Books & Movies

Part of the preparations for my trip to Peru is to read as many books and watch as many movies on the subject I can find prior to actually going, so as to have a better appreciation for the environment, culture, and inhabitants as I can.

Here are some of the books I’ve read, all of which I highly recommend:

Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest
     By: Sy Montgomery
When Sy Montgomery ventured into the Amazon to unlock the mysteries of the little known pink dolphins, she found ancient whales that plied the Amazon River at dawn and dusk, swam through treetops in flooded forests, and performed underwater ballets with their flexible bodies. But she soon found out that to know the botos, as the dolphins are locally called, you must also know the people who live among them. And so in Journey of the Pink Dolphins, Montgomery--part naturalist, part poet, part Indiana Jones--winds her way through watery tributaries and riverside villages, searching for botos and hearing the tales of locals who believe these ethereal dolphins are shape-shifters--creatures that emerge from the water as splendidly dressed men or women only to enchant their human onlookers, capture their souls, and then carry them away to the Encante, an underwater world. Montgomery takes readers on four separate journeys, exploring the river-dwelling dolphins' natural history, chronicling their conservation pressures, unraveling their prehistoric roots, and visiting with shamans who delve into the Encante.

Lost in the Jungle
     By: Yossi Ghinsberg
Four travelers meet in Bolivia and set off into the heart of the Amazon rainforest, but what begins as a dream adventure quickly deteriorates into a dangerous nightmare, and after weeks of wandering in the dense undergrowth, the four backpackers split up into two groups. But when a terrible rafting accident separates him from his partner, Yossi is forced to survive for weeks alone against one of the wildest backdrops on the planet. Stranded without a knife, map, or survival training, he must improvise shelter and forage for wild fruit to survive. As his feet begin to rot during raging storms, as he loses all sense of direction, and as he begins to lose all hope, he wonders whether he will make it out of the jungle alive.

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest
     By: Mark J. Plotkin
A century ago, malaria was killing Washingtonians, Londoners, Parisians. Today HIV, along with various cancers, has taken its place among worldwide epidemics. Quinine, extracted from the cinchona tree of the Amazonian rainforest, quelled malaria; alkaloids taken from trees in the West African rainforest may well yield a cure for AIDS. Yet those woods, Mark Plotkin tells us, are fast disappearing, along with the native peoples who know the powers of the plants that dwell there. His account of wandering through the Amazonian jungles focuses on local knowledge about plants, whose uses range from the mundane to the magical. The rainforests of the world, Plotkin notes, are our greatest natural resource, an intercultural pharmacy that can cure woes both known and yet unvisited.


Just last night, I watched this documentary. It’s short, barely 40 minutes, but still quite good. I am more eager than ever to get there and see it all for myself now! As an added bonus, the film starred Dr. Mark Plotkin, who wrote the book I’m currently reading.

Amazon: IMAX
     (1997)
This enthralling IMAX presentation lets you explore the Amazon River and experience the vitality and magical wonder of the Amazonian rain forest, which is fast disappearing because of unchecked clear-cutting and burning. Narrated by Oscar-winning actress Linda Hunt, the film also chronicles an amazing collaboration between an American scientist and a tribal medicine man on a mission to find a rare root with curative powers.