This was an amazing story, the book had awesome pictures! I really like the book it was just cool. I thought Alex Winters had an amazing adventure, well I read this whole book and it was a great book (diary). This was about a boy who was in sixth grade, his parents and father is a scientist and Alex wanted to be one too.Well, he was on a plane sitting next to the pilot and he was writing in his diary that his grandpa gave him. He was going to the Amazon jungle and it was Christmas! The plane crashed but Alex was alright but the pilot was out cold. He was still breathing! The Yanomami and Alex found each other and brought the pilot to their village and when they got there, there was some big guy ordering them to put him in the hut to lay down. Alex thought he was a chief! I just have to say Alex Winters had an incredible adventure and he did, did a good job on his diary!!

Author Hudson Talbott presented a fascinating talk for families at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County detailing his and co-author Mark Greenberg's journey into the Amazon. His description of their trip, plus the engrossing video of the experience helped explain why Alex Winter's fictional experiences rang so true. Mr. Talbott's respect for the Yanomamis and their world is very evident, both in his presentation and in the book Amazon Diary. All in all, a delightful presentation and a terrific book!- Nancy Fox, Education Division, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

I recently had the pleasure of hosting both Hudson Talbott and Mark Greenberg at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History where they presented a multi-media lecture for children based on their book "Amazon Diary". I was immensely impressed by the book before their visit because of its smooth integration of photographs, drawings and text into an exciting adventure story. Hearing first hand how their real-life adventures in the Amazon were incorporated into the book makes me admire the authors even more. - Jonathan Wilhelm, Director of Family Programming at CMNH

As a former student of Ms.Yu's, I can say with absolute conviction that she is a truly remarkable and brilliant woman. Her journal, "Hungry Lighting", is typical of her tremendous ability as a first rate writer and story-teller. The passion with which she writes, to bring to life her Pume Indians, is contageous and begs the reader to continue their arm-chair journey into the lives of these remarkable people. Ms.Yu's easy style, gorgeous prose and personal accounts are captivating, exciting and truly heart-felt. Her adventures are nothing short of thrilling. This book is an absolute must for anyone who wishes to step, even if for a few precious hours, into the amazingly complex, always on the edge world of Pei-Lin Yu and the Pume Indians.

Pei-Lin Yu has done a wonderful job with this book and study of the threatened Pume of Venezuela. I, too, was assigned this book for an anthropology course and was not looking forward to it. I was expecting another dry, pompous read from some aging professor in Ohio, but instead I got a fascinating look at a culture I was completely unaware of. Yu makes you care for these South American Indians the way you care for your favorite characters in a novel -- actually, this field journal reads more like a novel than what is truly is. It is a true page-turner, with vivid descriptions, great illustrations by the author throughout, and an interesting and gripping plot (I use "plot" for lack of a better word -- the book is all true). If you enjoy reading -- anything -- you will love this book. It transcends a genre and is accessible and enjoyable to all. P.S. The professor (Ben Passmore) whose course I read this for is actually one of Pei-Lin's colleagues at SMU and says she is a wonderful, intelligent woman, and though I have yet to meet her, her work would lead me to believe the same.

Reading Hungry Lightning for an intro anthropology class, I groaned at having to plow through another boring account of some ancient culture's way of life. But then I opened the book, and entered a whole new world -- the world of the Pume. Vivid descriptions make their world come to life, and the reader is able to learn about their culture - and thereby extrapolate how other hunter-gather cultures would have lived millions of years ago. In addition, we see this culture from a female point of view, something lacking in many anthroppological studies. I would recommend this book to anyone - not just someone studying anthropology. This book enables someone to step back in time - and then realize that this culture still exists TODAY...and realize that without our help, this beautiful culture might disappear along with all the others that have preceeded it.

Excellent It bailed us out when we ran out of light before getting into the anchorage at Philipsburg and got us into several beaches that were completely deserted.

A bit dated is spots (it is 7 years old) For example, Saba has installed a number of excellent mooring on the south and west sides on the island, making it much easier to get either by the traditional landing or LLadder Landing on the West side. There is a road down to that now (no more 1000 steps to climb). However it was out when we were there (4-1-00)

We've sailed and chartered in the USVI and BVI numerous times and ALWAYS take this guide with us. From little known anchorages (Mermaids Chair on St. Thomas) to the most frequented (Great Harbor on Yost Van Dyke)this guide is without equal.

Although I have been sailing for 40 years, this was the most useful and informative sailing guide I have ever read. It adverted me from several unknown and possibly costly collisions...and I'm not referring to other boats. His harbor guides and navigational charts were indispensible! BUY BUY BUY!!!!

As a stranger who settled in Venezuela some months ago for labour, I chose this book in order to know more about my ¨new home country¨. I must confess it surprised me in how accurate each and every place of the country is described. Even the traditional little bullring four blocks from my flat is depicted with pretty detail and a touch of history. As I'm becoming more familiar with tourist places -particularly beaches and coasts- I found myself as if I were there already.

As an American married to a Venezuelan and living in Venezuela I also whole heartedly recommend this book since it is extremely up to date. I have been using books of this sort to travel the world for some time now and take most of their information with a grain of salt. They may or may not be accurate. That's not the case with this one. You can just about count on things to be as described or very, very close. At this point in time, it's as close to perfect as guidebooks get.

As a Venezuelan living in the US, I've been curious about the way my country is portrayed in tourist books. After having read the 20 or so books available, this one is, in my opinion, the best of the lot and the only one that portrays Venezuela as it really is.

I've found other books and tourist guides to be painfully outdated or irresponsibly inaccurate, but when I read the first edition of Insight Guides Venezuela, I thought: "This is the first book I have found that captures the spirit of Venezuela and its people, that tells it like it is." I can remember the way baseball games, beauty contests, night life, etc., are described. It is all true, and then some...

The writers managed to also accurately describe Venezuelan cities and towns, their different peoples and environments. This book won't try to tell you where to stay in Caracas for $5 a day -practically impossible unless you are very brave and stupid-, but if you plan to go to Venezuela or if you've been there and want to remember it, this is the book to buy. Recommended wholeheartedly.

Another book by the "archeological privateer" Barry Clifford, the oceanic excavator who found the wreck of Black Sam Bellamy's ship the Whydah in the sands off Cape Cod. His writing has improved since he wrote "Expedition Whydah," though he's still not a master with words. No matter, his subjects are always facinating enough I don't mind that the prose can be a bit clunky.

This one traces his team's discovery and exploration (underwritten by Max Kennedy, the BBC, and the Discovery Channel) of a wreck of an entire fleet of ships--5 French warships and two pirate ships the French fleet hired to assist them in warfare--on the reef of Los Aves off the coast of Venezuela. In a similar vein to the Whydah book, Clifford intersperses his text with photographs, maps, and drawings, and alternates the story of his expedition with history about the pirates involved in the wrecks.

In this case, he does the opposite of the Whydah story (which traced Sam Bellamy's rise to captainship and followed him until his demise), and instead follows the lives of the documented pirates who *survived* the massive wreck at Los Aves, among them a famous and ridiculously lucky mulatto captain named Laurens de Graff, and a New England pirate named Thomas Paine who later went on to return to his home and established himself as a powerful and corrupt politician (not the same Thomas Paine that wrote the "Common Sense" political publication, this was a few decades earlier). The historical portions of the text offer a lot of great insight into the piratical/buccanneer climate (political, economical, etc) of the mid- to late-17th c. in the Caribbean and Spanish Main.

Most interesting is the existance of a period map he brought with him, drawn by the leader of the shipwrecked fleet from shore where he survived the wreckage, outlining the positions of each wreck and labelling them by name--his accuracy was apparently quite high, so it functioned like a literal 'treasure map,' showing the explorers exactly where they would find the wrecks of which ships! There's not as much info on artifacts in this one, since they merely mapped and filmed the wrecks and haven't excavated yet (unknown if they will, in fact, due to most of the wreckage having become an integral part of the ecosystem of the reef by now), but there's a lot of really new discoveries on the research front (pub date on this is 2002) about the various pirates involved, most of whom are lesser known names (as opposed to the more "famous" pirates like Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, who came later...these were the pirates operating on the cusp of the Golden Age of Piracy).

So, if you want to read some detailed info about pirate captains of the pre-1700 era, this is a good book to check out!

Barry Clifford has written an interesting book on a fleet of French ships that were in pursuit of Dutch ships which led the French into the treacherous waters of the reef off of Las Aves Island near the coast of Venezuela in 1678. He states the wreckage of the French fleet on Las Aves was the beginning of some of the greatest pirate careers in history. British and French ships would attack Spanish ships as they returned to Spain after loading up on riches in the New World. Many pirates, Clifford states, met a brutal demise and he goes into detail in regard to a number of pirates to illustrate his point while one in particular, Thomas Paine (not the one of Common Sense fame), managed to retire and lead a somewhat respectable life. Clifford organized a team to visit the site in 1998 and locate the fleet for purposes of drawing and photographing whatever he may find of the remains. He was not interested in disturbing the reef by removing artifacts. Clifford goes into interesting detail on his team's visit to Las Aves as they go about doing their assigned work. Clifford alternates throughout the book covering piracy during the 1600's and his visit to the site during 1998. I took a chance on buying this book through the History Book Club not really knowing what I was getting. I found this book to be very worth while to read and it will have a permanent place in my library.

Fantastic (and very accurate) accounts of his encounters with the local folk and descriptions of the places he passed through on his journey. Made for a racey, entertaining and somewhat exotic read. Alot of first hand information for anyone thinking of travelling through Guyana indeed!

I want Marc Herman to be my travel guide, whenever I sit back in my armchair -- or whenever I enter a new land. His easygoing style is seductive, but the energy of his insight into the culture is what makes him so appealing.

How can a country so full of gold have so many problems? Journey with Marc and find out; and have a blast along the way.

(Planeta.com Journal) - We've waited several years for the publication of this excellent guidebook. Dominic has been a frequent contributor to Planeta.com. Who better to pass along choice tips for travelers eyeing the South American country of Venezuela? Maps and a thorough index are a big plus. Lavish color photos by Anthony Cassidy compliment the text. This is your guide to Angel Falls, Margarita Island and the magnificent tepuis. The book also provides an in-depth look at what makes the capital of Caracas just an interesting city. Highly recommended!

From the world's highest waterfall to Venezuela's beach coastline and mountain scenery, Traveler's Venezuela Companion blends maps, practical information and an A-Z index to make it easy for destination-bound travelers to learn about Venezuela's many travel opportunities. Add color photos throughout and you have a marvelously inviting take-along companion.

Although this book, the first by Venezuelan writer Paulette Silva is about literary criticism, it is written in a very pleasant style, not incompatible with rigour, and is not aimed exclusively to academic resarchers. The main purpose of "Una Vasta Morada..." is to critically review the process of renovation experienced by the Venezuelan poetry at the end of the nineteenth century. To achieve this goal, due attention is paid to the relevant features of the poetic production of the dominant code at the time, and to the profile of the intelectuals working in it. This analysis acts as a background upon which gradual changes leading to the emergent aesthetic code can be clearly checked. The new paradigm, modernism, is then considered from two perspectives: one related to the veneration of the sacred symbols of the nation; the other to the cultural and social practices associated to private and public life. In all, the general approach, the fluid handling of language and the convincing use of magazines and journals, ensure that any general reader will appreciate and enjoy this book.

* Paulette Silva's book "De Medicos Idilios y otras Historias" got the first place of the Premio del Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Convenio Andres Bello, ed. 2000, Bogota, Colombia.

Although this book, the first by Venezuelan writer Paulette Silva is about literary criticism, it is written in a very pleasant style, not incompatible with rigour, and is not aimed exclusively to academic resarchers. The main purpose of "Una Vasta Morada..." is to critically review the process of renovation experienced by the Venezuelan poetry at the end of the nineteenth century. To achieve this goal, due attention is paid to the relevant features of the poetic production of the dominant code at the time, and to the profile of the intelectuals working in it. This analysis acts as a background upon which gradual changes leading to the emergent aesthetic code can be clearly checked. The new paradigm, modernism, is then considered from two perspectives: one related to the veneration of the sacred symbols of the nation; the other to the cultural and social practices associated to private and public life. In all, the general approach, the fluid handling of language and the convincing use of magazines and journals, ensure that any general reader will appreciate and enjoy this book.

* Paulette Silva's book "De Medicos Idilios y otras Historias" got the first place of the Premio del Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Convenio Andres Bello, ed. 2000, Bogota, Colombia.

"Into the Heart" by Kenneth Good with David Chanoff was for me the most inspiring book of this decade and this century. When I began reading it, I could not put it down until I read the last sentence, in the wee hours of the morning.

This book had such an impact on me that I was compelled to read it over and over again. It was THIS BOOK that inspired me to travel to the Amazon in October 1999. I would highly recommend this excellent account of life among stone age people for anyone who has an open mind and wants to learn of aboriginal cultures in South America. This book is for everyone who likes to read about adventure, travel, altruism, love, and the dangers one may encounter travelling in "unchartered waters."

It would have been difficult for me not to identify with the protagonist (the author)as I read of his struggles to learn the language, to gain acceptance in Yanomami society, to learn the simple code of ethics in a primitive culture as well as his efforts to acquire survival skills such as learning to fish, hunt, climb trees, go on long treks. My own sense of wonder and excitement grew when I read of the author's "first contact" with hitherto uncontacted Yanomami tribes, and the reaction of these people upon seeing an outsider-a white man-for the first time! I was filled with admiration for the author when I read in chapter 9 that he distributed his very last malaria pill to a Yanomami tribesman, a deed for which he almost paid the ultimate price.

His inner struggles with his conscience are apparent when in chapter 7 the author could no longer be the casual observer, the detached scientist-researcher, and allow the stabbing of a poor, whimpering, malaria stricken woman. A scientist in the field is supposed to observe but not intervene. By putting his feelings first, he saved a life.

Upon reading this book, I felt the utter despair that the author must have experienced when he thought he would lose his wife, Yarima, because of needless red tape, delaying his permit to return to her and her tribe. I also felt his happiness upon finding her again. I was sorry to learn when I saw the National Geographic documentary entitled "Yanomami Homecoming" that Yarima decided not to return to the USA with her husband and children, especially since she indicated in the documentary that she loved her husband. This was why she had married him and moved to New Jersey where she lived for 6 years trying to adapt to western life.

My life was greatly enriched by reading this book. I had learned a great deal about birth and death in Yanomami society, about funeral practices, incest taboos, practising agriculture in the jungle, strange customs such as body painting and other forms of body beautification. Having read several other books about indigenous people of the Amazon I can truly say, this book eclipses them all.

Books I have read about the Yanomami include: "Amazon" and "Savages" both by Dennison Berwick; "Aborigines of the Amazon Rainforest" by Robin Hanbury Tenison; and "Amazon Journal" by Geoffrey O'Connor.

From an avid reader in Alberta, Canada, October 30, 1999 *****

I have read many anthropological ethnographies and personal descriptions; this is perhaps the best I've read. (Another interesting book about the Yanamami, by a woman anthropologist, is Shabono.) I wanted to add to the previously contributed reviews that there is a follow-up documentary, done by National Geographic Society (I believe) a few years after the book was written, which describes what happened to the marriage between Kenneth Good and his Yanamamo wife. His wife was completely unprepared for life in the West and had almost no support systems available to her. She ended up returning to her people.

With Into the Heart, Good and Chanoff have created that all-too-rare phenomenon-- a book that can be equally enjoyed by the general reader and the academic specialist. A riveting account of Good's years with the Yanomami people of Venezuela and Brazil, it can be read as a rich ethnography, an "insider's view" of the scientific research process, an edge-of-your-seat travel yarn, or a rainforest version of "Romeo and Juliet." I first encountered it quite by chance in the trade-book section of a chain bookstore, where the word "Yanomami" on the cover caught my eye. In my graduate training as a cultural anthropologist, I had read descriptions of the Yanomami characterizing them as "the fierce people." jungle warriors whose obsession with violence and warfare alledgedly proved that human nature was innately nasty and brutish. So I was both astonished and pleased to read Good's nuanced descriptions of life in a Yanomami village, to find that this much-maligned group was composed of unique, complex individuals, some aggressive, some gentle, all impressively resourceful in adapting to their rainforest environment. I now use it as an auxiliary text in my introductory classes, and student response has been overwhelmingly positive. Good's discussion of his research brings to life the interplay of scientific theory and data in a dramatic and accessible way. At the same time, his sketches of daily life among the Yanomami transport the reader so effectively that one can almost smell the meat roasting on the campfires, hear the low murmur of voices punctuating the night, feel the rhythm of lives enjoyed in attunement with nature and kin. The Yanomami no longer seem like strangers in a strange land, but like neighbors-- people we feel we know. And then there's the love story that propels the narrative and provides suspense, the memoir of gradually flowering trust, tenderness, and commitment between Ken and Yarima, the Yanomamo woman who would become his wife and the mother of their three children. The emotional richness of their struggle to preserve love in the face of immense cultural barriers is especially appealing to college-age readers, and probably explains why more than one undergraduate has confessed that "Ken Good's book was the only one I read cover-to-cover this semester-- I just had to find out what happened!" A rare human document that can be enjoyed on many levels, this unique story will find its way "into the heart" of any reader who enters its rainforest world-- and will not be soon forgotten.

Bruce Olson was a 19 year old when he followed God's will for him to bring the Gospel to South American natives. Not knowing a word of Spanish, or any Indian languages, not having a missionary board, or any other missionaries to welcome him, not having a friend in all of South America (except for Jesus Christ), he walked off an airplane in Venuzuela, and eventually found himself injured and left to die inside a hut of the Motilone tribe, a group of natives so fierce that even the neighboring tribes refused to approach their territory and guided Bruce only so far, disappearing at the first sign of a Motilone.

How Bruce survives, and reaches these people and how Jesus transforms them is an exciting and enthralling true story that is miraculous, humbling, and glorious. You won't be able to put this book down until you reach the end, and you'll wish for a sequel, as Bruce is alive and well today and still touching folks with the Gospel and transforming power of Jesus Christ.

I couldn't put this book down; finished it in one night. The most amazing part is that it's TRUE! The man who this story is about is still alive and still an example to the rest of us of what a true, servant of God can accomplish when he takes his own wishes out of the picture and follows the voice of our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. My faith is stronger having read this book, perhaps yours will be too. God bless you as you seek the God of the Universe who Bruce Olson serves; three in one, God the Father, Jesus Christ the son and the Holy Spirit the Comforter.

I whole heartedly agree with the other reviews. As the one person said- WARNING ONCE YOU START READING THIS YOU WON'T STOP! It was absolutely the best adventure story I have read in a long, long time. . . . and it is true! You will learn how God called author Bruce Olson to fulfill the Great Commission and when God leads Bruce's path there are great rewards and when he tried to implement his own plan (against God's clear direction) there is trouble. This is a story of the most amazing miracle that happened over a 20 year period. PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND PURCHASE THIS BOOK AND READ IT - YOU WILL BE BLESSED!