A Long Way South

In A Long Way South, itinerant traveller Sara Stewart relates memories salvaged from her explorations of Latin America during 1974/5, a turbulent, politically unstable period where kidnappings and smuggling were commonplace, where dead bodies lined the roads and where tanks guarded the streets of two capitals following a military coup and insurgency. Posing as the ship captain’s niece, Sara crossed the Atlantic in a cargo boat before docking in Veracruz, Mexico. There she followed an Irishman and his pack of hounds as they hunted jackals through desert cacti, then met film makers and fishermen – and fell in love. Travelling by local buses and trains, she gradually headed south, watching dead bodies pile up in Central American countries and celebrating Christmas in El Salvador, before eventually reaching South America. In Ecuador she rode on a train roof through towering landscapes and encountered tribal people, then travelled by sea to the fabled Galápagos Islands. Once back on the South American mainland, she braved rampant lawlessness in Lima, tanks and troops lining the streets of the Peruvian capital. In Bolivia she joined a bus full of female smugglers, traversed flooded rivers and survived freezing nights. Tanks also characterised Sara’s time in Santiago, the Chilean capital, which had just experienced a military coup that ended democracy and established General Pinochet’s long-lasting dictatorship. Continuing southwards, Sara crossed the vastness of Patagonia to endure rough seas on a boat with esteemed author Bruce Chatwin, before venturing across the Andes into Argentina. The country proved to be out of control, characterised by crazy inflation, political mayhem and kidnappings, and abject poverty contrasting with ostentatious wealth. Reaching Brazil, Sara’s journey culminated with marvelling at Iguaçu Falls before unexpectedly partying with notorious Great Train Robber and fugitive Ronnie Biggs near Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema Beach. An authentic recollection of intrepid travels during an era long before travel became straightforward, the memoirs collated in A Long Way South are a thrilling, engaging read – a compendium of tales as much about remarkable people as they are about the diverse, fascinating places and charged political situations that characterised 1970s Latin America.