Three important books on South American wilderness
No matter what your interest in South America might be, if you ever ponder a journey into the outback of the spine of the Andes, three books constitute a must-read.
The first of the three is a work of the former American president, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt explored great part of South America in the early 20th century. His journey took him into the interior of Paraguay, pursuing a jaguar hunt, through the highland wilderness of Western Brazil, and down an unknown river in the equatorial forest.
Second important work is by Peter Mathiessen, an acclaimed author of Snow Leopard, recounting his journey into the center of the Himalayan region of Dolpo. His South American journey title, the Cloud Forest, covers his epic through the Amazon, Tierra del Fuego of Argentina, Mato Grosso of Brazil and the Peruvian heartlands of the Incas.
These three titles are indeed about the past, journeys by explorers that undertook them long ago, and about the remote wilderness of South America of yesteryear, but regardless of the era when written and published, they cover the unique wilderness regions that are unlike any other on this earth, a must-see-and-experience for any serous traveler of today.
In light of today’s coverage on global warming and rapid loss of plant and animal species, they are no less current than when written in the heyday of their time.
