Rating: 
Summary: The best motorcycle book EVER
Review: I own basically every motorcycle touring book out there. This book is by far the absolute best book. I cannot tell you enough how witty, interesting, and fascinating the author tells the story. Both my husband and I were glued to the book until it was finished and both of us did not want the book to end. It was that good! I felt like I was there with him...
Rating:
Summary: The Washington Post does not lie...
Review: I picked up this book based on a review I read in the Washington Post Book World, in which the reviewer claimed it was "...the most fun I've had sitting down in a long time." He wasn't kidding! This is a very funny book with a very witty and perceptive protagonist. His verbal tour of the southern countries is suprisingly full of interesting cultural and historical anectdotes, as well as intriguing characters and harebrained shenanigans. The chapter titles say it all - "Attack of the Flesh Eating Minnows," "Beware of Falling Tourists," "Tramitadores in the Mist," "The World's Saltiest Hotel," - this book sucks you in at the table of contents and dosn't let you go until the last page. All in all, a great read. Highly reccomended!
Rating:
Summary: The Washington Post does not lie...
Review: I picked up this book based on a review I read in the Washington Post Book World, in which the reviewer claimed it was "...the most fun I've had sitting down in a long time." He wasn't kidding! This is a very funny book with a very witty and perceptive protagonist. His verbal tour of the southern countries is suprisingly full of interesting cultural and historical anectdotes, as well as intriguing characters and harebrained shenanigans. The chapter titles say it all - "Attack of the Flesh Eating Minnows," "Beware of Falling Tourists," "Tramitadores in the Mist," "The World's Saltiest Hotel," - this book sucks you in at the table of contents and dosn't let you go until the last page. All in all, a great read. Highly reccomended!
Rating:
Summary: Very funny, very enjoyable read
Review: Its an entertaining story told in a very engaging manner. I found myself laughing out loud at the humorous anecdotes and situations that the author found himself in. I didn't want to put the book down. The writing is tight and lucid; the stories are interesting and funny. One of the best books of the type I have ever read. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Funniest book in the motorcycle travel genre
Review: Nibbled by Fish may be the perfect subtitle to this amazing motorcycle adventure to the tip of South America from McAllen, Texas undertaken by three guys aboard two BMWs (R1100GS) and a Kawasaki KLR 650 for what amounted to a five-month sojourn.
Despite taking endless beatings from washboard gravel roads, dried salt beds, cold mountain switchbacks and desert heat, the bikes held up remarkably well, suffering only cracked subframes, clogged air filters and broken bag mounts. Punctured tires and bent rims don't count. Spills galore but no broken bones. Not bad for 22,000 miles of wheeling through 14 countries.
The author's KLR suffered the most damage, having struck a Hyundai truck head-on, bending its forks back 10 degrees although, miraculously, the bike and rider were still rideable. These guys, in their 20s and 50s, are nibbled by fish of all stripes: from corrupt border crossing guards to thieving street urchins; bribeable police and impersonated officials, high winds, bribes, poverty, cars with no headlights and flesh-eating minnows. Coffee filters were used to sieve out rust particles from brown-colored gas, and in Chimbote, Peru, the town itself smelled like dead, burnt fish.
Yet no doubt, the guys experience many pleasures along the way, visiting several Inca ruins and dormant volcanoes, taking boat rides to floating reed islands near Lake Titicaca, sucking face with Latinas and riding through many days of perfect weather and pavement. Robert ("Santa"); Peter and the author ("Devil-O") display normal human emotional turmoil that besets any group of travelers: frustration; impatience; mild hatred, intoxication and the worst, abandonment, which happens even accidentally.
Writing style is light-handed and funny by virtue of a sardonic wit. Objects that suddenly appear on the road are described as: "dogs; cows; sheep; goats; little children and their half-inflated balls; crusted white-haired grandmothers bent in half with huge bundles of sticks; drunks; boulders; fat birds. Even a great yellow earthmover suddenly backed out onto the road. By the end of all this, I wouldn't have been surprised if a chunk of an airplane cabin dropped from the sky in front of me."
Since YBers ride to eat, the steaks served up in Argentina are "soft and tenderas white bread."
With the exception of Argentina, prices in South America for bike repairs were usually under price, hotel rooms ranged from price to price, meals were under price, but the drinking could cost you price if you happened to buy drinks for pals and strippers. And partying they did, staying up til 5:00 a.m. before embarking at 7:30.
God-sends on a trip like this included copies of legal documents such as title and driver's license, Aerostich Darien, malaria pills, electric vest. The book's appendix provides a handy list detailing items each rider packed. Very useful.
Obligatory reading for anyone planning a Tierra Del Fuego trip.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Time On My Hands
Review: The book could have been compressed to half the size without a loss of interest. The author spends a great deal of time discussing the relationships among he and his co-travelers on this hemispheric trip. He laments the fact he is viewed as a weak link in the trio, yet his actions do nothing to supply the reader reasoning for any other view of his role. He also spends more than enough time on discussing the various women he beds on the trip. A good view of an ugly American on an extended vacation. Somehow the author secured a contract prior to his trip and I am sure that this is one reason the title was published. The book is redeemed, in some fashion, with a good discussion of the materials one needs for making such a trip and the various mechanical issues that will face a motorcyclist on the roads of the Americas.
Rating: 
Summary: not informative
Review: The reader should not expect to learn much about any of the Latin American countries that the author visited. This is a book about what goes on inside a Yankee motorcyclist's head, not about Latin America. The author seems ill-informed about the places he travels, so can say very little about them. One star because it is very well written, very readable.
Rating:
Summary: Hysterical... I did not want it to end!!!
Review: This book has all of the essential elements of the perfect beach read; exotic locales, exciting adventure, hysterical calamity, and a little romance. Add in an adorably bumbling hero with a tendency to stick his foot in his mouth and two of the most quirky characters the internet could produce as riding companions, and you get quite an entertaining read. It's hard to believe that this is a true story - some of the things that happen along the way are just too bizzare and funny to be believed... but you know what they say about truth being stranger than fiction!
This book has a lot to offer the armchair adventurer too; lots of great descriptions of some pretty amazing locales, lots of historical facts and cultural information, and a few nasty run ins with border rip off artists and the ubiquitous greasy corrupt cops. Although I've never even gone near a motorcycle, this book made me want to run out and buy one to experience this myself! He offers a lot of insider information that would be very useful to those planning a similar trip.
Overall, I highly reccomend it!
Rating:
Summary: Very Entertaining
Review: This book is quite a joy to read. Once you start reading you can hardly put it down. The vivid and detailed descriptions of all the characters and places that they run into allow yourself to get totally immersed in the whole adventure. Knowing one of the companions (Peter) since I was a little kid and seeing how accurately Andres described him in all of his aspects, lent a lot of credibility to every account in the book. I also got the chance to hear about the entire adventure through Peter's perspective and its just like Andres wrote about it. I recommend this book to anyone with an adventurous spirit.
Rating: 
Summary: Where was this guys editor?!
Review: Yea it may contain some interesting anecdotal information but, yikes, what a chore to read. This guy must have failed his freshman writing course! Gross gramatical mistakes, misused words (the author must not own a dictionary), unused words (I don't think this guy knows more than 10,000 english words and they are all in this book multiple times), run cover to cover. My ten year old can tell a better story than this with content that would seem not nearly as exciting. Buy it if you must, but be prepared to dumb down while you sift for the usefull stuff.
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