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Summary: Well worth the money; an excellent guide and resource
Review: As an author who has published two guidebooks myself (and as a critical reader and user of guidebooks), I highly recommend Harris and Hutchison's The Amazon. This book is really two guides in one: Practical advice on where to go, where to stay, what to see and do, etc. and a valuable natural history companion. Biologist Roger Harris provides fascinating and highly readable information about the flora, fauna, and cultures you may encounter in a well-organized fashion. Not to mention thumbnail sketches of history, climate, language, health issues and other subjects of interest. The writing is rich enough to classify it as armchair travel but the hard information provided makes it practical and well worth the reasonable investment. We bought it before our trip, used it extensively during the expedition, and still refer to it now that we are home. As a writer, I'm envious of the product; as a reader I'm satisfied.
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Summary: this book was not what i had expected...
Review: i found the book to be over written and pompous. Far too academic in tone.
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Summary: An excellent overview of the region
Review: I was lucky to stumble onto this book, which is relatively difficult to find in most chain bookstores. It is an excellent trip planning resource, although it is likely that you will want to supplement it with country-specific guides or one of the "shoestring" type guides for the South America (e.g., Lonely Plant, Footprints). The book provides useful overviews of each country in the region with attention to major transport/tourism hubs and to major attractions and parks. The guide will help you focus a trip on one or more countries in the region. It also is helpful in terms of considering how to navigate adjacent countries in terms of transport, visas, etc. The overviews of flora and fauna provide more information than you will find in other guidebooks. The lodges and travel companies listed tend to skew upscale, although they do mention budget lodgings in cities like Manaus and Iquitos. The number of hotels and restaurants surveyed in any one place tends to be limited, so you'll want a country-specific guide to provide more depth. The value of this guide is its overview of the Amazon region, however, it's likely that you'll want a country-specific guide esp. if you are a budget traveler. I found the Lonely Planet Brazil guide to be the best of the major Brazil guides (it also takes in the Triple Frontier area with Peru & Colombia and Roraima which borders Venezuela) for the Brazilian Amazon, although it has some deficiencies for other places like Rio & Salvador.
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Summary: A comprehensive travel and natural history guide
Review: LOOKING FOR ADVENTURE? THEN READ ON!The Amazon... a world of trees and water. It's Earth's treasury of life yet disappearing fast. Now is the time to go and see it - this book helps you get there and back (safe and sound!). Complete with essential travel information and evocative impressions, this Bradt Guide ensures you make the most of your 'adventure of a lifetime'. This book will appeal to * Travelers to the Amazon - a comprehensive yet compact guide, packed with need-to-know travel advice, insights into local culture, history and wildlife and 30 detailed maps. * Tour operators - an up-to-date reference on ecotourism in the Amazon. Countless facts at your fingertips. Nothing else so fully informs you on this popular adventure travel destination. * Biodiversity students and conservationists - details of Amazon flora and fauna. Species descriptions (with scientific names) from an ecological perspective. * Armchair travelers - color photographs and beautiful drawings accompany anecdotes and commentary told from a personal perspective. GUIDE CONTENTS What sets this book apart? In addition to the standard travel data it includes an extensive history and 60 pages devoted to wildlife - "one-stop shopping" for a complete adventure. Roger Harris has led Amazon ecotours since 1992. His graduate studies in tropical biology enable him to bring a scientist's view rare in travel books. The book is organized in three parts:
PART ONE: GENERAL INFORMATION Whether you're with a tour group or traveling independently, this book caters to you. With everything here, you can design the trip of your dreams. * Chapter One puts you in the picture with a general background on the Amazon's geography, history of exploration and present conservation status. * Chapter Two is a step-by-step guide to booking a trip. Choose from among a hundred or so local, USA- or UK-based tour operators specializing in the Amazon (with e-mail addresses, websites and toll-free numbers). From the sample itineraries you get an idea of what is possible with a limited budget and schedule. * Chapter Three provides guidelines on how to prepare for a full-scale expedition to the region's remotest corners. * Chapter Four gives general advice on health and safety, including advisable immunizations, and how to avoid specific diseases, crime situations, etc. Part One has plenty directly relevant to personal travel needs and specific interests. PART TWO WILDLIFE AND PEOPLE * Chapter Five comprises sixty pages of natural history information - a comprehensive account of Amazon geology, geography, ecology and plants and animals. From lowland rainforest to montane woodland and coastal environments, each major habitat is included - the upper canopy down to ground level and on to rivers and lakes (e.g. soils, water chemistry, "meeting of waters", etc.) Sections on rainforest ecology include descriptions of how the physical geography shapes the living community (forest layers, gap ecology, river edges, erosion, etc.). These are followed by details sufficient to identify native flora (giant water lily, palms, hardwoods, orchids, etc.) and fauna (birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, spiders). An extensive section on water life (fishes, turtles, pink dolphin, manatee, giant otter) emphasizes the huge size of this aquatic ecosystem. Tips on wildlife, birdwatching and photography ensure you have the most rewarding nature experience possible. * Chapter Six offers insight into the region's people - covering their origins, beliefs and customs (e.g. head-hunting) and the remaining seven chapters, one for each major country (see below) contain around each country * places to stay (in the jungle and cities) * safety (and pitfalls to avoid) * sights to see, experiences to savor * guided walks, river cruises, excursions, organized tours * local tribes to meet * language and customs * national parks, natural areas, major rivers * food to eat * best buys (and things not to buy) * maps of Amazon gateways, rivers, and capital cities * geography and history TABLE OF CONTENTS Part One GENERAL INFORMATION 1. History and Background 2. Practical Information 3. Mounting your own Expedition 4. Health and Safety Part Two WILDLIFE AND PEOPLE 5. Natural History 6. Indigenous Tribes and Settlers Part Three COUNTRIES OF THE AMAZON 7. Venezuela 8. Colombia 9. Ecuador 10. Peru 11. Bolivia 12. Brazil 13. Guyana, French for each country * two glossaries (Spanish and Portuguese) * an extensive bibliography (books, journal articles, etc.) IN BRIEF Practical travel tips and 'inside information' help you plan your journey and smooth the way as you go. Use the book before, during and after. You'll find it ideal pre-trip briefing and on-the-move travel reading. Take the book with you and use it. When you get back, you can learn more about what you experienced - the book outlines resources to help you contribute to rainforest conservation. There's lots of handy reference material for once you get back home. Enjoy!
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Summary: Amazon
Review: My first major trip in South America involved a two-week journey by cargo boat down 2,000 miles of the Amazon. That was in 1969 and since the founding of Bradt Travel Guides in 1974 I have wanted to publish a guide to this great river, with its amazing biodiversity and rich human history. It took 25 years to find just the right authors but the wait was well worth while. Peter Hutchinson and Roger Harris have done an admirable job of describing the plants, wildlife and people that makes this region so exciting, along with the nuts and bolts of safe and enjoyable travel, whether independently or on an organised tour.
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Summary: Good, fascinating, wide-sweeping 'book-to-take-with-you'
Review: THE AMAZON Great rivers, vast impenetrable jungles, exotic lost cities and remote tribal people are the kind of images most of us conjure up when the Amazon is mentioned. But there is more to the region than this. I liked the way this book gives the adventurer, traveller or dreaming reader a resource that reveals some of stuff of myth, mystery and legend - while also providing the nitty-gritty detail of how to get there, what to do, what to see, moving around (from first class river boats, internal airlines, buses and taxis through to hitch-hiking) - and how to enjoy what could well be the experience of a lifetime. The authors' challenge was to encapsulate an area three-quarters the size of the continental United States in a handy book. A task in which I think they succeed. The book in four sections. The first orientates us with an overview across the entire vast region. You will find: a brief history, getting there, what to take, descriptions of the people, sleeping and eating, climate, river regimes, planning an expedition and such like. For most travellers, the tropical forest will be an alien environment, so specific attention is given to health and personal safety - a topic that crops up in down-to-earth detail throughout the book. When snakes are mentioned for instance, you'll find advice on recognising those that are poisonous - and what to do if in the rare event you are bitten. And of infamous piranha we read with relief that their "attacks have injured people, but records show not one fatality." Whereas the typical guide might describe the architecture and art, the next section enables the traveller, be it by river-boat and canoe, by trail-walking or by road, to grasp the detail of the forest's architecture, the 150ft high trees and the surrounding super-abundant natural art. You can marvel at nature's beauty - the orchids, flowers, ferns, floating meadows, and all manner of lianas and vines. And that's just the flavour of the flora. There is also a guide to the fauna - the animals of the canopy and forest floor, the birds like parrots, toucans, hummingbirds, plus a host of other exotic avian creatures. With the rivers so ubiquitous you are helped to identify reptiles, amphibians and the fabulous fishes. Most of the common insects are covered too. Tucked away for the traveller to find are the forest's human inhabitants - so there is also information about these more ancient folk who have evolved a way of life, a culture that has adapted them to hard task of living in the dense jungle. But those journeying through the region will need to go through at least one of the Amazon countries. So the third part of the book consists of a series of mini-guides. These give all the basic data any visitor will need. For each of the eight nation-states (and colony of French Guiana) there are the essential facts and figures - including how to access Internet - as well as introductions to the major towns and cities: where to stay (first class, middle and budget), eateries and the like. Outline maps of the countries and larger scale street maps of the bigger towns and cities will help readers find their way around. Being monolingual I particularly appreciated the short English-Spanish and English-Portuguese 'survival' glossaries (with pronunciation keys) and the list of books for further reading. Did the writers meet the challenge? I think so. Wisely the authors included extracts from other travellers and experts - so the drawings, maps and colored photographs are interspersed with boxes and sections that help to present a more balanced view of what travelling and staying in this vast region might actually be like - warts and all. There is a downside. While prices are given in US dollars and many distances given in miles alongside their kilometre equivalent, most other numeric information is given in the more scientifically correct metric system. Also perhaps, I would have welcomed a few more light-hearted anecdotes about the area. As a seasoned traveller with over 45 countries under my boots, this is the kind of guide I would want study thoroughly before I went. I would also want to keep the book with me in my back-pack or suitcase to help me relish the ever changing surroundings. It's the kind of guide that will make your time in the region safer - and so much more pleasurable, exciting, rewarding and memorable. Buy it. It will be an investment.
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Summary: Holistic Guide to the Amazon Region
Review: This is a marvelous guidebook, replete with useful and interesting information on any and all aspects of Amazonia, from the flora and fauna to the people and culture. It only is lacking in one respect -- coverage of Brazilian music, which is another "environmental" element that surrounds you wherever you travel in Brazil, from Manaus to Rio. For that, I also recommend a book called "The Brazilian Sound," which is an excellent musical guidebook.
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