South America is a continent of contrasts, from the northern Caribbean shores, corrupt officials in all the countries, deep jungles, amazing histories from the Incas to the Aztecs and the modern horrors of drugs and guerrilla warfare.

Mark Mann with his girlfriend Melissa and another friend Mark decide to travel there to undertake the Gringo trail, a uniquely South American experience. There is a little tension as the friends Mark is really there for the drugs, and really is not interested in undertaking the trekking. At various points in the journey they split and go their own separate ways, meeting up again at other locations.

It is a funny mix of some travel writing with potted histories of the places that they are visiting, along with some fairly vivid descriptions of the soft and hard drugs that they took whilst on their trip. It did make for interesting reading though. Sadly though, this once in a lifetime trip was marred at the end.

Found the writing to be ok with good descriptions of the places visited, but 2.5 stars I think is fair. ( )