Tree of Rivers: the Story of the Amazonand The Rough Guide: First Time Latin America
Tree of Rivers: the Story of the Amazon
John Hemming
Thames & Hudson, £20 in UK
John Hemming was director of the Royal Geographical Society and is one of the Amazon's most intrepid explorers, and this is an exhaustive look at the history of the world's largest river. It is packed with fascinating characters eking out an existence on the its shores (with a few Irish among them), renegades chasing their fortune in mythical cities they believe to be just around the next river bend, European civilization (including glamorous riverbank cities with opera houses), and inquisitive scientists delighting at all around them. There are dark sides too, with European settlers often little more than butchers. But the more uncomfortable reading will be of modern-day resource exploitation - deforestation and how this has changed the region's weather systems.
But the jungle remains the central character, this "biological engine of unimaginable intricacy".
The Rough Guide: First Time Latin America
Rough Guides, £9.99 in UK
South America has the largest diversity of any continent in the world, from flowing glaciers and icebergs in Patagonia, to the world's driest desert in northern Chile, and the teeming jungle of the Amazon basin. Travelling through the continent is much more challenging than jaunting around Europe. Each country has its own visa and document requirements; crime can be a real danger in areas, and the impact of seeing truly poor areas can be distressing.
This should not deter you, but it is a trip that will require planning and this book is a good place to start. This is not an in-depth area guide, with the sections on each country little more than several pages of highlights. However, it does deliver with reams of information on all the practicalities that you need to take care of before you set foot on South American soil for the trip of a lifetime.