The Tranquilo Traveler
The Tranquilo Traveler is a celebration of voluntourism, slow travel, and other interesting ways to see the world. Travel writer and award- winning Moon Handbooks author Joshua Berman created The Tranquilo Travel as a resource for world trippers and international volunteers, a window to the author’s travels in Nicaragua, Belize, and beyond, and an update of his books and articles.
My Review of Bruce Barcott’s new Belize book in July, 2008, issue of Mountain Gazette
By Joshua | July 31st, 2008 | 
3 Comments » 
My first article in the venerable, crusty, old Mountain Gazette magazine is a book review of Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw by Bruce Barcott (Random House, 2008). The July issue of MG is on stands now, or you can download a PDF of my piece here: “Birds of Paradise.”
The book is about an eco-battle royale against the construction of the Chalillo Dam in Belize. It’s a superbly crafted story: “Barcott puts all the pieces in order, frequently taking a few generous steps back to give the reader an ample, global context for each chapter. Brief, sharp histories of hydroelectric power, Belizean demographics, endangered species lists, environmental law, and post-colonial politics pepper the storyline. Between these contextual tangents the author strings a narrative of dramatic episodes and dialogue, resulting is a sweeping snapshot of a country as it makes its awkward debut in the new global economy.”
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3 Responses to “My Review of Bruce Barcott’s new Belize book in July, 2008, issue of Mountain Gazette”
Fred — I’d love to know the details of the errors you noticed.
Great Review Joshua. The subject of the book is one of those that is hard for me to read about but one which needs to be told. And it gives well-deserved and overdue credit to Sharon Matola for her outstanding efforts on behalf of wildlife in Belize. She is one of those rare individuals who keeps up the good fight even though it seems like victories, if any, are at best only partial and certainly few and far between.
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His history of the British colonial times was deeply flawed and incorrect. If this bit was got wrong, what faith could I have in the rest of the story?