Paddle to the Amazon: The Ultimate 12,000-Mile Canoe Adventure »

It was crazy. It was unthinkable. It was the adventure of a lifetime.

When Don and Dana Starkell left Winnipeg in a tiny three-seater canoe, they had no idea of the dangers that lay ahead. Two years and 12,180 miles later, father and son had each paddled nearly twenty million strokes, slept on beaches, in jungles and fields, dined on tapir, shark, and heaps of roasted ants.

They encountered piranhas, wild pigs, and hungry alligators. They were arrested, shot at, taken for spies and drug smugglers, and set upon by pirates. They had lived through terrifying hurricanes, food poisoning, and near starvation. And at the same time they had set a record for a thrilling, unforgettable voyage of discovery and old-fashioned adventure.

"Courageous . . . Exciting and always immediate." — The New York Times Book Review

Publishers Weekly

In 1980, the author and his two teenage sons embarked on a canoe trip from Winnipeg to Belem, Brazil, where the Amazon meets the Atlantic. One son, discouraged, returned to Canada from Mexico, but Starkell and his other son went on, completing the trip in two years. Traveling 12,000 miles on rivers and open seas in their 21-foot canoe, they encountered every conceivable obstacle--wild animals, hostile natives, near-starvation, terrifying ocean weather, arrest, robbery, illness and despair. They also met many sympathetic people who encouraged them and helped them survive. Starkell's story, in diary form, focuses on contrasts between wilderness and civilization, poverty and luxury, suspicion and trust, depression and elation. It is a curious account of the world observed by two people with minimal supplies depending on their wits and the good will of strangers as they brave the forces of nature and the vagaries of people in unfamiliar countries. Author tour. (July)