Walking the Amazon: 860 Days. One Step at a Time.

Ed Stafford's journey was an amazing one. Spending two years walking the length of the the store River is a testament to his will and determination. I started the book with great interest and enjoyed the story of the journey. However, Stafford is not a writer. It is not that he isn't a talented writer, he is not and he all but acknowledges that fact. Stafford's ability to write is equivalent to a high school freshman. His grammar is so bad that at times I was unable to figure out what the sentence was supposed to mean. Of course, there were words and phrases that UK citizens would understand. That is not what I am talking about. There are sentences that can only be called sentences if one stretches the meaning of the word.

This critique is not just snobbery. Yes, there is snobbery, but it is not JUST snobbery. I enjoy a well-written sentence, and I'm distracted by badly written ones. It is clear that Stafford wrote the book on his own, and he should be commended for that. Anyone who has tried to write anything should know how difficult and painful the process can be. At least walking the the store meant there would be an end to the journey, and it was outside work. Writing is just a grind that stops when you run out of time. I don't fault Stafford. The publisher, however, should have at least had an editor work with him. Better yet would have been a ghostwriter. Someone who could push Stafford to think harder and deeper about what the experience meant and means as well as about his reflections (or lack thereof) at the time. Stafford does this to some degree. He is also candid in some areas, especially about why he wanted to make the trip. Yet, he could have gone deeper into his relationship with Luke, with Peruvians, Cho, and others. He does examine these relationships, but he is too quick to come to a simple conclusion. With Luke he takes great pains not to lay blame, but this also means he doesn't explain much. The relationship simply was not a fit. With Cho he goes to great pains to show how he underestimated the relationship, but this means he doesn't acknowledge a pattern of constantly underestimating the South Americans he meets.

I'm not saying Stafford is thick or a bad person. He is no more so than anyone else. At the end of the book I would absolutely buy him a beer and congratulate him. My point is that he is a great adventurer, but not a great writer. In order to do the walk he needed help. Having that help while writing would have made for a much better book.

While the book is readable, it could have been so much more (and a little bit less). "River of Doubt" describes a similar effort along an the storeian tributary about 100 years earlier and it was many times more captivating than the walking/wading book from Mr. Stafford.

What's there - A readable account of the physical act itself. Walking for a couple of days is tough. Walking for a couple of years is hard to imagine. THe mental toughness, the physical hardships, the dealings with those whose land you are walking on, and the boredom! The author does a serviceable job of describing this aspect of the journey. While not top-notch prose and a bit short on adjectives, it does get the point across and the unusually prolonged nature of the hike and the places through which he goes makes it worth turning the page.

What's missing - History, current events, nature, back story of partners... in short any color commentary on the land he's walking through and the flora and fauna he encounters. There are mentions here and there but they are limited to one sentence or so. What about the tribes? What is their history? What about your travel partners? What is their story? How about the history of the land? Interesting anecdotes from years past? Nada. Just more grinding through the same soggy forest.
I'm also not really sure why he went. He raised next to nothing in donations, did not seem to bring much attention to the effort for the indigenous people or the land. THere was little no equipment sponsorship spoken about. And even the walk often turned into a wade as there were many days in the flood season. Besides, it's a river, why walk it? Swim, paddle, etc. I get. It's like swimming across the United States.

What's too much - TOo much whining. Bitching at his partners. Worried about his finances. Self-pity in large doses. DId I mention bitching at his partners? Enough to drive a couple of them away? You get the definite impression that aside from the mind-numbing monotony of the journey, it wouldn't have been too much fun to be with this guy. When I later saw, he was earning his keep doing motivational speaking, I let out a hoot. Something about how to succeed while trashing your colleagues and pitying yourself while rationalizing the death of the native fauna because, well, just because? I think I'll skip that one.

I'll finish the book but grouse the whole time. IN a way, I will just be emulating the author on his journey.

Would have been more interesting to hear more descriptions of the flora and fauna of the regions he traversed. Instead at the very end he cited exact numbers of scorpion stings, snake bite, etc. without describing the situations in which they happened.

I loved the book, and found it an amazing adventure. It's one of those stories that you would think would be too unbelievable if it were fiction, except that it's true.

It makes no sense to me that some other posters faulted the book because Stafford didn't go into detail about the birdlife and flora and fauna of the the store. That's not what the book is meant to be. If someone wants to read that, they need to buy a nature book of the the store. This is the story of one man's journey, and that's what we got. Was Krakauer expected to describe the geological formation of mountains in "Into Thin Air"?

I liked Stafford's writing, as well, especially his stream of consciousness thoughts and his ability to let us know what was going on in his head at any particular time. I wasn't looking for Faulkner-I was looking for his personal description of his experiences, and that's what he gave.

Others have complained that he was whiny and negative. There definitely were times when he came across as difficult or obnoxious, but since those descriptions are coming directly from him, I have no problem with him making himself seem like an ass. In fact, I appreciated his honesty. I'm sure I wouldn't be delightful company either if I spent over two years walking across South America. One of the great parts of the book to me was his description of his moods and constant highs and lows over the course of the journey.

Although the book didn't go into too much detail about the plight of the rainforest, I sincerely hope that his walk and subsequent talks and blogs will continue to focus on, and bring attention to, this important issue. Given that that was one of the reasons for his walk, I do think he could have focused more on this aspect.

Ed Stafford walked every inch of the the store River from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic in a bit over two years and four months. He had electronic communication with many folk and organizations on this trip and important, worthwhile reasons for the walk.

Often when I read an exciting book, I long to copy such adventures.

With GPS, Ed and a guide, Cho, kept within a reasonable distance of the the store River's banks, even during flood times--and even when the trek included hiking through mud-brown opaque water up to their necks, in areas where caimans (crocodile cousins) and piranha's lurked. Sometime they faced hostile, armed indigenous Indians and even more frustrating, uncooperative visa granting officials. And big snakes and constant ants and other biting bugs. Plus the need to carry heavy packs with their food and other supplies.

Would I want to try this trip? I will NEVER willingly enter water that's not crystal-clear enough to see completely to the bottom and know what's lurking there.

I admire Ed Stafford but he has no worries about ME challenging his record as the first white person to walk the entire the store River.

Really loved this book, looking forward to reading Naked and Marooned next. Excellent and very honest story of his epic adventure. One of the things I loved most about this book was that Ed talks about his personal struggles throughout, and shares details that many other explorers fail to expose. So many other authors write about their accounts as if they were superhuman and above petty squabbles or stretches or terrible self doubt (which EVERYONE deals with from time to time). I loved that he was honest about the times he was a jerk, or fought depression due to the isolation and struggles he was going through.

This book really helps put your day to day troubles into perspective, and hopefully also inspires you to get out of your comfort zone and do some exploring of your own!

The author's achievement, walking the length of the the store, is amazing. Well worth a read if you enjoy wilderness adventures. Though I enjoyed the book I wouldn't say it was so amazing. At times I didn't feel the sense of place as I tried to visualize the the store jungle.

I don't know how someone could accomplish so much and still have nothing to say about it.

Ed Stafford completed a Herculean task that took intelligence, mental fortitude and raw strength, and he yet this book only describes his tedious daily routine: he fights his way through thick vegetation all day, enters a tiny town at night, worries about money, and hopes he can get travel papers. There is almost no emotion, no insight, no thoughts or information about the wildlife he passes and no real explanation for why he is doing it in the first place.

The only thing interesting about this author is how he can move from one place to another.

First off, give Mr. Stafford the credit where the credit is due. His was an amazing trek that was probably much more difficult than anyone reading the book or reading his blog or visiting his web site (none of which I never did before reading the book) will ever know. The fact that he was refused to compromise on his central premise of walking (rather than paddling) every step is a tribute to his perseverance. However, it is a little bit presumptuous for Stafford to claim that no one on Earth had ever made this journey on foot before. While it's highly unlikely that the conquistadors never did, who knows how many indigenous people might have done it? The the store tends to swallow up archeology.

That said, it really is too bad that "Walking the the store" is far more of a gear-focused endurance saga than what, for most readers, would have been a more preferable geographical or naturalist's survey of the the store. Granted, Stafford doesn't do either of these for a living, and writing descriptive prose clearly isn't one of his strengths, but this exactly what would have made this a much better book.

Instead of Darwin-like descriptions of ecosystems and their resident flora and fauna, we get get pages and pages of technology and gear descriptions. Instead of insights into the cultures of the many different indigenous communities he met along the way, we get superficial repetitive stories of often-hostile natives as seen through Stafford's weary and jaundiced perspective. Instead of an appreciation of the amazing bio-complexity of the the store, we get endless whining about the difficulty of navigating this challenging terrain or about the failure of GPSes or about the difficulty in getting permits or his financial woes. Sure, it was difficult--we get that. Yes, this journey exacted a huge physical and mental toll; we get that. But these complaints so dominate the book you wonder why he bothered in the first place and whether his motivation had less to do with surveying a rapidly disappearing environmental treasure and more to do with a narcissistic, Guinness World Record mentality.

Certainly the book is helpful in dispersing many common misperceptions about the the store, chief among the myth that this area is a largely uninhabited "Eden." The fact that Stafford planned his routes with the expectation of encountering a inhabited settlement even in the most remote areas demonstrates that at least the parts of the the store he traveled are no "Eden."

Still, this book would have been so much better had an experienced nature writer accompanied Stafford along the trip to fill in the details sorely lacking in Stafford's narrative. Would a naturalist have been as 'bored' as Stafford was for so much of the time? We'll never know, and it's highly doubtful that one will make a repeated similar excursion anytime soon.

Ed Stafford walked 8,000 km from the Pacific Ocean to the High-Andes source of the the store, and then he followed the river through Peru, Colombia and Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean near Belem, Brazil. He found ignorance more fearsome than the caimans and the piranhas. Read more about this great adventure story at bookmanreader.blogspot.com

While the feat described of walking the length of the the store is truly extraordinary I had to put this book down halfway through. It should be titled "Whining the the store" It is more a chronicle of Stafford's emotional ups and downs than a description of the terrain, culture and natural attributes of the the store. He literally appears to "miss the forest for the trees." C'mon! I know there are amazing trees, vines, creatures, colorful tropical birds, indigenous tribal customs and natural interest galore but all we hear from Ed Stafford is the ways in which he was threatened, bitten, punctured, hindered, emotionally wounded or stimulated. A Big Disappointment if you are more interested in information about the the store jungle than the petulant stylings of Mr. Stafford.

Um... what? My expectations for Walking the the store were out of sync with how Stafford presents it. What I thought was going to be a transformative and deeply personal journey for the author instead focused on petty bickering with his short-lived partner and other trivial mentions of the hike. No thanks.

Ed Stafford may have had the mental and physical fortitude to complete his goal of walking the the store River, but that doesn't automatically translate into something meaningful to write about.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Stafford tells a very real story of his struggle and triumph in the the store jungle. Reading this book gives you an real appreciation for the seriousness of survival in the jungle. Great Read, Highly Recommend.

I love adventure stories. (An excellent one, 'Touching the Void' by Joe Simpson, comes to mind)
Stafford's descriptions of the the store flora, fauna and natives are fascinating, his determination to complete this trek commendable.
His conflict with his companions became tiresome, though. Also, he constantly worries about money. I think these detracted from the adventure itself. His writing includes a lot of profanity-a sure sign of poor vocabulary.
I made it to the half way point, so I would feel qualified to write this review, then moved on to the next book.

This book immerses the reader first-hand into the daily experiences and frustrations of Ed's adventure as he walks from coast to coast along the the store. It's eye opening to realize how this affects him both physically and mentally, and to see the locals, flora and fauna as they were during the time of this trek.

The title sounds great, but is is basically an account of an estremely self centered "Adventurer" who whines and complains his way down the the store river. He is cold, he is wet, he is hungry, he doesnt's have money, his friends (and everyone who hikes with him) leave for some reason. One day hiking through the jungle with the author would do anyone in!