Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Iquitos, Peru: Dag Walker's New Book Out Soon (2)

My latest book is almost done, and I am now wrapping up the final four pieces and am sending out the rest for editing as of recently. I have a publisher and printer in Lima. It's looking good.

My new book is titled:

Iquitos, Peru: Almost Close. (A Popular History of Iquitos, Its Culture and People.)

This book should be a 9x6 paperback running about 300 pages. You should be able to purchase this book at Dawn on the Amazon Restaurant on the Malecon in Iquitos, and later I should have an edition available at amazon.com.

That's how it should be. I have no idea what reality will actually bring about.

Iquitos, Peru: Almost Close covers a wide range of topics about this Amazon city from the well-known and highly touted ayahuasca culture to the lesser known charity work that transforms the city and the Amazonian people far more deeply and radically than most would assume. In this book we look at the early Jesuit settlement of Iquitos Indians along the riverside into a village; we see a variety of Spanish explorersm men and women both good and bad; the fabulous rise of the Rubber Boom and its destruction of human life on a grand scale as well as its transformation of the greater world; and we see the remnants of one of the world's premier architectural legacies,the heritage buildings of the city that make Iquitos as impressive a site as Machu Piccu. Further, this book looks at contemporary life in Iquitos as backpacking hippies mingle with Amazon adventurers, wealthy cruise passengers, local hustlers and wild and wonderful expats as all somehow find a good life in the midst of some of the world's worst poverty at Belen, the jungle market set in the heart of the city.

This is such a fine city that one wakes each morning in a state of excitement, wondering just what can happen in the course of the day, some unusual and oft times astounding adventure in the sun and warmth of the palm-lined life of Iquitos.

This is such a pleasant and interesting and lovely city with people I have loved from the first days that writing this book has been one of the high points of my life, and I hope readers will come away with at least some of the love of the city and the people that I have.

I'll continue up-dating the progress as it happens here.

Meanwhile, please consider ordering my book An Occasional Walker at the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/Occasional-Walker-D-W/dp/0987761501/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331063095&sr=1-1

Will update here as things progress.