An Amazon and a Donkey

This is the story of a young woman's solo journey through the Peruvian Andes into the Amazon Basin. In 1989 Natascha Scott-Stokes journeyed from the source of the Maranon River to the mouth of the Amazon. She crossed the Andes with only a donkey for company, discovering all around her a deep peacefulness in the harsh, dramatic surroundings, but at the same time remaining aware of the political and economic climate of the land in which she was travelling. Making her way along the Maranon, she passed through numerous small villages, examining for herself the basis of the myths about Amazonian women and seeing everywhere the native Indians who have been forced to prostitute their disintegrating cultural heritage for the money of tourists. At the start of her journey the author was forced to quit a love affair, which pointed up the modern woman's dilemma of the pull of romance and a relationship, and the desire to achieve personal ambition. This book describes a land where life is cheap, where even the smallest things are enjoyed to the full; a land of extreme contrasts but also of great beauty.