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Sara Wheeler, that's who. She tells us, for example, that the Chilean population is riddled with anti-semitism: she could easily have picked up that idea from talking with her wealthy friends, but as a description of the population as a whole it is complete nonsense.Who could visit Lake Chungura in the far north of Chile without finding anything at all to say about its beauty.
The central problem is that she doesn't seem to have decided what sort of book she was trying to write. A travel book may fall into one of three genres: a tourist guide, an analysis of the political and social character of the country visited, or an account of the adventures experienced by the author.
This is a 2006 reissue of a book written more than ten years earlier, and in her introduction to the reissue the author describes it as a young woman's book, but she is too kind: a rather silly and ignorant book would be more accurate. One has the impression that her main objective was to confirm the ideas she had before going to Chile, and within Chile she stayed (amongst other places, of course) at the British Embassy and on the estates of very wealthy people, where no doubt, she was able to confirm her prejudices.
Sara Wheeler doesn't appear to have had any adventures, so the third of these is a non-starter, but her book fails in both of the other two as well: it has too few descriptions of the places visited and too many accounts of the conversations she had about politics to succeed as a tourist guide; as a social and political analysis it has much too much chit-chat. In any case case her knowledge of Chile is very superficial -- the kind of thing she would have heard from her political exile friends in London before she went, rather than things she saw with her own eyes.
Who could pass through the Region de los Lagos in the south, but refrain from stopping because she didn't think it would tell her much about Chile. She mentions (correctly) that the Region de los Lagos is a favourite place for Chilean people to go on vacation, but it doesn't seem to have occurred to her that seeing where ordinary people go on vacation and what they do there would tell her more about the ordinary life of the country than visiting a military base in the Antarctic.All in all a very disappointing book, with very little of interest to say.
Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile (Modern Library)A very intertaining journal of travels through Chile.
Nevertheless there's a lot of background information about the country which may be useful to you. Sometimes she's funny in a very British manner, but it rarely lasts more than one sentence at a time. Her contacts in Santiago, some at the British Embassy and some filthy rich families, Chile's de facto aristocracy, gives her access to interesting people and a level of luxury that "normal" travellers seldom encounter.So reading the book is not the best way to figure out what you can expect to see and do on your own trip through Chile. Whereas I just left home, Sara apparently first spent much time learning Spanish and gathering a network of contacts in Chile, including a number of official tourist offices that gave her free or cheap accommodation and transportation, very briefly mentioned here and there. Since I did a similar trip to the one in this book a few years ago, I was curious to see whether Sara and I also had the same experience. It just wouldn't add any value to the tale. She only spent one day there, being guided by Chilean officials in and around a tiny settlement. Also, she goes to "Chilean Antarctica", but there's not much of value to be gathered from reading her account of it.
I often travel like that, and although it may seem like a stupid/crazy thing to do to some people, travelling in certain regions often means suddenly sharing a car/tent/meal with people you just met the day before. All the destinations she mentions are still very much open to tourism, and you get a general idea of what they are like. We didn't. One of the other reviewers appears to find Sara rather promiscuous, going off with one man after the other on, well, overnight adventures to remote places. Also because she did her trip in the early 1990s, so a LOT has changed since then. I was disappointed that she only spent half a day in Torres del Paine, which to me was the most beautiful spot in the country. Although I'm sure there must have been short-term romance in the air at times, I certainly don't think less of Sara for not "admitting" it in her book.
I read the book and thought it dullish- I agree with the previous reviewer that it did not come to life. some of her ideas, like spending two nights with three Chilian police officers was down right stupid or hitchhiking with Bolivian loggers. I also thought the book dishonest. Sara had what appeared to be a long line of lovers on this trip- a man named Pepe that she slept on a deserted island with, yet there is no mention of sex or how most of these men came into her trip or out of it. I wonder if she knows that many men in many cultures have one word for this kind of woman.Not that I care whether she did or not, but she took risks that seemed stupid- and I dont appreciate her withholding the truth,especially when other women might think she gave them the green light and then they end up raped.so did Sara have a love life that she hid in a prudish manner. Seeing how much she was holding back , made me realize she was writing a clean-up dull version that Hallmark or Her Mother would approve of.
I started reading her book at the end of a 2-week adventure in Chile and many of her comments and thoughts resonated with my own experiences in Chile. I disagree with the other reviewer's comments who felt he had to slog through the book waiting for it to payoff. I thoroughly enjoyed Sara Wheeler's writing on Chile and reccomend this book to anyone who has traveled to Chile or is contemplating a trip. I hated to leave the country and its beauty behind, but her book allowed me to retain and relive the magic of my own trip for another week+ as I savored her writing.
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