5 comments about Footprint Nicaragua Handbook.

1. I traveled to Nicaragua with a friend and we each brought different guide books. I brought the Footprint guide and I was very, very happy that I did. The historical and cultural information was much more complete in this book. It had city maps and included places and information that other books did not.

   Perhaps the most telling recommendation that I could give doesn't come from me. I took Spanish classes at a school (Casa Xalteva) in Granada, Nicaragua. The school had a number of guide books available for students to flip through, but the one they recommended was the Footprint guide!




2. I used this guide during my three weeks in Nicaragua and enjoyed Leonardi's informative writing style. This handbook is more exhaustive, and more up to date, than "Footprint's Central America & Mexico Handbook".

   This handbook's recommendations for accommodations/restaurants are right on the money and valuable. This guide is up-to-date and I found his recommendations to always be valid. In fact, his is one of the few guides that will tell you, candidly, no punches pulled, what he thinks: very good seafood, bad paella", "attentive service, mediocre food".

   Richard Leonardi's writing is succinct and unencumbered by the superfluous. He gives you a solid mental picture, within a paragraph or two, of what to expect and how you can enjoy it.

   I really enjoyed his "Further Reading & Cinema" and the history, economic, culture and environment sections are sufficient, but I would encourage you to also take with you the excellent book, "In Focus Nicaragua" (see my review).

   Frustrating, and found in all Footprint guides, is the cost guide they use for accommodations. Instead of just stating what the price per room is, in dollars, they complicate it and give you a code table that you will often have to flip back and consult to remember what the cost represents. For example, a hotel that is LL=$150+, A=$46-$65. There is a better way than codes.

   Leonardi mentions safety in his introduction to Nicaragua, but I found no mention of the rising problems with crime and gangs in Managua (Capital of Nicaragua). For the past few years... the area around `La Catedral Vieja' has become dangerous, an area for violent crime. In fact, when I asked to go to this area in the daytime, the taxi drivers told me be careful, using the words: "peligroso, peligroso". While I at the Old Cathedral's I talked with the resident shoe-shine man, and he also told me that this area was now very dangerous at night. He said he leaves every day at 5pm because, "me gusto mi vida."

   That said, this is a very impressive guide which I strongly recommend. For those going to various Central American countries I would recommend "Footprint's Central America & Mexico Handbook". Strongly Recommended 4.5 stars




3. This is easily the most entertaining guidebook I've ever read. I found myself reading entire paragraphs or descriptions out loud to my fiance. The problem with most guidebooks is that they're incredibly boring to read and often leave out the most useful information. This book is the exception! Leonardi tells you exactly what you most need or want to know--such as how quickly you'll want to get out of a particular town you can't avoid passing through, at which hotel you might want to keep your shoes on when walking across the floor at night (yikes), or which local hotel offers the best boat rentals. This book is incredibly useful and a real page-turner--I actually read it almost cover-to-cover.



4. This was an excellent book!!! Went on our first trip to Nicaragua and this book was invaluable!!! It is so well written that we read it cover to cover and is organized in such a manner as to make it very easy to find what you're looking for. Would highly recommend it!!!



5. Having just gone to Nicaragua, and relying solely on this book, I would recommend any other book, but don't confuse the trip with this one. The maps in this book are useless. Luckily we were able to pick up a Lonely Planet book, or we would have never found anything in Managua. Their Hotel rating system is nonsense, and I wonder if they just drove by and guessed at the quality of the accomodations. We looked at every room before we booked. We were shocked at the lack of information contained in the book. Actually, I got the impression they might have just called the hotel and asked them to describe it themselves. Here is a piece of advice for them. When putting a street map in your book, of a city that has no posted street names or house numbers, it is important to place the landmarks on your map, and actually include all the streets. The maps in this book would actually cause you to get lost if you treat them as accurate. I have traveled extensively, and know well how to use a map, but the map must be accurate. Having a guide book that will get you lost in a place like Managua, well, it could be dangerous.
   Get a serious book, not this one.

No comments about Rio De Janeiro Travel Pack (Globetrotter Travel Packs).

2 comments about The Adventures of a Tropical Tramp.

1. The Adventures Of A Tropical Tramp is the travel narrative of Harry La Tourette Foster, who spent most of his life after the conclusion of World War I wandering the main roads and back roads of the world, from Mexico and South America, to Asia, the South Pacific, The Caribbean, and the Mediterranean. This particular travelogue is the story of his travels in South America following his discharge from the army. He went aboard a tramp steamer bound for Peru. Landing with no funds or resources, he took a series of odd jobs, eventually becoming a reporter for a Lima paper. He went on to join two missionaries trekking overland to the headwaters of the ..., then continued on adventure filled journeys down the ... tributaries. He ended his travels playing ragtime piano in sleazy bars until he was able to earn his passage home to New York. The Adventures Of A Tropical Tramp is fascinating reading and we can only hope for future volumes detailing his later itinerant travels to far away places and foreign climes.



2. A minor gem. This forgotten book is a classic travel-adventure set in 1920 Peru. Hats off to Dixon-Price Publishing for resurrecting it. Pity that the copy-editing was not done a little more skillfully, as there are a number of typo's and mis-used homonyms in the book the product of unskilled use of computer spell checker.

   Still, this is a minor quibble. (A map would have been nice too). Harry Foster's casual employment in the mines, cities, and jungles of Peru are a classic of early 20th Century travel writing. Some might feel that his characterizations of Peruvian Indians, Peruvian "Anglo's, and the Irish are a bit harsh. However, he presents a well-balanced narrative of the country, and its types. This lost world (the 1920's) is a rough and tumble time, gone forever. A great loss. Foster preserves those days for posterity through his colorful writing and astute observations of people and cultures.

   Many modern travel writers could learn from his unselfconscious writing style. The book never misses a beat. A combination of irony and genuine love of people, regardless of differing cultures, lifts this book out of the mundane. I highly recommend it.

1 comments about Argentina Residency and Retirement: How I Did It.

1. D. Johnsons' book about moving to Argentina is an honest description and practical step by step expression of her and her husband's experiences moving to an entirely different system of government and social customs. If you are planing on moving or retiring to Buenos Aires, this is a "must" read so you can anticipate all the encounters of this process in which D. Johnson so generously gave in this book. ARGENTINA RESIDENCY AND RETIREMENT: How I Did ItsJ. Marlow

1 comments about This Place Is High: The Andes Mountains of South America (Imagine Living Here).

1. This book focuses on the people, climate, history, food and culture of the Andes mountains, particularly Peru and Bolivia. It is not a "quick" book to read, as it goes quite in-depth for a childrens book. I thought the long paragraphs and depth of information would be too much for my four year old, but I was wrong. She is fascinated with the book and the pictures and loves to have it read over and over again, and I have learned along with my daughter. I look forward to reading others in this series with my kids!

No comments about Maryland (America Series).

4 comments about Foghorn Outdoors: Florida Beaches.

1. If you thought travel guides were written by chamber of commerce clones or paid hirelings of the booster flacks, then this book will make you rethink that stereotype. It's funny, raw, irreverent, honest, literate, in fact, it reads like something written by the heirs to the travel writing tradition of Jacks London and Kerouac. This is no b.s.



2. Florida Beaches was a most necessary travel companion during a recent trip down the Florida coast. Authors Puterbaugh and Bisbort possess an insight and humor not found in the typical travel book.



3. Hard to believe these two guys spent so much time in Florida without discovering what a sandspur really is. (They refer to "sandspur lots" as lots with sand and spurs. The sandspur is a common weed, well-documented in Florida.) But this doesn't seem to be the book's only shortcoming. Evidently the authors' idea of a good beach is a spring-break spot, fresh with wet T-shirts and tequila shooters. That's okay for some, but there are Floridians who find other things about the beach compelling.



4. With over 400 beaches, Florida is Mecca for those with a need for sun and sand. This 681 page guide is a godsend to those that live for the bronzed body, fun, and zany people that these beaches offer.

   This guide is the most accurate, comprehensive guide on Florida beaches to date. The authors have spent over 17 years in compiling this great guide. The comments and selections are theirs alone. The guide is full of facts (Florida is a 447 mile peninsula), stats (Florida grew in habitats by 23% in one decade) and hard information (the main reason to buy the guide). Puterbaugh and Bisbort, as the writing will evidence, are conservationists, strongly lauding eco-tourism. Kudos.

   Though the nightlife sections in this guide are far the best available, the accommodations and costal cuisine sections are paltry and poor; nowhere near the strength of better state guides. Puterbaugh and Bisbort selected the 25 "Top" beaches among the 400 beaches in Florida, but sadly omitted a map showing where these 25 beaches are located. Thus you do the work via the index.

   I used this guide while traveling for a month through Florida. `Florida Beaches' could be a stand alone guide, but I recommend that you use it in concert with an excellent state guide, such as Frommer's Florida (see my review). Together, these guides will direct you to the best Florida has to offer. 4.5 Stars. Strongly Recommended.

1 comments about Wild Texas: A Celebration of Our State's Natural Beauty.

1. This book is just full of beautiful pictures and narrated very well. Richard Reynolds is truly a professional. Everyone in Texas should have one.

4 comments about Through the Brazilian Wilderness.

1. T.R. was writing was very gradiloquent, and this book really gives readers a good example of this. Read about the journey that ended with T.R. having a river named after him (Rio Duvida renamed to the current Rio Roosevelt), and gave him the sickness that would eventually lead to his death less than five years later.



2. As those familiar with his history know, Theodore Roosevelt was truly a unique, gifted and accomplished person. He was naturalist, historian, big game hunter, politician, statesman, conservationist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize rolled into one. If he had followed the interests and predilictions of his youth, he would have grown up to be a naturalist rather than President of the United States. As a boy he had a vast collection of frogs, squirrels, snakes, birds, insects that he called the Roosevelt Museum of Natural History.

   Science's loss was politics gain. However, T.R. never lost his interest in nature. Following his presidency, he set out on an expedition to explore and map unknown regions of Paraguay and Brazil on the 950-mile River of Doubt, a previously unexplored tributary of the Amazon River. The scientific endeavor became an ordeal to test the expedition's courage and stamina as it faced overpowering heat, dangerous rapids, wild animals, devouring ants, endless insects, fever, dysentery and more. The expedition collected thousands of species of birds and mammals, but Roosevelt would die a few years after completing the expedition. Roosevelt admired those who lived life with passion and for what he called "the Great Adventure." This story chronicles one of T.R.'s last great adventures in his typical inimitable style.




3. TR's account of his expedition to explore the River of Doubt shows a lot of the reasons we still admire him. First, he was a serious scientist. He was dedicated to discovering new species of wildlife (and could rattle off their Latin names with the best of them), mapping unknown stretches of river, and observing the ways of foreign lands. We know TR as a physical character and often forget what a highly intelligent man he was.

   Second, his writing is greatly under-appreciated. He doesn't breeze over his descriptions of wildlife or the landscape--it's pretty technical stuff--but he does it clearly and concisely. As someone who has labored through countless pedantic textbooks, I took comfort in his words, "Ability to write well, if the writer had nothing to write about, entitles him to mere derision. But the greatest thought is robbed of an immense proportion of its value if expressed in a mean or obscure manner."

   Third, despite the above, he could still endure enormous physical hardship at an old age. Battling rapids, hauling canoes, fighting disease, and hunting game, TR had the combination of brawn and intelligence that's seriously lacking in our leaders today, especially the lightweight that now sits behind TR's desk.

   This book is also a great window into a time and place forever lost to history. TR's writing projects a clear photo in your mind of undiscovered wilderness and great adventure.




4. Theodore Roosevelt was a man's man. A New York kid whose taste for adventure was sparked in his boyhood by a dead seal for sale on a Broadway sidewalk. Harvard student, soldier, Rough Rider, youngest President ever and one who survived the assassin's bullet, maverick politician, Nobel Prize winner, hunter and conservationist, and finally the man who, at 55 years old, explored an unknown region of the Amazon river basin. Imagine one of today's former-Presidents undertaking a similar adventure. For six weeks, in 1914, Roosevelt and his party paddled and carried their canoes down a previously unexplored 950-mile river now called the Rio Roosevelt. Men died, boats were lost, food became scarce, dangerous animals and natives were about, fever borne by insects sickened many in the party (and led to Roosevelt's own death five years later). This is the stuff of "Through the Brazilian Wilderness".

   Roosevelt's other works, including "The Rough Riders", are better known, and this one is not great literature. Instead, it is a remarkable adventure story by an interesting man. The book is essentially Roosevelt's trip diary, colored by his great enthusiasm for adventure and the natural world. Even before reaching the Amazon, Roosevelt stops at a Brazilian snake research lab that so captures his attention that he writes seventeen pages about it. At all times, he makes careful note of the wildlife he encounters, not quite with the depth of a professional scientist, but with the trained eye of a dedicated and experienced hobbyist. He squeezes in some amusing stories about piranha fish that he heard --and apparently believed. Naturalists of the day killed animals in the name of science, which places in context Roosevelt's joy in hunting and his comments: first on alligators ("They are often dangerous and are always destructive to fish, and it is good to shoot them") and later on conservation ("There is every reason why the good people of South America should waken... to the duty of preserving from extinction the wildlife which is an asset of such interest."). The book is most poetic in its description of animal life, and particularly in registering surprise that the myriad insects are far more pernicious than any of the better-known dangers such as alligators, big cats, or piranhas.

   The book's is not perfect, and Roosevelt is not a great author in a literary sense, rather making up in enthusiasm what he lacks in prose and penetrating insight. There is no attempt at political analysis, he simply praises Brazilians as good hosts who have started down the road to democracy. He sees the land he travels through as like the United States of perhaps a hundred years earlier, so there are frequent predictions that a promising location is ripe for development. The limited foray into politics is to praise Positivism, the ideology of the Brazilian military class that emphasized modernity and structure, and that not incidentally justified the many instances of military intervention in Brazilian politics over the years. Finally, the one annoyance is the recurring theme (perhaps a dozen times in all) of the true danger of the journey. Over and over we read that the river has never been charted, that it is truly dangerous, that the explorers are not your armchair-adventurer variety, and that such voyages will necessarily be easier for those who follow in the future. We get that.

   Roosevelt was an interesting man, his enthusiasm and taste for adventure are infectious. The book is not a literary triumph, but it is a fun read and an excellent journey through the Amazon

No comments about South Africa: Magic Land.