The Longest Walk

Title: The Longest Walk - An Odyssey of the Human Spirit

Author: George Meegan

Pages: 402

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: George Meegan is the world record holder for the longest continuous walk in history. He started at the southern tip of South America (Tierra Del Fuego, where Carmen Sandiego used to hideout), and walked north through South America, the Darien Gap, Central America and into the United States. Instead of just walking straight from Texas to Alaska, he took a detour through Washington D.C. and New York City and then cut across Canada and the Northern states before heading up into Alaska and onto Prudhoe Bay on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. His walk was more than 19,000 miles, and took 7 years, during which time he started a family and fathered two children (with his Japanese wife, that he married in Argentina).

My Review: I enjoyed this book, but it got a little long (even though he barely skims over his last 4-5,000 miles). He talks a lot about his experiences walking such long distances, but most of the book is full of stories of his interactions with people that he meets on the walk. The stories are interesting and inspiring and I found it amazing how friendly people were in every country except the United States. Although this walk happened in the late 70's and early 80's, I think there is a lot that we can learn from all of our southern neighbors. I loved reading this book with my World Atlas open next to me on the couch as I followed his progress.

From the Book: "(p. 37, Patagonia) In fact, my itinerary, as I have hinted before, was influenced not so much by Tschiffely's journey--I hadn't even read his book--as by Snow's. Snow's original plan was not to stop after completing South America but to continue either straight up to Alaska or northeastward to Washington, D.C. My insane plan was to do both, thereby "completing" the Americas and by virtue of the extra distance gained by the detour to the east coast, recording the longest unbroken walk of all time."

"(p. 81, Bolivia) Potosi, at over thirteen thousand feet, is the highest city in the world, and it is inconceivable that anyone would ever bother to build, much less occupy, a city at such an altitude were it not for the fabulous riches of Cerro Rico. Indeed, at one time things were really humming here--French wines, Chinese silks, posh whores, etc.--Potosi's university was founded well before the Pilgrims ever thought to set sail, and in 1613 the population was a hundred twenty thousand, equal to London's."

"(p. 84, Bolivia) After reaching Oruro, I was surprised to learn how many Mormons were living here. Or maybe they just stood out. They could probably be spotted from a high-flying jet, so conspicuous were they in their brown suits, wide ties, briefcases full of evangelical props, and close-cropped blond hair. I spent an hour and a half in the company of two of them, a pair of earnest, sincere, and intensely boring young men. While one with great solemnity sought to convert me, the other standing a foot before my face, silently held a booklet with illustrations to accompany the lecture and periodically flipped the pages for my benefit. It was a hard-earned tea."

"(p. 123, Ecuador) ...During my first few hours in Loja, I had good fortune to run into two young Mormon missionaries who let me sleep one night in their room and three further nights at their temple. My four days in Loja were somber ones, however, not so much because of the Mormons, who didn't try to convert me (at least not very strenuously), but because of the constant rain."

"(p. 377, Alaska) In this land of great opportunity and few roads (in most regions the Alaskan Highway is the only real road), the immense distances can only be reasonably handled by air, in fact, half of all the private aircraft in the world are registered in Alaska. Near any urban center, such as they were, I couldn't look up into the sky without seeing at least one fixed wing clawing itself into the sky."