Product Description
A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon

The year is 1735. A decade-long expedition to South America is launched by a team of French scientists racing to measure the circumference of the earth and to reveal the mysteries of a little-known continent to a world hungry for discovery and knowledge. From this extraordinary journey arose an unlikely love between one scientist and a beautiful Peruvian noblewoman. Victims of a tangled web of international politics, Jean Godin and Isabel Gramesón’s destiny would ultimately unfold in the Amazon’s unforgiving jungles, and it would be Isabel’s quest to reunite with Jean after a calamitous twenty-year separation that would capture the imagination of all of eighteenth-century Europe. A remarkable testament to human endurance, female resourcefulness, and enduring love, Isabel Gramesón’s survival remains unprecedented in the annals of Amazon exploration. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (36)

Mapmaker's Wife
International Books said they sent me the book on February 5th, as this was a book for a book club meeting on March 1st, I felt I would receive the book in about a week and would have plenty of time to read it. The book arrived Feb. 27th. While I have tried to contact International Book, to ask them why they thought the book would take 22 days to arrive, I have been unsuccessful in doing that. I won't use their site again.

A pretty good book if you'll give it a chance
I'll be honest - although I did enjoy the book, it did not flow for me like some historical books have. It took me a bit longer to read than most books and there were days where I put the book down and several days passed without the desire to go back and read. But once I got about halfway through the book, it started to flow quite a bit better as time went on. Having the maps and pictures helped to understand the scope of what Isabel and others had to go through.

There are a lot of characters and it is hard to follow all of them at times - none of them were really fleshed out to me. I found myself constantly going back to prior chapters to remind myself who was who...

But, if you'll give the book a chance, keeping in mind the historical and scientific aspect and not just looking for a gripping adventure or a heartwrenching love story - like me, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Fabulous
More cerebral perhaps than the title might indicate, this book is a great read.You'll learn about scientific discoveries, 18th century S. American culture, the Amazon, and about the wonderful, human story of Isabel herself.It's a fun, if not carefree, read. I recommend it!

Welcome the adventure
I think readers just need to accept the fact that publishers choose titles to sell books, not necessarily to describe their contents truthfully. If you buy this book solely on the promise of romance in exotic locales, you are bound to be disappointed.

If, on the other hand, you approach this book keeping in mind that the narrative encompasses a wider subject matter, you'll be able to appreciate its depth and detail. The author has amassed and organized an incredible amount of research. I'm amazed that so complete a tale can be compiled of a journey of so long ago. The original drawings that accompany the text are fascinating.

The tale is alternately one of adventure and one of scientific discovery. It's unbelievable the lengths to which people of that time period went to accomplish their goals in an unknown, unmapped and often hostile world. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not fiction!

Yes, the book is a slog in parts. Don't feel guilty if you skip some of it! Any bit of it you read adds to your knowledge of the past, and of a part of the world that remains a mystery to most of us. Challenge yourself. Be an adventurer! Bring a mosquito net.

Not a love story but a good read nonetheless
Probably like many others, I started this book thinking I was getting into an historical romance, but found that the love story was actually a secondary sub-plot to the main one. Luckily, I was intrigued by the historical scientific intrigue of the quest to find the answer to the question of the day: what was the true shape and size of the earth? This was a part of history I had never considered and was hooked from the first chapter. Actually the book begins with Isabel setting off from the Andes through the Amazon rainforest to reunite with her husband whom she has been separated from for 20 years, then the author flashes back--way back--into the significance and purpose for the 18th century South American geographic exploration. For non-fiction lovers, this book is a real page-turner. I couldn't put it down. Isabel's actual journey to reunite with her husband was extraordiarily compelling. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Loja is the capital of Ecuador's Loja Province. It is located in the Cuxibamba valley in the south of the country, sharing borders with the provinces of Zamora-Chinchipe and El Oro, and with Peru in the south. Loja holds a rich tradition in the arts, and for this reason is known as the Music Capital of Ecuador. The city is home to two major universities. The city has a population of about 180,000, and is situated 2100 m above sea level. It has a mild Andean climate, ranging between 16 and 30°C. ... Read more

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Proceedings of the XVIth AETFAT Congress ... Read more

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Taking as his case-study the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador, where 600,000 people lack easy access to potable water, Erik Swyngedouw aims to reconstruct, theoretically and empirically, the political, social, and economic conduits through which water flows, and to identify how power relations infuse the metabolic transformation of water as it becomes urban. These flows of water which are simultaneously physical and social carry in their currents the embodiment of myriad social struggles and conflicts. The excavation of these flows narrates stories about the city's structure and development. Yet these flows also carry the potential for an improved, more just, and more equitable right to the city and its water. The flows of power that are captured by urban water circulation also suggest that the question of urban sustainability is not just about achieving sound ecological and environmental conditions, but first and foremost about a social struggle for access and control; a struggle not just for the right to water, but for the right to the city itself. ... Read more

Product Description
Using a case study of tropical deforestation in the upper reaches of the Amazon Basin, this study argues that small landholders and peasants play an active role in the destructive process only when they pool their resources or join with corporations to open up new regions for settlement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Shine a light of truth
Tropical Deforestation can be explained in one very short sentence.The rainforests are being destroyed by average people trying to make a better way of life.This is the premise for this book and it is backed up by two decades or research.The book acknowledges there is deforestation in the Ecuadorian Rainforest, but it caused by more obscure facts than is generally reported on the evening news.The book shows that it is not poor people driven to the jungle trying to subsist, but it is energetic people that are actually trying to improve their lives and offer a better future to their children.The book also explains that there are cultural perceptions at work here in developing the rainforest that also helps exacerbate the situation.This book is not an easy read.However, if you want a text that will provide a comprehensive study on the rainforest and deforestation, this is the one. ... Read more

Product Description
As indigenous peoples in Latin America have achieved greater prominence and power, international agencies have attempted to incorporate the agendas of indigenous movements into development policymaking and project implementation. Transnational networks and policies centered on ethnically-aware development paradigms have emerged with the goal of supporting indigenous cultures while enabling indigenous peoples to access the ostensible benefits of economic globalization and institutionalized participation. Focused on the Andean countries of Bolivia and Ecuador, Indigenous Development in the Andes is a nuanced examination of the complexities involved in designing and executing "culturally appropriate" development agendas. Robert Andolina, Nina Laurie, and Sarah A. Radcliffe illuminate a web of relations among indigenous villagers, social movement leaders, government officials, NGO workers, and staff of multilateral agencies such as the World Bank.

The authors argue that this reconfiguration of development policy and practice permits Ecuadorian and Bolivian indigenous groups to renegotiate their relationship to development as subjects who contribute and participate. Yet it also recasts indigenous peoples and their cultures as objects of intervention and largely fails to address fundamental concerns of indigenous movements, including racism, national inequalities, and international dependencies. Andean indigenous peoples are less marginalized, but they face ongoing dilemmas of identity and agency as their fields of action cross national boundaries and overlap with powerful institutions. Focusing on the encounters of indigenous peoples with international development as they negotiate issues related to land, water, professionalization, and gender, Indigenous Development in the Andes offers a comprehensive analysis of the diverse consequences of neoliberal development, and it underscores crucial questions about globalization, governance, cultural identities, and social movements. ... Read more

Product Description

In Amazonia: Territorial Struggles on Perennial Frontiers, Paul Little chronicles centuries of territorial disputes in Amazonia. Examining a wide variety of social groups from an environmental and anthropological perspective, Little describes the factors that have created two unique biophysical and political environments at opposite ends of the Amazon River basin's rain forest.

Little makes a comparative study of the Aguarico region in eastern Ecuador (at the western upper edge of the rain forest) and the Jari region of Brazil (at its eastern lowland end) using four time frames to examine early European invasions of indigenous homelands, fortune-building attempts in Amazonia, conservation concerns in the tropical ecosystems; and disputes over territorial claims that arose during the 1990s. By interweaving his examination between the two regions within each time frame, Little effectively highlights how similar globalizing forces were locally appropriated to produce widely divergent environmental and political histories.

A large part of the study is given to the period beginning in the 1950s. Little outlines the contemporary struggles -- social, political, economic, and ecological -- arising in Amazonia. He also examines the frontier processes of ethnocide and ethnogenesis whereby the indigenous communities of the upper Amazon have retained some control over their lands, while in the lower Amazon traditional riverine communities strive for existence against increasing industrialization.

Thoroughly researched and examining issues ranging from resource exploitation and conservation to colonization, urbanization, and industrialization, Amazonia will appeal to students and scholars in environmental studies, geography, ecology and conservation, cultural anthropology, and Latin American studies and history as well as anyone interested in Amazonia.

Product Description

Thrilling adventure stories introducing young readers (ages 8-12) to Christian heroes of the past.

Eleven-year-old Niwa is from Ecuador's Huaorani tribe, better known as the Auca tribe, which is known for killing outsiders. The Aucas trust no one, not even neighboring tribes, so when young Niwa is outlawed by his own people for angering another tribe, not even his family will protect him.

Then a huge "woodbee" flies overhead, dropping gifts to Niwa's tribe from pilot Nate Saint and the other members of a missions team hoping to share the Gospel with them. Alone and afraid, Niwa is excited by the prospect of outsiders who want to help him. He even wants to make friends with the mysterious strangers and convince his tribe that the people in the strange woodbee will not harm them. But when someone else from the tribe lies about the five men wanting to attack them, the whole village wants them dead except for Niwa. Will he get there in time to stop the killing?

In a tribe of killers, one boy longs for peace -.

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Journal, published by Royal Geographical Society on July 1, 1996. The length of the article is 6963 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: KEY WORDS: Latin America, inner city, historic centre, population, housing, Quito.

Citation Details
Title: Identifying the inner city in Latin America.
Author: Rosemary D.F. Bromley
Publication: The Geographical Journal (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1996
Publisher: Royal Geographical Society
Volume: v162Issue: n2Page: p179(12)

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