4 comments about Brazil: Amazon And Pantanal (Travellers' Wildlife Guides).

1. I used this book for a recent trip to Brazil's Pantanal. The book is specific to only two geographic areas: The Pantanal and the Amazon, admittedly, Brazil's biggest natural draws. However, since the Pantanal and the Atlantic rainforest were my destinations, the book's usefulness was only partially utilized. Also, it is a heavy volume, and when considered with the other guidebooks I packed and used for cross-referencing, this book was by far the heftiest.

   The book does fill a unique niche, that of ecology and natural history guide to these two unique wild places. No other book that is easily carried provides as much enjoyable natural history reading on the Amazon and Pantanal. The illustration plates are uniformly excellent, but it is not noted whether species occur outside of the Pantanal and Amazon. Many species do occur outside, as I quickly found out. Eliminating the rest of Brazil all together just seems a bit restricting. An average traveller to Brazil is most likely to make a stop in Rio de Janeiro, perhaps visit the easily accessible Parque National de Tijuca, and wonder if what they're seeing is that similar looking bird in their book.

   Brazil is a big country, and no guidebook has yet to cover all its flora and fauna in one volume, in English, and travel-sized. This guidebook attempts to cover at least the animals and birds of Brazil's largest natural treasures, and succeeds for the most part. Given its quality of illustrations and plates, written descriptions of behavior, ecology and geography, this book is a good when used in conjunction with other bird and mammal guides.




2. This book attempts to cover the whole gamut of wildlife for the Amazon basin and Pananal. It can't do it; no book can. It did make an admirable attempt and as such is a great book for the tourist traveling to the area. On a recent trip north of Manaus, it covered 98% of the bird life. It is concise enough that the occaisional bird wathcer will be able to identify most birds. It is not quite as adequate for other species- fish are very superficial, as are reptiles. I would like to see these expanded. This is a terrific guide for the tourist- concise, adequately complete, and easy to use.



3. My wife bought this book for me for our recent trip to Brazil, including the Pantanal and southern Amazon. The book is excellent on some points, and severely lacking on others.
   
   Since this book covers the gamut from insects to birds to reptiles to amphibians to mammals, I knew right from the start that it would have a very limited usefullness in terms of identifying individual species that we were seeing, and I was right. I was travelling with a couple of friends who are wildlife biologists. They too had the book. We all stopped carrying the book when we were out because it wasn't worth the weight in our packs. There are simply far too many species left out of this book for it to be useful as a field guide. With so many species, many of which look quite a bit alike, you will very rarely be certain that the animal you just saw is exactly the one in the book. For those who find it important to know exactly what you just saw, this book is not for you. If you can find it, Aves Brasiliera (All the Birds of Brazil) is a much better choice, IF you can find it. Our guide at the All the Birds of Brazil book, and it was far better, though obviously only covered a narrower topic than this book.
   
   Now for the good. Before the trip, I read this book cover to cover, which is very unusual for me for "field guides". I found the book to be very well written, with good (though sometimes rather general, as I would expect) information about the ecology of the two regions, as well as general information about the species covered. Since Brazil contains many species that are vastly different than what I normally see in North America, I found the guide to be an excellent introduction for my trip, and though I only used it to identify individual species several times, I found that my detailed reading of it before the trip often useful in at least narrowing a bird down to type. So I could look at something and say, "Oh, that's a manakin of some kind." Beyond that, I relied on our EXCELLENT guide and his extensive knowledge or his birds of Brazil book.
   
   To illustrate the above, this book contains (by quick count) plates and descriptions for 187 birds. During the nearly three weeks I was there, I saw 257 different species of birds, and I didn't see, and there are a lot of birds in the book that I didn't see. It's easy to do the math and figure out that the book is not good for (nor is it designed for) identification, per se.
   
   So my recommendation: If you traveling to Brazil and don't already know a huge amount about the region, buy this book, read it before you go, maybe even take it with you as an evening reference, but for identifying individual species, you're better off using the knowledge of an experienced guide.
   
   Oh, one other minor gripe. Despite the generally very high quality of the physical book itself, the humidity in Brazil appears to have accelerated the deterioration of the book. One would think that for a book designed to be taken to a wet climate, more care would have gone into making it withstand that climate. Maybe I just got a bad copy though.
   
   So despite the short-comings of the book, which are largely by design, I give this book 4 stars. It is well done.



4. Given the length of this book, it is a superb guide to the wildlife and plants that one might see in the Amazon river basin. The discussion of the natural history of the various plants and animals is fascinating and extremely well written. I read the entire book at one sitting. It would have been nice if the plates were at the same place as the description but that would have had its drawbacks as well. The authors make it clear that the plants and animals discussed here are only the tip of the iceberg and only the most common or most interesting (like the bushmaster)but it is certainly a good start and a field guide that can easily be carried. The animals discussed start with the insects and go on up to mammals. The plates describe the animals and give the ranges. This is more than just a field guide because of the wonderful discussion of the biology of the fascinating creatures that live in the Amazon river basin. In fact, persons who expect to see just a listing of animals with plates of images will be disappointed. Those that want to know something about the natural history of the Amazon will be well pleased with this book.

5 comments about Tristes Tropiques.

1. One way to gauge who's in among fashionable academics is to read the catalog for the "Writers and Readers' Documentary Comic Book" series. Sartre has an entry, and so does Derrida, and Lacan. Thirty years ago, you would have expected to find an entry in this index for Claude Levi-Strauss. No more. Translations of his principal works appear to persist in print, but the sales numbers are look low, and he seems almost to have disappeared from the trendy book reviews and such. This is perhaps a matter for at least idle curiosity: Levi-Strauss is surely no more abstruse than his magisterial contemporaries - but no less so; one is perfectly willing to be relieved the obligation of ever picking him up again.

   With one exception. In style and temperament, Tristes Tropiques is so different from almost everything else Levi-Strauss wrote that it is hard to believe it is written by the same man. Oh, the primitive tribes are there, and a brief personal intellectual history, that offers a bow to Freud, and Bergeson, and Saussure. In my own copy, which I first read about 1980, I even have a pencilled notation "structuralism" - this at page 375 (Pocket Books edition, 1977). But there is almost none of the portentous vacuity that you had to cope with in the so-called "serious" works.

   What you get instead is Levi Strauss the raconteur, full of travelers' tales. He dines on roasted parrot, flamed with whisky. The termites make the earth rumble. Virgins are made to spit in pots of corn, to provoke fermentation - but "as the delicious drink, at once nutritious and refreshing, was consumed that very evening, the process of fermentation was not very advanced." You almost expect the anthropophagi and the men whose heads grow beneath their shoulders, that you meet in the Voyages of Sir John Mandeville, Knight.

   Laced through it all, you get a kind of austere sadness which is either (a) a tragic view of life; or (b) a kind of self-indulgent posturing, depending on your temperament for skepticism. "Every effort to understand," he says, "destroys the object studied in favor of another object of a different nature." Or: "Anthropology could with advantage be changed into 'entropology', as the name of the discipline concerned with the study of the highest manifestations of [a] process of disintegration."

   Well, call me anything the like, they say, as long as you call me for dinner. It might even be an elaborate con. But so, for that matter, might the stories of Herodotus were you get the same mix of the eclectic and the tolerant, the surreal and the sly. Herodotus, we may note, is one of the first great works of Western literature. Let's hope that Levi-Strauss is not one of the last.




2. This is Levi-Strauss most readable book, and it is a fantastic introduction to the "why" behind his interest in structuralism. There are hints of the various methods and approaches that he uses in later works, but this book shows why he was to develop structuralism in later works. The writing is clever and eloquent, and various conclusions he made about cultural diversity address contemporary concerns in a highly articulate and responsible manner. Read this book before delving into the other writings of one of the 20th Century's most important anthropologists.



3. Tristes Tropiques, surely one of the great books of the twentieth century, is Levi-Strauss at his intoxicating, idea-overloaded best and an elegy for a world that colonialism and then globalisation have doen their rational best to annihilate.
   
   Levi-Strauss, like most thinkers who come up with new ways of describing the world-- those who Richard Rorty calls "inventors of philosophical vocabularies"-- has of course been mis-read and his ideas mis-applied, as we see with the much-hyped "creation" and then "demise" of "structural anthropology." The real pleasure of this book, which mixes fascinating accounts of Levi-Strauss' travels in Brazil in the '30s with autobiography, and adds chapters on the Maya and ancient Hindu (Indian) civilisations, is in its sheer mass of artfully arranged detail and its endless, provocative play of ideas.
   
   Levi-Strauss stays conversational, descriptive and straightforward, avoiding academic jargon and obscure references. He assumes you know the basics about people like Freud, Marx, Darwin and the Buddha, and then shows you a trip through largely non-industrial societies which unfolds from anthropological description into deep philosophical speculation on the meaning of society and life.
   
   In Brazil, Levi-Strauss watches an illiterate but canny chieftain use his anthropological fieldnotes to intimidate his illiterate tribesmen subordinates, and speculates on the parallel origins of writing and slavery. In Matto Grosso, he meets a butcher fascinated with elephants, since "he could not imagine so much meat in one place." On the banks of the Amazon, a non-industrial tribe is dying, hypnotically lost in the symbolic intricacies of an ancient social system that makes its citizens inbreed. In India, Levi-Strauss watches Islam and Hinduism-- the "locker room" and "mother" religions-- wage symbolic and then real war post-Independence.
   
   The book starts as anthropology, turns into philosophy, and ultimately becomes a critique of the West, driven by "reason" and technology to shake off what Levi-Strauss calls the "thick blanket of dreams" with which non-industrial civilisation arranges the Universe into Meaning, which remains for the industrialised world the greatest and unanswered question.
   
   But Levi-Strauss does not idealise the primitive. His point is that through the study of those and that which are different, a kind of "ideal model" of society-- one which will never exist-- can be built in the imagination, and people can evaluate their world by reference to this community of mind.
   
   This is a remarkable book-- easy to read, engrossing, and endlessly thought-provoking.



4. I often review works which I have read long ago. Upon beginning to write about them I invariably discover how much time I gave to something which seemed so worthwhile at the time, and which I have almost completely forgotten. I then ordinarily do some catch- up learning about the book. And my review becomes an amalgalm of distant past and most recent present impression. And meanwhile the heart of the book is forever unknown to me and lost. And my review is only a minor tracing an impression both of the book itself and what of my mind knew when reading through it.
   This certainly applies to my reading of this particular work, ,the one work of Levi- Strauss which I remember reading with any degree of real understanding and pleasure. His making of a life and career as an anthropologist which are a good part of the first part of the work interested me then.
   The long travelogue and explorations into Amerindian society and mind, interested me less.
   I understand though that the real voyage is into and along with the mind of Levi- Strauss itself, a mind much more complicated than I was ordinarily used to meeting and ingesting .
   I do remember however the somewhat majestic tone, the tone of restrained sadness of quiet mourning which seemed to go through the work as Levi- Strauss met with worlds being lost and deterorating , in part through their meetings with the very kind of Western mind he himself exemplified. It is the mind destroying the object in the process of knowing it , as the Western explorers of these tribal societies transformed them out of their own natural state by meeting with them.
   For Levi- Strauss and this I remember, the ' primitive mind' is not ' primitive at all' and may be in its linguistic complexity and social structure far more intricate than the ' civilized ' as it were sophisticated worlds we believe we live in.
   I read this work as a way of being acquainted with a great mind, a mind which to my mind proved to be quite elusive and even distant.
   But clearly the exploration made by Levi- Strauss of his own inner and external worlds is one which calls to the curious human mind and heart in its quest for understanding ' of the other'
   Montaigne took a trip in the Brazilian jungle in the twentieth
   century, looked in the mirror and saw the face of Levi- Strauss.



5. I like to travel and to observe the cities, landscapes, the plants and animals and the human inhabitants of the countries I go to. So does Levy-Strauss, and he is a fantastic observer, much more sharp-eyed than I could ever hope to be, and a highly entertaining writer. In this classic he talks about a wide range of observations from a number of corners of the world, but mainly about South America.
   The book deals with Levi-Strauss' time as a teacher in Brazil and his trips into the South American hinterland; his escape from Nazi-occupied France; His later expeditions to visit remote tribes in the Amazon; and an assortment of observations about such diverse topics as the frustration of the traveler to never encounter the true, pristine state of a culture, the Indian caste system and the division of public and private space in different parts of the world. The book is full of fascinating anecdotes: My favorite one is how a native chief from observing Levy-Strauss grasped the social importance of writing, but not its role in information storage and transmission. He bluffed to impress his underlings and drew freshly invented line configurations on a paper. This leads Levy-Strauss to observe that from the invention of writing to its universal knowledge a few millennia passed, during which it did not serve to liberate the masses, but to control them. Such wide-ranging philosophical associations are frequent and were very enjoyable to me. The book is, however, definitely not only a collection of anecdotes, but in parts a very detailed description of the life of some of the native tribes he visited in the Amazon. Drawings of artifacts, patterns used in body-painting and photographs supplement the text. We are given both anthropological descriptions of the lifes of these peoples, their social organization, attitudes and material culture, as well as Levy-Strauss' personal experiences when living among them, sometimes his friendships with members of these tribes. Of course these people were strongly affected by the contact with European civilization, often to the worse. We also learn about these developments. There isn't really much direct explanation about his theoretical approaches to anthropology. This is the kind of book which made me wish that I could have been an expedition member of Levy-Strauss' team. Highly recommended.

1 comments about Brazil - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette (Culture Smart!).

1. This book is making preparation for visiting this amazing country very thorough. An easy read and filled with useful tips.

5 comments about Frommer's Brazil (Frommer's Complete).

1. I've enjoyed the other Frommer's Guides I've used, particularly the one for Costa Rica, so I ordered Frommer's Brazil online. I was quite disappointed to discover the book covers only a small portion of Brazil's geography. Not only is the sparsely inhabited interior not covered, the southern states, home to more than a million people and a vacation destination for hundreds of thousands of Brazilians and Argentines are not so much as mentioned. It's improper to title the book "Brazil" when it's really about a dozen or so major destinations.



2. Recently used this guide for a visit to Sao Paolo, Parati, Brasilia and Rio. I did appreciate the more functional approach (settling, exploring) compared to rough guide or lonely planet. Also, the intented audience appears to be a bit older / less backpack / more money, which worked out nice in this case (Brasil is cheap :-). The information appears to be fairly accurate, and did indeed help us book hotels and visit attractions.
   However, not all was well. For Rio nightlife try to find other sources of info. One area where this frommers fails badly is maps. Not only do the maps contain errors - attractions drawn in at wrong locations - but the range / level of detail is way too limited. The lonely planet is much better in this regard (although that guide does have some major other problems, like shameless selfpromotion of other items in their stable)



3. I suggest this for anyone traveling in Brazil.



4. I purchased this book, as well as a Fodor's Guide to Sao Paulo and Discovery's Insight Guide to Brazil. I have found this book to be more descriptive and detailed in identifying areas/places of interest for the tourist. The Insight Guide has a lot more photos, and is nicer to look at, but this book is far more informative and functional.



5. For my five-week journey through Brazil (Sept/Oct 2007) I took three guides (Lonely Planet, Footprint and Frommer's) and Frommer's has the most positive qualities. This review refers to the 2006 edition.
   
   Frommer's Brazil 2006 opens with "What's New in Brazil." This is a store house of information, especially if you are a frequent traveler to Brazil. New hotels and resorts are popping up throughout Brazil and if you can go to these spots before they become well known then you are apt to get great prices and better service. Another section that is excellent is "The Best of Brazil" where the BEST of everything is selected: "Best Beaches," "Best Experiences," "Best Wildlife," "Best Views," "Best Nightlife," on and on.
   
   The hotels selections are great choices. All of the hotels have website listings and going online to see the rooms is a major help. No other guide is as descriptive about the restaurants as is Frommer's. The authors write in such a way that you want to taste and see: "The menu includes pastas such as ravioli with dried shrimp and leek or the spaghetti with seafood. We tried the filet of mignon in cassis sauce and grilled figs and the lamb in tamarind sauce on a bed fo cassve puree." Hum, I am hungry now. Great descriptive writing. The hotel descriptions are equally as well written. This guide has the best write up on Carnival.
   
   About money: Brazil is not `cheep'. This guide is no longer correct regarding cost. The dollar's fall makes Brazil about as expensive as travel in the USA. In Rio, a decent hotel (not great a hotel, just decent) is at least $100 and up. A good, not great, meal is at least $20 to $30. I traveled during the "Low Season" and I found that I needed $100-$150 a day to travel at a 3-4 star level and eat OK (not including my airfares). You should add at least 20-30% in high season and at least 60% at Carnival.
   
   On the `need to improve' side: the section on health is pathetic. It gives you very little information in compared to the other guides. There is a paltry seven pages, which is paradoxically titled `Brazil in Depth' which is an afterthought that attempts to explain the history, culture, economy, politics, religion and life of Brazil. Absolutely insignificant. For those that want more, I highly recommend Culture Shock! Brazil 2007 -- an excellent primer on Brazil (see my review). Though hotel & restaurant recommendations are right on the money, this guide has significantly fewer recommendations than Lonely Planet or Footprint, i.e. the city of Manaus in the Amazon (2 million pop.) has only three restaurant recommendations!
   
   In a nutshell, if you are not going `off the beaten path' then Frommer's is the guide for you. It will give you the best of Brazil (not the cheapest). Happy Trails. Strongly Recommended. 4.5

5 comments about Eat Smart in Peru : How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure (Eat Smart in Peru).

1. (Planeta Journal) - This latest title in the Eat Smart series helps travelers decipher menus and shop in the lively markets of Peru. There are so many options for visitors throughout the country, this book is the definitive guidebook for enjoying Peruvian cuisine. Includes tips on shopping in markets, a menu guide, helpful phrases and a list of helpful resources.



2. "...picarones, a doughnut-like snack or dessert made from a yeasty pumpkin dough. The rings of dough are formed by hand, deep-fried and served with raw-sugar syrup flavored with orange, aniseed, cinnamon and cloves." ~ pg. 14
   
   The Eat Smart guides are an exploration of cuisine itself and are interesting even if you never reach the desired destination. You can order ingredients online for the recipes featured. There are pictures of delicious cultural favorites, food markets and unique ingredients. Some of the main sections include:
   
   Early History through Pre-Inca Civilizations
   The Regions of Peru
   Tastes of Peru
   Shopping in Peru's Food Markets
   Resources
   Helpful Phrases
   Menu Guide
   Food and Flavors Guide
   Restaurants
   
   Joan Peterson and Brook Soltvedt also show how various cultures influenced Peru's culinary world and the first part of this book contains a lot of culinary history that may appeal to food writers. Maps and pictures of the food make it easier to understand the cultural significance of food choices.
   
   "Rare is the Peruvian dish that does not include chile pepper. Each river valley oasis along the western slopes of the Andes has a microclimate that produces unique varieties of chile peppers, which are, in turn, completely different from the peppers native to the jungle." ~ pg. 19
   
   Recipes for Rice Pudding look familiar and if you can find gooseberries, you can make the gooseberry marmalade to serve with quinoa crepes.
   
   Other highlights include a section on helpful phrases you can use in restaurants. List of foods like "nuez moscada" have translations, nutmeg. If you order a tortilla, you will get an omelet.
   
   Eat Smart in Peru will appeal to anyone who is curious about new culinary discoveries and wants to either travel to Peru or incorporate new recipes into their cooking repertoire.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review



3. People who love combining great food and travel make pilgrimages to Italy's Po Valley, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hanoi, Singapore, France's Lyon, San Francisco, Charleston, New Orleans and other shrines to fine cooking.
   
   Add Peru to the list.
   
   If you aren't aware that Peru has its very own fusion cuisine -- very approximately like that of New Orleans with a blend of Indian, Spanish and African styles -- plus contributions by Chinese and Japanese settlers, Eat Smart in Peru will open your eyes to yet another fine gourmet destination.
   
   Authors Joan Peterson and Brook Soltvedt are way ahead of the curve in discovering Peruvian cuisine. I was only aware of Peruvian chicken, based on a carryout in my neighborhood that serves this dish, cooked on a rotating spit over charcoal, with a rosemary-based spice shoved under the chicken skin, and a fine salsa verde on the side. Peterson and Soltvedt found a vast variety of other dishes, including curries, desserts and appetizers. A section on recipes includes Aji de Gallina, a chicken stew that I plan to try.
   
   In addition to the recipes, Eat Smart in Peru contains a history of the development of Peru's cuisine, a regional specialties chapter, a glossary of ingredients and menu guide.
   
   Finally, Eat Smart in Peru tells you how to shop in a Peruvian market and how to locate rare ingredients stateside. It's an easy read, with nice illustrations and a logical organization.
   
   By the way, the author has done other "Eat Smart" guides to Brazil, Mexico, India, Turkey, Poland and other destinations.



4. Eat Smart in Peru by Joan Peterson and Brook Soltvedt, Illustrated by Susan Chwae is a travel guide for food lovers which guides the traveler in Peru through the market and the menu in order to have a savory tasting adventure. The unique concept of this book is one of many in the EAT SMART series. The guides include a history of the culture and development of its unique cuisine. There are many recipes sprinkled through the book to try before making your trip to Peru or to enjoy as a special memory after returning. Especially useful is the chapters about shopping in the market with the needed languages phrases.And every traveler to Peru needs this book even if it is just for the restaurant guide which lists the dishes and food items in alphabetical order with descriptions of what it is, with national and regional Peruvian favorites indicated. With this guide you will no longer be ordering mystery foods when you dine. The book is unique and really well organized. Be sure to pack it for your trip!



5. This is a handy, travel sized guide to eating in Peru that greatly enhanced our trip to Peru. There are two excellent glossaries, one for menus with the names of foods in Spanish and in English, and the second listing a number of markets. There are recipes for some typical dishes from different regions in Peru (I've included one in the Comments). I especially liked the history of dishes.
   
   Our tour arranged for Sunday dinner at the home of a penal judge and an office manager; the family prepared the meal using many foods grown on their their own farm, and the judge and his law student son ate with us. The menu included guinea pig fried in deep fat served with large kernel white corn on the cob and sweet potato. The second course was braised beef served with carrots, cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes. Dessert was strawberry gelatin. Except for the guinea pig, the meal sounds quite American, but this book added interesting information which helped us understand the seasonings and enjoy the meal more fully.
   
   My son and I are greatly addicted to street food, and the book was helpful on street dining as well. The steamed white corn at the railroad station on the way to Machu Picchu was superb; roasted beef heart at a greasy spoon in Miraflores was excellent; and we were delighted to learn more about the fusion of Chinese and Peruvian foods at the many chifa restaurants.
   
   There are a couple of useful websites that make this book even more useful. The publisher, Gingko Press, maintains an interesting website with news about the authors and other books in the Series. ginkgopress.com The site announced recently that this book received the 2006 Gourmand Award for Best in the World Award for a culinary travel guidebook. There is also the helpful perufood.blogspot.com devoted to the foods of Peru; Joan Peterson contributes suggestions on how to find ingredients, and suggests alternatives for those that aren't available in the US.
   
   As a portable guide book on the foods of Peru, this one can't be beat. But,if you are really serious about Peruvian food, consider obtaining the beautiful and encyclopedic The Art of Peruvian Cuisine by Tony Custer. The Reviews on Amazon and elsewhere (including my own) are glowing.
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008

5 comments about Brazilian Portuguese: Lonely Planet Phrasebook.

1. I'm just a lonely writer wanna-be in the heart of the middle of nowhere, so what do I choose to write -- a period piece of Brazil. I can't even begin to praise this book enough. Not only do I get phrases and words, but there are all sorts of little historical and cultural details.
   
   I will probably never travel to Brazil, but this little book is allowing my imagination to have a trip!



2. Beware of serious pronunciation errors in this book. Although it was overall pretty useful, there were some glaring errors in areas where there likely shouldn't have been. Case in point, the phonetic pronunciation for tchau (goodbye) in the book is spelled out as "tee-show." At least in Bahia, it was pronounced by the locals just like the Italian "ciao." The word "vinte" (twenty) is spelled out "veeng-te" in the book, while again everyone we encountered in Bahia pronounced it "veen-chay." I don't know if these are regional differences in Brazilian Portuguese, but if so, they need to at least be addressed in the book. Take care when using the phrasebook to listen to the local speakers as well.



3. I just returned from a trip to Brazil, and though I know some Spanish, I had no previous exposure to Portuguese. This phrasebook proved invaluable in helping me bridge the gap, and contributed to me having an even better time, and blending in better with the locals.



4. I picked up Conversational Brazilian Portuguese: Learn to Speak and Understand Portuguese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's Pimsleur), in audio and learned a lot. It helps to have some spanish lessons when you were young. This book was a nice addition to my base, and it came in handy more than a few times once I was in Brazil.



5. Really handy! It's unbelievable the amount of rare phrases that are in this book that you can't find anywhere else (example: Pull my finger= Pushe meu dedo). It covers a wide variety of topics like food and sex and parties. However, I found that the pronunciations guide kinda sucks. I'm not sure if I learned a different accent of Brazilian Portuguese (my teacher is from Brasilia), but the phonetic pronunciations they include were way off (for example, they never mention the fact that 'te' as in 'arte' is pronounced like 'chee' as in 'cheese'). Also, the organization of the book could have been a lot better. It took me HOURS to find a basic phrase (I'm hungry) because it was not put in a section with food or anything food/restaurant related. But for the reasonable price and convenient size, it's definitely worth having.

4 comments about Brazil (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE).

1. I just picked this up at our local Costco. It was $18 there - but you never know if it will be in stock or not so I'd stick with Amazon. We are going to Brazil in August and will definitely take this with us. We've used several of the Eyewitness books in the past for our European travels and they've never let us down and have always been better than the other travel books that we've picked up along the way. The graphics are perfect, we love the blown up street maps of the popular tourist destinations, and they are filled with tons of helpful tips! Definitely a win-win situation for all!



2. A beautiful, comprehensive overview of Brazil, but some maps are lacking in details. I always have liked "Eyewitness" for their wonderful maps ... however maps, especially for Rio de Janiero could be easier to use. This is a heavy book to carry traveling .... perhaps should have been published as two volumes?



3. I always enjoy reading eyewitness books , it gives a brief view about the place but to find out more abot dining and accommodation you need more views or opinions.



4. I travel a lot and always try to get the DK Eyewitness book for the area I am visiting--they are accurate and informative. And I like the pictures--before and after I see the real areas.

5 comments about The Hedonist: World Travel Guide.

1. 
   I searched Amazon forever for a singles vacation guide and finally found this little nugget.
   
   The only Bachelor's travel guide you'll need. Take Conde Naste, Lonely Planet, and add women, sports, and testosterone and you've got the Hedonist. These are all party cities, mostly tropic locations, with great fishing and golf at each. Complete travel advice on each city; customs, visas, sports companies to use, taxis, hotels, and the underground clubs to visit. For daytime activity, you'll find all the tourist stuff as well. Short, sweet and to the point. I've taken two trips and the advice was spot on, plus this book is witty and interesting; a hoot to read. All original, there's nothing copied here. This is the only book of it's kind. Highly recommended.



2. I bought this on referral, and would recommend it to anyone. My friends and I were trying to decide between Costa Rica and Cabo, and the book was spot on accurate for both locations. (we couldn't decide, so we went to both!) If you have the money, Cabo is pricey, but the golf and fishing are fantastic. They have a million dollar marlin tournament in October, and the book even recommends the best boats to charter if you want to enter.
   
   For a vacation, The Hedonist is very accurate, funny, and gets right to the point for what guys want; helps you find and choose the fishing, golf courses, nightclubs, girly clubs, hotels, local touristy stuff, you name it. Prices and locations for each.
   
   You'll get a big kick reading about the wild, fascinating stuff that goes on in some of the lesser know cities. We haven't decided on the next spot, but it sounds like they are all worth visiting some day. Great book.



3. This book was referred to me by a frequent overseas travel buddy of mine. What can I say, it's been a life changer. I now take vacations every 6 weeks out of the country. This is a point and click travel guide for sports, fun in the sun, and women by the dozens...it gives perfect advice for any bachelor looking to kick start his life on some spectacular vacations in paradises around the globe. Living in Miami, I can pop out Friday at noon and return on red-eye Sunday night flights and live an alternative life that no one knows anything about. I've had so much fun, and so many life-changing experiences with beautiful, fun loving women overseas, I've ceased dating in the US. American women used to offend me. Now they're comic relief. I suppose it's just the nature of the beast. For some men, after a couple dozen beers, a pig can be mildly appealing when the light hits their snout just right. They're just not for me.
   
   This book really opened my eyes to a better life, better sports activities, beautiful scenery, and vivacious, sexy women without an entitlement complex and attitude problems. I could go on, and on, but if you're not happy with your sex life, and tired of being treated like a third class citizen by bitter, beefy women, pick up the Hedonist and you will never look back.



4. I saved plenty of money using this guide, and after two vacations can say it's quite accurate, and helps you find the best party spots without jacking around. If you're single, this book is what you want. It's a first hand insider's scoop that you won't find the inside scoop in any other book; what to do, places to avoid, etc.
   
   I checked Lonely Planet and Fodor's at the bookstore and it was very generic and geared towards families. The Hedonist is great for sports nut like me, and obviously great for meeting local women. Definitely saved me tons of time so I could cut to chase as soon as landing. It's big fun reading about all the other cities; some places I'd never heard of but sound like they need further research. Highly recommended.



5. I was soo surprised on how accurate this book really was, It was almost like Brett had just left Rio the week before I got there. I just returned from Carnaval 2008 and I had the time of my life! This city is a true male twenty-somethings bachelor's paradise. One of my male friends that travels the world put me on to this book while I was there, and it officially became a checklist. Truly unbelieveable how accurate and precise this book is, and is highly recommended to anyone who wants to be in this "secret society". Just follow the rules to this book, or add them to your current agenda, and you too could have the time of your life in one of these many great cities, just like I did in Rio. I'm buying the book for future destinations, and I've also purchased his other book "The Professional Bachelor", which are now known to me as the The "Red" book, and the "Black" book. Both are must haves and I hope Brett keeps all these goodies coming in the future!

No comments about Brazil (Country Guide).

5 comments about Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism.

1. Several weeks ago, I was shocked to hear the news media reporting that Lonely Planet author Thomas Kohnstamm fabricated his research for LP's travel guides and had now written a tell-all book.
   
   Moreover, I was flatly angry. I used the 2005 Lonely Planet Brazil guide which Kohnstamm contributed to for two trips to that country. I even followed his thoughtful (albeit a bit preachy) regimen for "responsible travel" while there.
   
   And now all his contributions to the Lonely Planet Brazil guide were turning out to be a pack of lies? What a jerk!
   
   Needless to say, I simply had to read Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? If nothing else, I felt compelled to read it in order to justify my anger, or perhaps redouble it.
   
   The book wasn't what I had expected. As it turns out, Kohnstamm turns out to be an extremely conflicted guy. His standards are high, but he is disillusioned by the business of travel writing-- its deadlines and budgets in particular. He tries to build himself up as the cool guy who gets all of the women, yet his description of many of them is overwhelmingly sentimental (see the passages on ex-girlfriend Sydney in the introduction, if you doubt me).
   
   So, did Kohnstamm fabricate some of his work? Did he take free meals and lodging? Yes, and yes, although not nearly to the extent that the media has reported. That's right: the press got it wrong!
   
   This guy is no slouch (he has a Master's in Latin American studies from Stanford), but he does let himself become one at various points in the book. Kohnstamm takes us along for the ride, from Rio to Olinda, and various places in between.
   
   You've got to admire Kohnstamm for putting himself out there like this in such a frank way. There's no trite moral story in this book-- just a travelogue which is part confession, part braggadocio and all well written (in Hunter S. Thompson style, no less).
   
   After reading the book, I can't be angry. First of all, I've never laid myself bare like this. Further, how can I stay mad at a guy who puts pictures of his dog on his MySpace page, quotes Paul Theroux and is fascinated with D.B. Cooper?
   
   I still think Thomas Kohnstamm is a jerk, mind you-- but one who I have come to admire greatly through the pages of this book.
   
   It's good to know that travel writers are real people. If nothing else, Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? proves exactly that. Keep writing, Thomas.



2. If i would have listened to all of the Lonely Planet people trying to protect their reputations, and all of the hype in the articles about the book, I probably would not have purchased it. It sounded to interesting though, so I did. It was worth it. The book is entertaining the entire way and filled with characters that may remind you of friends, acquaintances, and some people you hope to never meet. It is the first person story of a man that does what many wish they could do: Leave everything behind and pursue adventure and the unknown. It is an unyielding view of what a travel writer faces, good and bad. It puts what many consider a dream job into perspective.



3. "What kind of a man spends his best years sitting in a chair?"
   
   Kohnstamm has written a book that makes me want to get out of my chair, and toss my perpetually connected work life into the East River, which will make sense when you read this book.
   
   There was a bit of controversy around this book before it came out having to do with Kohnstamm's work on Lonely Planet. The truth, after reading this adventure on the road, is that his writing was a gift to Lonely Planet and the charges of plagiarism were way off the mark. Kohnstamm mixes the reality of writing a travel guide with the experiences of being on the road in Brazil; a place where every day can bring another strange adventure to the open minded traveler. Kohnstamm strikes a balance between drunken hedonism and the details that make each episode ring, hilariously true. This is not only a book about travel and travel writing, it is laugh out loud funny which was a great surprise.
   
   "Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?" made me want to get up from my chair, pack my bags and see what the road has to offer, but I have a cat, a mortgage and a wife that insists upon me working. I will have to settle for Kohnstamm's next book. I can't wait!



4. That being said, I gave it 4 stars because of the endless stories about drugs, sex and alcohol - they grew old after awhile. Although, every time I thought to myself enough was enough I kept coming back to the subtitle. The author lays it bare from the beginning - you don't even have to open the book. Despite this one little hangup that I had, I blew through the book in 2 days. If you have even a passing interest in traveling, travel writing and/or Brazil you will probably like this book. I can easily see why guide book publishers are up in arms over it's contents, but frankly I'm not a guide book publisher and all of the author's misgivings about their "contributions" to the travel industry are spot on as well as his thoughts about the general state of the travel industry as a whole. (I'm not slamming guide books, but you can't ignore the truth in what the author is saying either).
   
   This was definitely a refreshing find in a genera that doesn't see nearly enough new additions in a given year.
   
   Steer clear if you're the type of traveler that likes tourist traps and trinket stores!



5. One word for this book - AWESOME!!! If you can't flee the 9-5, escaping into this author's colorful descriptions of his adventures in travel writing is the next best thing. The story itself is enough to keep one interested, but coupled that with a storyteller who has a true gift for writing, this book becomes extraordinary. I couldn't put this book down. I didn't want it to end. I can't wait for the next one!