Along the Inca Road
Essential Readings:
The best way to learn about the unknown is to read what others have seen. Often these readings are centuries old and that is the beauty of undertaking the task of reading an obsure journal or novel written for an audience before the steam engine, vaccinations or GPS was a word in the vernacular.
This is a short list of essential readings that cover a range of topics and eras in the history of South America. Some are fictional works while most are diaries and journals of people who experienced the hardships, wonders and survived the high altitudes of the Andes or the humidity, heat and killer plants and creatures of the Amazon Basin. I highly urge you read as many as possible. Some, like the Map Maker's Wife are unbelieveable in its narrative of a woman's quest to survive traveling the rainforest alone to reach her husband hundreds of miles away. The Cloud Forest, set in more modern times, provides a better overview of what travel was like in South America 50 years ago.
Take a look at the titles and start with one that peaks your interest. You won't be disappointed.
|
800
Leagues down the Amazon |
Jules
Verne |
|
A
Journey in |
Louis
Agassiz |
|
Along
the |
Karin
Muller |
|
Amazon
Extremes |
Colin
Angus |
|
Birds
of |
|
|
Black
and Gold |
|
|
Brazilian
Adventure |
Peter
Fleming |
|
Broad
and Alien is the World |
Ciro Alegria |
|
Canto
General |
Pedro
Neruda |
|
Chronicle
of Don Roderick |
|
|
Comentarios |
Inca
Garcilaso |
|
Discurso y reflexiones
politicos sobre el estado
presente de los reynos
del Peru |
Ulloa |
|
El
ingles de los guesos |
Benito
Lynch |
|
Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon |
William
Lewis Hendron |
|
Farewell
to |
Matthew
Huxley and Cornell Capa |
|
Green
Hell |
Duguid |
|
Green Mansions |
William Henry Hudson |
|
Handbook
of South American Indians |
William
Hendron |
|
Journal
du voyage fait par ordre du roi
a l'equateur |
La
Condamine |
|
Jungle
Paths and Inca Ruins |
McGovern |
|
Memoire
sur differents bois dan l'ile d |
J.
Godin |
|
Memoire
sur la navigation de l'Amazone |
J.
Godin |
|
Mesure des trois premiers degres du meridian dans l'hemisphere austral |
La
Condamine |
|
New
Discovery of the |
Acuna |
|
Noticias Americanas |
Ulloa |
|
Noticias secretas de |
Ulloa |
|
Pequena Historia Fuegina |
Menendez |
|
Quest
of Paititi |
Tennant |
|
Relacion historica |
Ulloa and Juan |
|
Relation
abregee d'un voyage fait dans
l'interieur de l'Amerique
Meridonale |
La
Condamine |
|
Short
Account of the Destruction of the |
Las
Casas |
|
Sons
of the Moon |
Henry
Shukman |
|
South
American Adventures |
Jolly |
|
The
Amazon: The life history of a mighty river |
Caryl P. Haskins |
|
The
Cloud Forest |
Peter
Matthiessen |
|
The
Discovery of the Amazon |
Jose
Toribio Medina |
|
The
Explorers of |
Edward
J. Goodman |
|
The
Lost City of the Incas |
Hiram
Bingham |
|
The
Lost City of |
Dave
Grann |
|
The
Mapmakers Wife |
Robert
Whitaker |
|
The
Motorcycle Diaries |
Ernesto
"Che" Guevara |
|
The
Naturalist on the River Amazons |
Henry
Walter Bates |
|
The
Purple Land |
William Henry Hudson |
|
The
River God Forgot |
Richard
Collier |
|
The
|
Candace
Millard |
|
The
|
Marshall
De Bruhl |
|
The
Rivers Ran East |
Leonard
Clark |
|
The
Sea and the Jungle |
H.M.
Tomalinson |
|
The
Valley of the Amazon |
Herndon
and Gibbon |
|
Theodore
Roosevelt and the Exploration of the |
Richard
Kozar |
|
Through
the Brazilian Wilderness |
Theodore
Roosevelt |
|
Traveling
with Che Guevara |
Alberto
Granada |
|
Travels
on the Amazon and |
Alfred
Russell Wallace |
|
True
History of the Conquest of |
del
Castillo |
|
Two
Against the Amazon |
Brown |
|
White
Waters and Black |
Gordon
McCreagh |
|
Who
Goes Out in the Mid-day Sun? |
Benedict
Allen |
Copyright 2011 Anthony Galván III