Book Report: "The Man Who Swam the Amazon"

3,274 Miles on the World's Deadliest River  by Martin Strel & Matthew Mohlke

What a great book! Written diary-style from notes that Mohlke kept on the trip, it's a fast read and keeps you turning the pages wanting to get to the end. Strel was 52 years old, 250 pounds and loved good beer, good food and a lot of red wine when he attempted this feat. Swimming with alligators, piranhas, snakes, river pirates, floating logs, ships and everything else in the river sounds just crazy mad. A really good book. As Mohlke says in the Epilogue:

"There are millions of people throughout the world gazing out of the same window. Occasionally a crazy thought comes into their head from somewhere so far away they can't even fathom its source, but they quickly discard it and return to the surface to deal with the seemingly important aspects of everyday lift that crowd their inbox. Years pass, their children have children, and every time they gaze out that window, those old dreams flood their minds again. Big dreams. Dreams they're afraid to try to reach, but yet linger. They may think they're too fat or too old or whatever their excuse is, they all have an excuse that prevents them from reaching those dreams. If a fifty-two year old, slightly fat man can swim the Amazon, what can you do? Those last two hours before sunset can often be the best swimming of the day."

Awesome! It makes me regret not visiting the Amazon on my two trips to Brasil. It also makes me want to go back to Brasil, remembering how much I loved it there.