiss background, had taught school in Buenos Aires for nine years when he got the idea to be an adventurer/travel writer. For his first expedition, he would ride from Buenos Aires to Washington, D.C. It ended up being an arduous trip, more demanding both physically and mentally than most would be up to. Tschiffely proved himself an exceptionally rugged traveler. But even more exceptional, more rugged, perhaps even more intelligent, were his two horses - Mancha and Gato - which were Griolla ("creole") horses that had been born wild on the plains of Patagonia. They were 18 and 16 years of age at the start of the trek; they endured with barely an equine shrug 10,000 miles over deserts and Andes passes as high as 16,000 feet, through jungles and torrential rains, and across raging rivers; and they eventually lived to the ages of 40 and 35.

TSCHIFFELY'S RIDE contains many tales of adventure and exotica: vampire bats, opium dens, bubonic plague, shrunken heads, niguas (parasites that can eventually deform feet so they resemble cauliflowers), cockfights, iguana stew, malaria, and revolutions. As a travelogue of sorts, it also is a picture of those parts of Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, San Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico) through which Tschiffely rode as they were in the mid-1920's. A small bonus is a set of photographs Tschiffely took en route. (A somewhat bigger bonus would have been an accurate map of Tschiffely's route in lieu of the fancified "artistic" and next-to-worthless map actually included.)

The problem with the book is its rather old-fashioned, sentimental style, which far too often lapses into the clichéd and trite. Like many of his time, Tschiffely is fascinated with racial and national "types" and characteristics, and his observations along these lines frequently are both anachronistic and uncomfortable. For example, with regard to the Indians he encountered in the United States, he writes, "if I had not been told they were such, I would have taken them for Mexican labourers, and instead of being able to cast glances at the Hiawatha beauties of my dreams, I found the Indian women dressed like whites, and the majority of them were fat and ugly." However, he generally is of "liberal" sentiment for his times, as demonstrated in this example: "White man has but few morals to teach the Indian, and it is superfluous for me to go into details why I think so. Suffice it to mention war, murder, commerce, prostitution, refined vice and hypocrisy, things that are beyond the range of understanding of any pure Indian when considered on the scale we know them."

I sense that nowadays TSCHIFFELY'S RIDE would be appreciated most by horse-lovers and those with an anthropological or historical interest in Latin America of the 1920's. For others, the outmoded style and the dross of yesteryear probably would offset the periodic vignettes of adventure.

This man was amazing. The hardships he suffered on his trip, always putting his horses first, made me really like this man.
His insights into indian life at the time were very interesting. His descriptions of the cities and scenery he went through were fascinating especially as I have visited them in current times and know how they look today. He was astonishingly brave to attempt such a trip and I was so upset when I read what a car driver did to him while crossing Texas.

I was sorry to finish reading the book and even shed a little tear at the end when he accomplished his goal. Even though it was written in 1925, it still was very readable and the author made his trip come alive for me.

Since most Americans know very little about Latin American history and culture, I think the book holds merit for all readers. Tshciffely was a keen observor, not easy to do in stifling heat fending off vampire bats, crocodiles and hordes of mosquitoes while crossing raging rivers and swinging suspension bridges. It's a real life adventure and is a book that you will finish.

This is a fantastic story. I read it when I was a kid, and still love it. It's a good read for an adventure traveller.

This is by far the greatest horseback travel ride ever accomplished. You can't put this book down from cover to cover. If you like this title you're sure to like the sequel "A Tale of Two Horses", the same ride but told by the horses themselves "Mancha & Gato"!