In A Long Way South, itinerant traveller Sara Stewart relates memories salvaged from her explorations of Latin America during 1974/5, a turbulent, politically unstable period where kidnappings and smuggling were commonplace, where dead bodies lined the roads and where tanks guarded the streets of two capitals following a military coup and insurgency.

Posing as the ship captain’s niece, Sara crossed the Atlantic in a cargo boat before docking in Veracruz, Mexico. There she followed an Irishman and his pack of hounds as they hunted jackals through desert cacti, then met film makers and fishermen – and fell in love. Travelling by local buses and trains, she gradually headed south, watching dead bodies pile up in Central America countries and celebrating Christmas in El Salvador, before eventually reaching South America.

In Ecuador she rode on a train roof through towering landscapes and encountered tribal people, then travelled by sea to the fabled Galapagos Islands. Once back on the South American mainland, she braved rampant lawlessness in Lima, tanks and troops lining the streets of the Peruvian capital. In Bolivia she joined a bus full of female smugglers, traversed flooded rivers and survived freezing nights. Tanks also characterised Sara’s time in Santiago, the Chilean capital, which had just experienced a military coup that ended democracy and established General Pinochet’s long-lasting dictatorship.

Continuing southwards, Sara crossed the vastness of Patagonia to endure rough seas on a boat with esteemed author Bruce Chatwin, before venturing across the Andes into Argentina. The country proved to be out of control, characterised by crazy inflation, political mayhem and kidnappings, and abject poverty contrasting with ostentatious wealth. Reaching Brazil, Sara’s journey culminated with marvelling at Iguaçu Falls before unexpectedly partying with notorious Great Train Robber and fugitive Ronnie Biggs on Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema Beach.

An authentic recollection of intrepid travels during an era long before travel became straightforward, the memoirs collated in A Long Way South are a thrilling, engaging read – a compendium of tales as much about remarkable people as they are about the diverse, fascinating places and charged political situations that characterised 1970s Latin America.

Sara Stewart became an independent traveller when she ran away from home, aged four. Studying at university in Madrid encouraged her to explore Latin America in 1974/5, after crossing the Atlantic in a cargo boat, posing as the captain’s niece. After a year working in publishing, she took off for southeast Asia, returning on local buses through countries now too politically charged to explore. Subsequently, she founded a textile business in India, spending years travelling through remote areas. Following marriage and children, she moved to Ireland – where she was involved in the country’s first ever travel-writing literary festival. She has never stopped travelling, recent explorations including Saharan Chad, Niger, Algeria and camping in Sudan’s Nubian desert. She is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. A Long Way South is her first book.

Preamble: Madrid lights the fuse
1 Across the Atlantic by cargo boat to Mexico
2 Falling in love with Mexico
3 Highlife and lowlife by bus through Central America
4 South America at last: Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands
5 Exploring Peru with trains and tanks
6 On top of the world with women smugglers in Bolivia
7 Reunited with friends and chance encounters in Chile
8 Luxury and chaos in Argentina
9 A fragment of Paraguay
10 Music, magnificence and a train robber in Brazil