Andes

"Andes is a travelogue that's scholarly and sociable in equal measure, by an author who's as interested in ferreting out letters from 16th-century emigrants lured by the legend El Dorado as he is in visiting a museum dedicated to Bolivar's mistress or checking out the transvestite bars of Ayacucho." --New York Times Book Review

"The writing . . . doesn't have a bump in it. Jacobs is a natural wordsmith with an easy style and an engaging manner. He is the quintessential alien adrift in a quirky land and, like many a 19th-century English traveler before him, relishes telling us just how strange South Americans can be." --Washington Post

"Even a reader with no prior interest in the Andes, or South America in general, can't help but be captivated by this Englishman's Andean odyssey . . . Andes is an engrossing read, written with historical depth, dry wit and moments of endearment." --Globe and Mail

"[Jacobs] braves high altitude, terrifying bus rides, endless delays, crime-ridden cities, and wackjob mystics . . . He's a great traveler: well connected, tireless, enthusiastic, and interested in everyone he meets . . . He conveys the region's difficulties and challenges as well as its beauty and enduring fascination." --Publishers Weekly

"Filled with encounters with diverse, colorful characters as well as the ghosts of near-vanished Native American civilizations . . . absorbing and charming." --Booklist