Running the Amazon

by Joe Kane

Release Date: 12 May, 1990

Edition: Paperback

Price:

More Info

the first ever full-river traverse of the Amazon River

I heard Joe Kane describe his trip on NPR's "Fresh Air" by Terry Gross. Joe Kane was so engaging that I immediately ordered the book. Joe Kane originally signed up with the expedition to chronicle the trip. The expedition planning can be described as haphazard and due to a shortage of people, Joe Kane ended up on the river. Joe Kane and Piotr Chmielinski, the famous Polish kayaker known as "El Polacko" in the South American countries, were the only two members of the expedition to paddle the whole river. Jerome Truran and Kate Durrant supported the two after they all finished the severe whitewater. The story is so intense that I could only read one chapter at a sitting. I wanted to take the time to reflect on the action and the events. The story is amazing. The whitewater, the expedition members, the Sendero Luminiso revolutionaries, the weather, and the natives are all part of the trip. It is important to remember that Joe Kane had very little river experience and he had no idea that he would be on the river at the start of the trip. You will understand the river experience from an author who was truly awed.

Honest & dangerous fun

Joe Kane travels the way most of us dream about it. We all want to travel the entire length of the Amazon in a kayak. If we are lucky we will be able to afford a 4 to 5 day trip on a big passanger boat. He perfectly captures the balance of fun and fear that makes some extreme trips so memorable and reminds us why we are attracted to extreme travel in the first place.

My only gripe about the book is the speed of the narrative. As Kane's trip carried on, he became more hurried to get to his final destination and less interested in pausing to enjoy the environment around him. And as a writer, one senses that he set out to recount everything, but grew impatient and eventually became interested only in getting to the end of his tale. As a result, the early chapters on Peru are detailed and meandering. We don't even get into Brazil until about two thirds of the way through the book. And the final third of the book, from the Peru-Brazil-Colombia border to the Atlantic, whizzes by without a pause, as if the growing speed of the Amazon's current were forcing Kane's narrative forward at an ever faster pace until he finally reaches Belem. There were logistical reasons why Kane was in a hurry, but I was left wishing he had taken the time to pause and meander a little bit more in the lower Amazon.