Destination: Bolivia

Travel Literature

At the top of the South American travelogue list is the humorous and well-written Inca-Kola by Matthew Parris. It follows the meanderings of several Englishmen on a rollicking circuit through Peru and parts of Bolivia.

Chasing Che - A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend by Patrick Symmes chronicles the author's motorcycle trip around South America, in a naive but well-intentioned attempt to balance the legendary figure with the curious reality of this controversial man.

An intrepid sailor's journeys through landlocked Bolivia are recorded in The Incredible Voyage, by Tristan Jones. It includes a narrative about several months' sailing and exploring on Lake Titicaca and a complication-plagued haul across the country to the Paraguay River.

An offbeat historical character is portrayed in Lizzie - A Victorian Lady's Amazon Adventure, compiled by Anne Rose from the letters of Lizzie Hessel, who lived in the Bolivian Amazon settlement of Colonia Orton during the early 20th-century rubber boom.

Henry Shukman's Sons of the Moon - A Journey in the Andes is a well-written account of a fairly unremarkable journey from northwestern Argentina, across the Bolivian Altiplano and on to Peru. It does, however, include superb observations of typically introverted Altiplano cultures.