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Dream of a Lifetime: Ten Years in the Upper Amazon
Norman Walters and his longtime business partner Larry have sought out and experienced what most souls are terrified of or can only dream The Precipice of Life. From playing music in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, to building a touristic paradise in Peru’s deepest, darkest, Amazon rainforest in the 1990s, they have consistently gone against the odds, winning…losing…and calling it even. This is the first chapter in a story of overcoming obstacles, blending cultures, creating a dream, and facing hardship as well as joy with the same bold gusto.Norman Walters spent ten years in the Peruvian Upper Amazon, 110 miles (up the Amazon River by boat) from Iquitos, Peru. This Jungle City of 600,000 inhabitants was reachable (from the outside world) only by water or air. No roads in! He is the co-founder of Yacumama Lodge, which he carved from the jungle in its inception and still operates today. These are his stories.
223 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 10, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 21, 2019
Everyone should have at least one great adventure in their lifetime. For those unable to experience one in person, the next best thing is to read about one.
'Dream of a Lifetime: Ten Years in the Upper Amazon' is a wonderful achievement from a writer whom I view first and foremost as an artist. Norman E. Walters does a masterful job setting the stage for a grand adventure easily accessible to anyone but seemingly impossible to duplicate. It is a wonderful addition to any summer reading list, and I highly recommend it to anyone tipping their toes into the subject for the first time. 4.5 stars.
'Dream of a Lifetime: Ten Years in the Upper Amazon' is a wonderful achievement from a writer whom I view first and foremost as an artist. Norman E. Walters does a masterful job setting the stage for a grand adventure easily accessible to anyone but seemingly impossible to duplicate. It is a wonderful addition to any summer reading list, and I highly recommend it to anyone tipping their toes into the subject for the first time. 4.5 stars.
April 13, 2019
Dream of a Lifetime is a Good Solid 3 Star Book. It is a memoir of a gentleman who spent 10 years living in the Amazon with only sporadic trips back to the US. For that alone and reading about his personal experiences and the hazards of his journey, it is worth the read. It’s definitely a real account of a very interesting journey and time in this author’s life. I understand exactly why he wrote it and why it needed to be written. After all, who gets to have this experience. It really is the adventure of a lifetime, and perfect for those who want to read about the beginnings of the Yacumamma Lodge.
Dream of a Lifetime: Ten Years in the Upper Amazon by Norman Walters is a tale of adventure and refinding yourself and your sense of adventure after trying to fit in with the “norm”. The bulk of the memoir takes place between 1992 and 2002, and when the author left the states, he was 44. Norman Walters grew up in the 1960s and 70s, graduating high school in 1967 in Indiana with his best friend graduating in 1969, which is where this memoir more or less starts. There is some back and forth flip-flop between now and then in the first few chapters. The author has an extremely unique voice that exemplifies the era in which he grew up. You'll notice a lot of 1960s and 70s lingo and slang. There is an overabundance of parenthesis in this memoir that can be somewhat redundant and rambly. However, given the era of the author, this may simply be his voice and a true way to represent the way he speaks and tells stories.
In the front of this book, we learn the author is escaping an undesirable (10-year?) marriage when his best friend calls him after three years and asks if he wants to help him start a retreat in the Amazon jungle, specifically the Yacumamma Lodge, which still exists today.
Obviously, Norman says yes and proceeds to prepare for the trip, which doesn't go smoothly, but they make it down to their desired location. Along the way, they are almost robbed and forced to give bribes to police, but they get to see a plethora of naked and semi-naked women and drink and generally have a good time until they nearly down in the Amazon river during a torrential downpour. Obviously, they survive, or we wouldn’t have this book.
What follows is a very detailed account of the successes and near catastrophic failures of building the Yacumamma Lodge and turning it into a successful eco-tourist attraction. Readers get to relive the experiences of Norman Walters from wondering how everyone already knew what he wanted to purchase to his many trips to Ari's (A diner-type establishment) and up and down the Amazon river as well an an accurate account of all the people he met and the good, life-long friends he made.
To sum it up, this book is extremely entertaining and worth the read to spite the time-sequence flip-flopping and sections of over-description. It’s also something to read if you want to know the beginnings of the Yacumamma Lodge by someone who helped develop and build it from the ground up.
I do want to say that it's simply amazing the amount of detail the author remembers from his time living in the Amazon and starting an eco-retreat. I certainly do not remember my 1992 through 2002 in nearly as much detail, and I'm pretty sure I took less pills and hallucinogens and didn't imbibe nearly as much as the author.
Dream of a Lifetime: Ten Years in the Upper Amazon by Norman Walters is a tale of adventure and refinding yourself and your sense of adventure after trying to fit in with the “norm”. The bulk of the memoir takes place between 1992 and 2002, and when the author left the states, he was 44. Norman Walters grew up in the 1960s and 70s, graduating high school in 1967 in Indiana with his best friend graduating in 1969, which is where this memoir more or less starts. There is some back and forth flip-flop between now and then in the first few chapters. The author has an extremely unique voice that exemplifies the era in which he grew up. You'll notice a lot of 1960s and 70s lingo and slang. There is an overabundance of parenthesis in this memoir that can be somewhat redundant and rambly. However, given the era of the author, this may simply be his voice and a true way to represent the way he speaks and tells stories.
In the front of this book, we learn the author is escaping an undesirable (10-year?) marriage when his best friend calls him after three years and asks if he wants to help him start a retreat in the Amazon jungle, specifically the Yacumamma Lodge, which still exists today.
Obviously, Norman says yes and proceeds to prepare for the trip, which doesn't go smoothly, but they make it down to their desired location. Along the way, they are almost robbed and forced to give bribes to police, but they get to see a plethora of naked and semi-naked women and drink and generally have a good time until they nearly down in the Amazon river during a torrential downpour. Obviously, they survive, or we wouldn’t have this book.
What follows is a very detailed account of the successes and near catastrophic failures of building the Yacumamma Lodge and turning it into a successful eco-tourist attraction. Readers get to relive the experiences of Norman Walters from wondering how everyone already knew what he wanted to purchase to his many trips to Ari's (A diner-type establishment) and up and down the Amazon river as well an an accurate account of all the people he met and the good, life-long friends he made.
To sum it up, this book is extremely entertaining and worth the read to spite the time-sequence flip-flopping and sections of over-description. It’s also something to read if you want to know the beginnings of the Yacumamma Lodge by someone who helped develop and build it from the ground up.
I do want to say that it's simply amazing the amount of detail the author remembers from his time living in the Amazon and starting an eco-retreat. I certainly do not remember my 1992 through 2002 in nearly as much detail, and I'm pretty sure I took less pills and hallucinogens and didn't imbibe nearly as much as the author.
March 13, 2019
Norman Walters chronicles his long and often hair-raising mid-life adventure, collaborating with some tough denizens of the Peruvian Amazon to build an eco-lodge in their midst. He shares his tale in his inborn American-guy jargon, as if he were talking with you over a couple of beers. I love this story for its honesty and authenticity, and for the sheer grit and architectural expertise required to see a project of this complexity through to completion, natural dangers and cultural differences notwithstanding. And, like a friend telling a tale over a beer, he occasionally digresses to his wild youth and previous marriages, further illustrating in the process his relationships to the people in the main narrative.
May 15, 2019
I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. The cover was not very inviting and looked a bit cheap to me and it almost gave me a reason to give the book only 4 stars. But don't let the cover fool you. It's a very entertaining description of living in the 60's as a musician and artist and as a creator and builder of an ecological holiday retreat in the upper Amazon in Peru. It's written in a style that almost make you feel like sitting with the author, having some great beers with him while he is telling these amazing stories. I highly recommend it for some relaxing hours!
May 9, 2019
An astonishing refreshing book on building a Peruvian vacation paradise interspersed with a collection of travel stories about the author's life. I really liked the easy style and humor of the author which made the reading not only enjoyable but a page-turner.
Some people might not like the flashbacks but I think they gave strength to the tale. Very funny, insightful romp.
I recommend for all readers. I look forward to the next book in this series.
Some people might not like the flashbacks but I think they gave strength to the tale. Very funny, insightful romp.
I recommend for all readers. I look forward to the next book in this series.
July 9, 2019
Reading this book was a bit like settling down next to a log fire with my gnarly old grandpa reminiscing about his life. The author writes like he’s talking directly to you, so his story feels intimate and personal. He tells a true boys’ own adventure – a sometimes haphazard and mostly entertaining tale about his experience setting up an eco-lodge in deepest, darkest Amazonian Peru in the early 90s. And this part of the tale was genuinely interesting. His experience working with the locals, good and bad; the challenges of building in a jungle; the distant sinister workings of giant corporations mining the Amazon for its resources; snakes, floods, poisonings, bribery, murder – it really is a big story in a small book.
But there were, for me, some irritations, mostly when the author veered off course to relay his hazy, trippy, hippie memories of drifting around New York and California in the late 60s and early 70s. These diversions didn’t seem to have a point in relation to the story I wanted to hear about back in the Amazon and they weren’t nearly so interesting.
All in all, the author came across as a likeable character with genuinely good intent, and his experiences are interesting and definitely worthy of a book. But at times I felt like I was reading an early draft of a potentially great story – this is a collection of memories, and sometimes these are fascinating and full of colour and detail, but sometimes I was left feeling like there was more there to tell.
All that said, this is a very personal story and the structural weaknesses (only my opinion) may be overlooked for the sake of simply enjoying a rip-roaring adventure in the jungle. Readers who like memoirs or who are interested in the Amazon would, I think, enjoy this book. Kudos to the author for actually living the dream of a lifetime – not many of us would be bold enough to take it on.
But there were, for me, some irritations, mostly when the author veered off course to relay his hazy, trippy, hippie memories of drifting around New York and California in the late 60s and early 70s. These diversions didn’t seem to have a point in relation to the story I wanted to hear about back in the Amazon and they weren’t nearly so interesting.
All in all, the author came across as a likeable character with genuinely good intent, and his experiences are interesting and definitely worthy of a book. But at times I felt like I was reading an early draft of a potentially great story – this is a collection of memories, and sometimes these are fascinating and full of colour and detail, but sometimes I was left feeling like there was more there to tell.
All that said, this is a very personal story and the structural weaknesses (only my opinion) may be overlooked for the sake of simply enjoying a rip-roaring adventure in the jungle. Readers who like memoirs or who are interested in the Amazon would, I think, enjoy this book. Kudos to the author for actually living the dream of a lifetime – not many of us would be bold enough to take it on.
May 14, 2019
I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. The cover was not very inviting and looked a bit cheap to me and it almost gave me a reason to give the book only 4 stars. But don't let the cover fool you. It's a very entertaining description of living in the 60's as a musician and artist and as a creator and builder of an ecological holiday retreat in the upper Amazon in Peru. It's written in a style that almost make you feel like sitting with the author, having some great beers with him while he is telling these amazing stories. I highly recommend it for some relaxing hours!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews