Retracing Paul Theroux’s ‘The Old Patagonian Express’
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 11.04.10 | 2:10 PM ET
El Turistren, Colombia (Rachel Pook)My favorite Paul Theroux book is The Old Patagonian Express, in which he chronicled his journey by train through the Americas. Theroux had a grand time, enduring irritating travelers, witnessing a soccer riot in El Salvador and reading to the late blind Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.
So I was happy to hear the other day from Rachel Pook, who is retracing the route Theroux followed in the book—at least from Costa Rica southward—and blogging about it.
As she explains on her site:
An urge for adventure teamed with huge admiration for Paul Theroux’s travel writing has led me to this project.
After seven years working at News International for The Times I decided to escape the confines of Fortress Wapping and do some exploring.
She embarked on the trip in August. Her last post, on Sunday, titled Altitude Sickness and a Tortoise, was from Peru.