by Glen David Short
"...Intrepid Aussie Short gives a slightly different perspective to an oversubscribed genre, bypassing the baggage of American writers with a lively, occasionally gung-ho yet down to earth and honest account encompassing chunks of historical and political context, and breathing life into eccentric character sketches..." - The Rough Guide to Central America, current edition.
"In some respects, I found the tale more appealling than Chatwin's
works..." - Stephen A. Haines, one of Amazon.com's 'Top 100' reviewers.
"Recommended reading" - South American Explorers Magazine, Issue # 69, Autumn 2002.
"... this story parallels Plato's 'cave-dwellers'... - Ted Langlais, Canadian literature critic.
"...written as engagingly as any thriller..." - Sydney Cauveren, author.
"The number of books on Central America (travelogues and political essays) swelled duting the turbulent '80s and into the early '90s, but have waned in the years since. Many good ones are now, unfortunately, no longer in stock... Glen David Short's 'An Odd Odyssey' is a much more recent version of a half-year trip through Mexico and Central America." Lonely Planet's Central America on a Shoestring, page 723, (2007 edition).
An Odd Odyssey is an extraordinary book. Extraordinary because of the journey it describes, and also the way it it is written. Part diary, part travelogue, it also is a chronicle of the worst disaster to hit the region in modern times, and one man's determination to make his way through it.
Traveling through Mexico and eight different Central American republics would seem a dangerous enough enterprise, but when the author becomes the unfortunate victim of two robberies in less than 24 hours in Mexico City, and falls ill with a tropical fever just as Hurricane Mitch arrives, it becomes more so.
The book contains many observations that the armchair traveler will relish: hiking through the desert of Baja California in search of ancient cave paintings; visiting the houses of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Benito Juarez, Paul Gauguin and Leon Trotsky; coming upon the bones of the last Aztec king in a remote mountain village; exploring jungle-clad Aztec and Mayan ruins; witnessing a fanatical Mexican student protest; climbing an active volcano (which nearly asphixiates him); coming face to face with a giant crocodile; searching for (and finding) a giant pre-Columbian stone sphere in the Costa Rica jungle; exploring a bat infested cave; swimming in the Panama Canal; going up the Usumacinta River in a motorized dugout; visiting Toboga Island with a Playboy model; sailing the Caribbean with a pet monkey for company; and, perhaps most interesting of all, his ill-fated romance with a young Nicaraguan woman.
But these curious individual anecdotes are not the only rewarding features of his 'odd odyssey'. The entire 6 month trip was done on a budget of only US$3500. He intersperses his narrative with current affairs, historical notes and Guatemalan ghost stories. His pithy observations of his fellow travellers is at times comic, other times tragic. Reading this book you gain a glimpse of the adventure and excitement that only the lone backpacker, wandering infrequently-visited backroads with no fixed schedule, can enjoy.
That is not to say that the book is all optimism... its is not, as a few times the author draws the reader into his allegorical whirlpool of despair. But that makes it all the more real: a six month trip by bus and boat through hurricane-ruined countries is not for the faint-hearted.
Click here to see The Odd Odyssey Colour Slideshow, with short excerpts, on YouTube
Click here to see
The Odd Odyssey Colour Slideshow, with short excerpts, on Flckr
EXCERPTS:
Chapter 3:
Frida Kahlo -
Ari the crazy Swede
Chapter 6:
One Day in Antigua Guatemala
Chapter 6:
Experiencing Hurricane Mitch
Chapter 6:
Friday the 13th and the Madman
Chapter 12:
Death and Thievery on Isla Grande
REVIEWS:
To read what other people are saying about An Odd Odyssey, including why it was ranked above Bill Bryson by one noted reviewer click here
To read the book's table of contents and synopsis click here
ORDERING INFO:
To order the book on-line, and see Trafford Publishing's webpage for An Odd Odyssey click here. (Note: An Odd Odyssey is 290 pages long and contains more than 50 black and white photographs. The South American Explorer's Club usually has copies in stock. You can also order it from Amazon.com and
Chapters-Indigo, however, if you order direct from
Trafford Publishing they "print on demand" and post their titles in the mail immediately, and are usually cheaper. Trafford also accept cheques, and telephone and fax orders. It is available in the UK from Amazon.uk
, though it may be quicker and cheaper to order it direct from Canada. At the present time there is no distributor in Australia, but Traffords and Amazon.com will ship worldwide.) The book is also available for immediate download in Adobe Reader format at a cheaper price as an 'e-book' - click here for details.