An Amazon and a Donkey

by Natascha Scott-Stokes

An Amazon and a Donkey is an adventure story in the great tradition. It is about chasing a dream and finding something else. Most of all, it is an honest and totally engaging encounter with the people the author met along the way.'Don't go,' warned the military attache in Lima/Peru when he heard the diminuitive young traveller's intention to follow the Amazon from its headwaters in the Andes all the way to the Atlantic Sea off Brazil. Even in peaceful times it was an extraordinary no woman had ever made such a trip alone. And now, in 1989, there was the added danger of Andean terrorist guerillas, the Senderos, who had recently targeted gringos in order to sabotage Peru's tourist industry. But Natascha had spent ten years preparing for her journey and was not about to give up. She declined an armed guard, figuring it would make her even more of a target, and set off into the mountains with just her donkey for company.Once in the Amazon lowlands, she sold her donkey and continued for two more months by a curious variety of rivercraft, staying with missionaries, local settlers and finally with a community of Bora Indians - discovering that tenuous no-man's land which lies between traditional cultures and the encroaching 21st century.She survived falling in love, illness and extreme mental and physical challenge to tell a thrilling tale of timeless fascination.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Natascha Scott-Stokes is the author of Tales from the Sharp End: A Portrait of Chile published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2024, and has been a renowned independent traveler and author for over three decades. She established herself as a pioneering traveler in 1989, when she became the first woman to travel the length of the Amazon River alone, from its Marañon headwaters in the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic off Brazil. Her book about that journey is titled An Amazon and a Donkey.
Soon afterwards, she based herself in Guatemala, where she not only met the Quebecois father of her two sons, but also co-authored two guide books and published Chickenbus Journey: False Paradise in Guatemala.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she was inspired to take a journey into history by bicycle, following an ancient trade route for amber through the newly accessible countries of Eastern Europe. The book about that journey is titled The Amber Trail.
Natascha Scott-Stokes emigrated from England to Chile in 2006, but her family’s connection with the country goes right back to the 19th century, when her great-great-grandfather arrived in Valparaíso in 1873, with a contract to install the first submarine telecommunications cable between Peru and Chile.
The author has a Masters in Latin American history and archaeology from London University and is a member of various professional associations, including US-based Biographers International; the Chilean Translators’ Association; and the Society of Authors in the UK. She has four travel books and a biography to her name and has also co-authored a number of travel guides. The biography is of the pioneering butterfly collector and extraordinary traveler Margaret Fountaine, entitled Wild & Fearless: The Life of Margaret Fountaine.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, but I have to say the map at the start confused me - it show a massive journey route through Peru, Brazil, Bolivia and back to Peru. Three quarters of the way thru the book we were still approaching Iquitos in Peru! Turns out the Brazilian river trip and the return to Peru was covered in a chapter - mostly by plane.
Nevertheless the Peruvian travel with a Donkey in the Andes was interesting, but with all the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) activity in Peru at the time it seems miraculous they were never encountered.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A photojournalist and the first woman to travel the Amazon alone, she describes her journey here. A great read for any women who don't feel that traveling alone is an option.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting.