5 comments about Frommer's Argentina & Chile (Frommer's Complete).

1. The guide must be updated for 2 restaurants I searched for (in a choice of only 5 options had been closed.



2. It is a good book with useful information to plan the trip. However, double check prices published in this book (need update) when you are in Argentina or Chile.



3. The book contains lots of general information and provides a thorough overview of Argentian. The Buenos Aires description and maps should be helpful when there. Tips and Side Trips are really informative and helpful.



4. Frommer's covers well information about expensive hotels and restaurants. It is not very helpful if you are looking for cheap travel lodging and meals.



5. Ugh! Where to begin? I went on a three week tour of Santiago & Buenos Aires with a friend of mine last month. I brought this book and he brought Lonely Planet's and let's just say my book ended up slowing us down as we lugged it around in out daybags. To start, this book only has ONE map each for Santiago and BA. And that map isn't even in great detail. Where as LP's book had a much larger general map of Santiago followed by many more zoomed in maps of each burrow.
   
   But you might be thinking to yourself, "So what, I'm a good navigator, I don't need a stinking map!" Well then good day to you, fine sir! But do you need suggestions and reviews on local sightseeing stops? Oh! So sorry! Because this book doesn't have any of those! I should clarify, they actually do have some suggestions and recommendations, but they tend to be along the lines of "Go here, it's fun" and that's it. No real info on what you'll do once you get there, no honest review as to whether it's good or not. Just a location, phone number, and a sentence or two saying "This is a local 'whatever' and it's a popular tourist spot." Gee, THANKS FROMMER'S! I felt like I was reading a Yellow Pages, not a travel guide.
   
   Even the restaurant suggestions were sub-par compared to their LP counterparts. I'd never used either travel guides before this trip, but I learned my lesson during this last trip and will never be buying one of Frommer's Travel books in the future. If you enjoy stress-free vacations and not wasting money, then I suggest you live by the same motto.

1 comments about Moon Chile: Including Easter Island (Moon Handbooks).

1. I just got home a few days ago from my Chile, Patagonia and Peru jaunt this year. This book was all I expected it to be. Even with our fast sinking Dollar the rates listed were very close to actual and Mr Bernhardson's insights and recommendations were reliable as usual.

No comments about Fodor's Chile, 4th Edition: Including Argentine Patagonia (Fodor's Gold Guides).

5 comments about In Patagonia.

1. Often deemed 'a classic' of travel literature, Bruce Chatwin's claim to fame, 'In Patagonia,' defies classification. Anyone looking for a straightforward account of Southern Argentina and Chile would best be advised to check elsewhere. But those who hunger for literary experiences that enchant, engage and fascinate without end, pick up this book ASAP!
   
   As an ardent Chatwinophile, I expected to be bowled over with rich prose and endless mountains of the most esoteric information, the standard Chatwin fare. I wasn't disappointed. 'In Patagonia' is a brilliant hodge-podge of history, anthropology, ethnography and good old-fashioned yarn-spinning. And if anybody can tell a story, Chatwin is the one. Each page overflows with gripping descriptions of the strange mixture of peoples who make up this forgotten land. You're led through communities of Welsh Methodists, Lithuanian eccentrics and Spanish anarchists, all exiles to this bleak land of sagebrush and glaciers. Chatwin's clean and sparing style 'paints' each character, each anecdote with sharp, jarring colors. Your imagination is thrown into overdrive as each story jumps off the page and buries itself in your mind. Glacial winds chafe the face, the din of a thousand penguins deafens and the bitter smile of the Patagonian exile tugs at the heart.
   
   Chatwin's style was his genius and his downfall. As was said of Emerson, Chatwin 'doesn't give the reader enough to chew on.' Sparse, clear and always adorned with odd facts and exotic images, Chatwin's sentences are those of the journalist turned artist. The sheer volume of fact and anecdote threatens to swallow the reader up...detailed diary accounts of Darwin's voyage...eyewitness renderings of Butch Cassidy's exile days...an intricate explanation of the local Yamana tribe's linguistic world...How to make sense of it all and complete the picture of Patagonia and its people? Difficult work at best. You are thrown so much and from so many angles, it's best to just sit back and simply be overwhelmed. So, arm-chair travellers and connoisseurs of fine prose, follow this nomad of nomads into an amazing world of stark beauty and even starker lives.



2. Depending on what you look for in a "travel" book you may or may not like this. If you're looking for history, natural history, or political developments, this is not the book for you. It is not comprehensive in any way.
   
   If you're looking for entertaining reading set in an interesting location with snippets of odd information this book would be entertaining. Of travel authors I have read, this author most closely resembles Theroux, but without the curmudgeonly judging. Like Theroux, his facts may or may not be correct but he doesn't claim to be writing a textbook, just some stuff that happened to him in this place.
   
   Mercifully, Chatwin spares us deep philosphical introspections so prevalent in much modern "travel" writing.
   
   I read it and enjoyed it and recommend it.



3. It's rare to encounter such subtle humor as one finds here; the book is not only an adept sketch of life at the bottom of the world, it's a screamingly, if subtly, funny throughout. I borrowed it from the library, read it, and was so entertained and impressed that I sought out and purchased a copy. Simply a terrific book.



4. Chatwin's account of his journey across Patagonia in the late 1970's certainly is embellished with all the qualities of a good English romantic. His tale begins with a memory from his childhood about a piece skin that was in the procession of his grandmother. She told him that is belonged to a Brontosaurus and came from the distant land of Patagonia in the south of Argentina. It turns out that the piece of skin in question actually belonged to a Mylodon, an ancient Giant Sloth native to Patagonia, and Chatwin received his fair share of belittlement from his schoolmasters for claiming it came from a dinosaur. Still, he held a special revere for the skin though and hoped to become its caretaker one day. Unfortunately the skin was tossed out after his grandmother passed away. He never lost his fascination with the distant and mysterious land of Patagonia though and always hoped to secure a piece of Mylodon skin for himself one day.
   
   Fast-forward about 25 years and we pick up Chatwin's story as he arrives in Argentina, finally fulfilling his dream to visit Patagonia. His journey takes him all over modern Patagonia, if one can use the word modern in regards to the region, bouncing from town to town in search of old legends and odd tales. He investigates the haunts of the last known days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, visits the beaches the Darwin visited during his famous voyage aboard the Beagle, even visits the famous Mylodon cave where the archaic animal's remains were discovered.
   
   Chatwin tells a remarkable tale and brings a nice mingling of history, myth, travel and local flavor all into one narrative. At several points he takes time to digress on several side stories that have a connection to the place he is visiting or a story that he is in the progress of rooting out. In spite of all this, or perhaps because of it, one gets the felling that all that Chatwin writes is not the stone cold truth. Certainly some areas are embellished to facilitate the flow of the narrative. Due to this it is hard to separate fact from fiction, but in a work such as this it is not especially important. Chatwin conveys the magic and mystery of the land that has for so long held a special place in his mind. He gives us a glimpse of what Patagonia has meant and stood for for generation after generation of seekers and travelers.



5. When a book lacks tension and features extensive quoting, it's bound to be boring. This book is boring, and the main reason is that it lacks a narrative thread, other than "been there, saw somebody, told me a long and winding story about somebody who was here some day". All trips are inner trips, but in this case I would say Chatwin looked inside himself, found not a lot, and decided instead to cut and paste from old stories from down south.

5 comments about Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile (Modern Library).

1. 
   This is one of those books that you keep reading for the promise of things to come...but it never delivers. The idea of accompanying the writer on her travels from north to south in "a thin country" is a compelling one. Unfortunately, the writing is not.
   
   The writer spends a great deal of the book writing about the trials and travails in getting from point A to point B, never fully focusing on the beauty of the destination or the people. How can you write about a Chile and fail to convey the sense of incomparable beauty that most travelers see?
   
   Now, I understand that there are travel writers who write about the journey and not the destination. So this could have been one of those humorous, roll-with-the-punches travel tales. But it wasn't that either. Instead,the journey stories were tedious and sounded a lot like complaining.
   
   To the book's credit, a great deal of Chilean history is interspersed throughout the book, but this, too, ends ups sounding like a high school textbook. Prosaic and repetitive, the history offered never comes to life.
   
   But I hate to give up on a book, so I slogged through 3/4 of it, riding along from the northern reaches of Atacama all the way to Antarctica. And, then, this:
   
   "Each country transports its culture to the bottom of the world when it sets up in Antarctica - the good and the bad. In Bellinghausen the piles of rubbish, the acres of mud, the puffy faced men with silver teeth, the ghostly outlines of the metal letters CCCP which had been clumsily jimmied off the doors, the abandoned machinery of failed scientific projects, the one minuscule and inadequate Lada - well, they were Russian all right."
   
   Up until now I've generally thought of most travelers as an enlightened bunch, people who can see beyond cultural stereotypes...but this writer managed to cram every available negative Russian stereotype into one telling sentence. Telling, because it revealed more about the writer, in my opinion, than Russian culture.
   
   And, come to think of it, there were quite a few negative comments about the Chilean people as well. They were frequently referred to as insecure and self-obsessed.
   
   This is when I decided to throw in the towel. This was one journey I no longer wanted to participate in.



2. I disagree with the other reviewer's comments who felt he had to slog through the book waiting for it to payoff. I thoroughly enjoyed Sara Wheeler's writing on Chile and reccomend this book to anyone who has traveled to Chile or is contemplating a trip.
   
   I started reading her book at the end of a 2-week adventure in Chile and many of her comments and thoughts resonated with my own experiences in Chile. I hated to leave the country and its beauty behind, but her book allowed me to retain and relive the magic of my own trip for another week+ as I savored her writing.



3. I read the book and thought it dullish-
   I agree with the previous reviewer that it did not come to life.
   I also thought the book dishonest. Sara had what appeared to be a long line of lovers on this trip- a man named Pepe that she slept on a deserted island with, yet there is no mention of sex or how most of these men came into her trip or out of it.
   some of her ideas, like spending two nights with three Chilian police officers was down right stupid or hitchhiking with Bolivian loggers. I wonder if she knows that many men in many cultures have one word for this kind of woman?
   Not that I care whether she did or not, but she took risks that seemed
   stupid- and I dont appreciate her withholding the truth,especially when
   other women might think she gave them the green light and then they end
   up raped.
   so did Sara have a love life that she hid in a prudish manner?
   Seeing how much she was holding back , made me realize she was writing
   a clean-up dull version that Hallmark or Her Mother would approve of.



4. Since I did a similar trip to the one in this book a few years ago, I was curious to see whether Sara and I also had the same experience. We didn't.
   
   Whereas I just left home, Sara apparently first spent much time learning Spanish and gathering a network of contacts in Chile, including a number of official tourist offices that gave her free or cheap accommodation and transportation, very briefly mentioned here and there. Her contacts in Santiago, some at the British Embassy and some filthy rich families, Chile's de facto aristocracy, gives her access to interesting people and a level of luxury that "normal" travellers seldom encounter.
   
   So reading the book is not the best way to figure out what you can expect to see and do on your own trip through Chile. Nevertheless there's a lot of background information about the country which may be useful to you. Also because she did her trip in the early 1990s, so a LOT has changed since then. All the destinations she mentions are still very much open to tourism, and you get a general idea of what they are like. I was disappointed that she only spent half a day in Torres del Paine, which to me was the most beautiful spot in the country. Also, she goes to "Chilean Antarctica", but there's not much of value to be gathered from reading her account of it. She only spent one day there, being guided by Chilean officials in and around a tiny settlement.
   
   Sometimes she's funny in a very British manner, but it rarely lasts more than one sentence at a time. One of the other reviewers appears to find Sara rather promiscuous, going off with one man after the other on, well, overnight adventures to remote places. I often travel like that, and although it may seem like a stupid/crazy thing to do to some people, travelling in certain regions often means suddenly sharing a car/tent/meal with people you just met the day before. Although I'm sure there must have been short-term romance in the air at times, I certainly don't think less of Sara for not "admitting" it in her book. It just wouldn't add any value to the tale.



5. Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile (Modern Library)A very intertaining journal of travels through Chile.

1 comments about Santiago de Chile Map by ITMB (International Travel Maps).

1. The back of the map is white. Imagine the helpful stuff they could have printed there! A large and significant area of the city map is blocked by addenda-- The map is printed on plain, cheap, thin paper. No plastic coating. A rip off.

5 comments about Rounding the Horn: Being the Story of Williwaws and Windjammers, Drake, Darwin, Murdered Missionaries and Naked Natives--a Deck's-eye View of Cape Horn.

1. With the wind in its sails, this book glides like a clipper ship. Otherwise, in sailor terminology, it can be the doldrums.
   The author took it upon himself to experience firsthand the hardships and rigors of Cape Horn and then interweave these wanderings with its history, flora/fauna, climate and geography.
   I found the historical accounts of Magellan, Drake, Darwin and many others in this harsh environment extremely fascinating. Especially gripping and understandably predictable, were the numerous failed attempts of missionaries to establish themselves amongst the indigenous people.
   His own meanderings, although descriptive and worthy, are somewhat overplayed and a disappointment after such colorful portrayals of past explorers and events.
   Overall a good read of a very unusual and mysterious geographical region.



2. We are faced with so many books on problems - whether it's Iraq. or a neurotic hero of heroine trying to make the best of a bad situation, or how to make (or save) a buck or any one of a thousand problems which help to sell books - it's a joy to read a book like this where a very literate author sits back and tells us in excellent and descriptive prose a fascinating story about Cape Horn and its environs, its geography, what it's like there, its history, its native people and how it is to sail a small boat in these stormy rockbound deceptive dangerous Patagonian waters.
   
   I don't know how I found it, but I had read a part of it when it was first published and had put it down for some reason. Then, just the other day, I picked it off the shelf and read it. Finished it last night and now I can't wait to tell you to go out and buy it and read it too. It's a delight. You'll freeze in the sleet and wind of Cape Horn weather. You'll be right there with the explorers who found a passage there and then you'll see and feel the worst with the resolute skippers who drove their ships into the teeth of the worst weather in the world to succeed or perish in an attempt at transit. If you're really interested it's got a great bibliography too. Go get it and read it. No kidding. Unless you're some kind of a wimp you'll love it!



3. This is one of my favorite books of all time. Similar in style to Tony Horwitz's "Blue Latitudes" and "Confederates in the Attic;" the author weaves the awe inspiring beauty of the place and it's important and poignantly tragic history together with his own personal experience exploring it in a chartered sailboat.



4. Great description of a current acount of sailing around Cape Horn, interspersed with historical accounts of journeys around the Horn. It's amazing that people in small wooden boats without modern navigational aides would attempt such a harrowing journey



5. I devoured this book in record time... one of those travel books that is so well written that one can't wait to get back to it. Eating, sleeping, being polite to household members etc. come to be unwelcome distractions. I strongly recommend it for anyone who would like general knowledge of this part of the world in a very readable format. It gives biological, botanical, historical, economic, and human perspectives, and it's a damn good read.

2 comments about Natural Patagonia / Patagonia natural: Argentina & Chile.

1. When I think of Patagonia, I think of the Natural Wonders of a place that has seen little human intervention. This book has magnificent pictures and in interesting text about the geography and wildlife of Patagonia.



2. Photos are so, so... after visiting Patagonia live, just awesome, its people and gastronomy superb, definitely recommended, book and visit!!

4 comments about Time Out Patagonia (Time Out Guides).

1. This book has an amazing amount of information on Patagonia in general, and specifically Valdes Peninsula where I will be visiting. I was going to spend a lot of money with tour packages, uncertain accommodations, and a guy waiting at the airport holding up my name on a poster board...but now I can arrange it myself with this book and a taxi.



2. Excellent guide for someone taking a trip to Patagonia. Precise in the level of information provided. It was used extensively during the 8 thousand mile trip by car. It helped in taking many decisions on sights and where to drive to and what to see.



3. I have just returned from traveling five weeks through Patagonia and found myself using "Time Out" regularly for its engaging history, cultural and overall coverage.
   
   I started out in the Argentinean Lake District (Bariloche) and wove my way down to Tierra del Fuego (Ushuaia), crossing various times between Argentina and Chile. "Time Out" was my companion guide to both "Footprint" and "Rough Guides".
   
   No other guide gives you as much information regarding outdoor activies: Hiking, Golfing, Fishing, Hunting, Skiing; even Scuba Diving (you can dive the icy waters of Ushuaia!). The writing is engaging and erudite. For those that love nature no other guide gives you as much as this guide.
   
   HOWEVER, "Time Out Patagonia" should not be considered as your primary travel guide. It is more of a companion guide. It offers only a handful of restaurant and hotel recommendations, and often these recommendations are the most expensive. The small maps in this book are pathetic, and will help you locate nothing of significance.
   
   "Time Out Patagonia" fills in the gaps that the other guides have. This is the guide you will read after the other guides have helped you with your accommodations and eateries (consider: Footprint Argentina 2006 - highly recommended - see my review). Strongly Recommended.



4. It contains less information as it is thinner. It is organized more like documentary than guides, as you have your own transportation and go for trekking for days into the wildernss in both Chile and Argentina. It doesn't have the info of the popular tourist towns, accomdations and excursion operators. I bought also the Footprint and Rough Guide for the 40 days backpack trip mainly in Argentina in Dec 2007. They complementing each other and I personally like the Footprint. Email tenny52@yahoo.com if you want to know more about the trip.

2 comments about Cape Horn: The Logical Route ; 14,216 Miles Without Port of Call.

1. This is one of those books that ough to be in every sailor library. It might seem outdated for these days, and the Moitessier's style might seem too "poetic" even surreal, but we are talking of a real pioneer of the sea



2. Moitessier is a marvelous story teller, and his seamanship is unquestionably excellent. The story of their voyage is absolutely a gem, and should be required reading for those who wish to cruise, or at least love sailing. Sadly, in some ways the book is a sort of time capsule, and scenes like his turtle-hunting in the Galapagos Islands are not as joyful as perhaps they once were, as the species in that area are now considered threatened or endangered. Of course, people were only later to become more conscious of the environment and the fragilities of ecosystems to outside forces, but these days, I can see some sailors cringing at certain paragraphs. I very highly recommend this book, I really do, but be prepared for some jarring moments.