Travels In A Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile (1999) - Plot & Excerpts
The author combines history, political intrigue, stories of people she travels with or meets along the way, verbal snapshots of unbelievable landscape, and box after box of wine (mixed with Coke) into a travel book that has made Chile even more of a mystery to me NOW than when I started reading it. The country stretches along South America and includes icebergs, rainforests, desert, mountains, island regions, wine country, with a diversity of old European colonials and (mostly extinct) native people groups. She never travels to Easter Island, but it seems like it is more Polynesian than anything else (and I still have a book to read for it by itself). I learned about quite a few more cold weather islands that I didn't know about (hooray) but if traveling there is anything like she describes in 1992, I'm not sure I could do it (boo). Quotation tidbits I liked:"'The problem is,' he went on, 'that you don't stop being an exile when you get home. It becomes a state of mind. You can be an exile inside your head. Perpetual travellers are often like that... Mind you, you don't necessarily have to go anywhere to feel that kind of permanent alienation. Perhaps the worst kind of exile is mental.'""It was unutterably peaceful. At that moment the past held no regrets and the future no fears; I could have given up everything worldly to live the rest of my life on that island."Cold weather islands to explore: Juan Fernandez IslandsIsla Mocha (in a folk song, not on a map, Mapuche lived there, no public transport to it)Chiloe'Tierra del Fuego (I knew a piano piece with this title)Isla GrandeAlmirantazgo SoundDawson IslandIsla NavarinoLennoxPictonNuevaHoste IslandsMornington IslandFood tidbits to look into: chirimoyas - she describes this fruit as tasting of pears and honeypapaya - "the stalls on the highway out of La Serena were touting papaya honey, syrup, juice, sweets, cakes, bars and peeled papayas suspended in jars of sugar syrup. There was clearly nothing which could not be made out of a papaya." (ooh gotta love a challenge)
The book I read to research this post was Chile: Travels In A Thin Country by Sara Wheeler which is an excellent book which I bought at a market stall. Sara traveled to Chile & traveled the length of the country including the Antarctic territories Chile claims and wrote this book about her experiences. Chile is famous for the Andes mountains but also the most northern part of the country is one of the hottest places in the world. It has the driest desert the Atacama. A bit further south they grow fine wine which one year under the Pinochet regime were set to be damaged by frost so he rented them his military helicopters to thaw them out. She visited Santiago the capital and one of the places she saw was an exclusive brothel for wealthy people. She visited the biggest women's prison in Chile where many of the prisoners are political and they were still trying to sort out who should and shouldn't be in prison. Many people were put in prison by Pinochet for their beliefs and it presented the government at that time a democratically elected government a major problem sorting it out. She visited Valparaiso the second city in Chile & a very important port. At one time it was one of the most important ports on the Pacific Rim & still was the chief port for things going in and out of nearby Santiago. She visited Punta Arenas in the south which was an important port before the Panama Canal when everything had to round the southern tip of South America. In Southern Chile it is very cold. She visited the Antarctic Territories on a military Hercules airplane from a military base near Punta Arenas.
What do You think about Travels In A Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile (1999)?
Dry. I would not have finished this book if it weren't for a strong interest in Chile since my son will be living there for two years. This book truely was mainly about her travels - how she traveled and who she traveled with and not enough about the country she traveled thru. I had to look up the areas she visited on the internet in order to get a visual due to a lack of description. Once I saw the beautiful country she was in I wondered why she wrote this book if she wasn't going to give it justice? However, I did learn a few interesting things about Chile, thanks to the interenet as well.
—Thia
I wanted to read an travel overview of Chile before I travelled. This book was very informative and well written. The author is British and uses a lot of British vocablulary, which was fun reading on a Kindle. But for all its sophisticated adjectives the book is authored by a thirty year old backpacker. She is opinionated a worldly, I am not sure if I appreciated her viewpoints, always. I am glad I read it, I learned a lot. This was written in 1992, just after Pinochet being voted out of office. This dates the book as a travelogue but also adds charm to the daring of her adventure.
—Molly
This was an odd book to rate, nevermind to read. On one hand, I would give it a 3.5 for the information she presents about Chile - which I knew very little. She travels from one end to the other after the political changes after Pinochet. She does travel to some very remote places plus she meets many people from a variety of classes. Although some of the material is dated ( it was written in the early 1990s), it is interesting how she manages to snag so many rides to so many off-the-beaten trails. There are some good tales here but would just would like more.On the other hand, I would give it a 2.5 or 2 as she often gives us her political points of view and yes, I am aware she is traveling in a post-Pinochet era, but I get the point. Many times over. Plus, she could fall under the "Hunter S Thompson let's party till I can't stand up while still trying to make a go of seeing the places I want to see" mentality. I just want to hear about the country, not all the booze laden people she meets. Really tired of this form of travel writing.
—David
