The Wonder Trail: True Stories from Los Angeles to the End of the World

Written by Steve Hely

Narrated by Steve Hely

Steve Hely, writer for The Office and American Dad!, and recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, presents a travel book about his journey through Central and South America. Part travel book, part pop history, part comic memoir, Hely's writing will make readers want to reach for their backpack and hiking boots.
 
The Wonder Trail is the story of a trip from Los Angeles to the bottom of South America, presented in 102 short chapters. From Mexico City to Oaxaca; into ancient Mayan ruins; the jungles, coffee plantations, and remote beaches of Central America; across the Panama Canal; by sea to Colombia; to the wild Easter celebration of Popayán; to the Amazon rainforest; the Inca sites of Cuzco and Machu Picchu; to the Galápagos Islands; the Atacama Desert of Chile; and down to wind-worn Patagonia at the bottom of the Western Hemisphere; Steve traveled collecting stories, adventures, oddities, marvels, bits of history and biography, tales of weirdos, fun facts, and anything else interesting or illuminating.

Steve's plan was to discover the unusual, wonderful, and absurd in Central and South America, to seek and find the incredible, delightful people and experiences that came his way. And the book that resulted is just as fun. A blend of travel writing, history, and comic memoir, The Wonder Trail will inspire, inform, and delight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Jun 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9780451486875

Steve Hely

Steve Hely writes for the Fox animated comedy American Dad! He was twice president of The Harvard Lampoon, and has been a writer and performer on Last Call with Carson Daly and a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman, the latter earning him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Comedy Show.

Reviews for The Wonder Trail

[andibook-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While the author did quite a few little anecdotes, he actually focused more on history (!) and wasn’t trying to be heartfelt -- to his benefit, in my opinion.

What kind of book is this? Well, that’s the question that kicks off the book. The answer: “This is the story of a trip, from Los Angeles to Patagonia. True tales and stories and adventures collected by a traveler. As long as there’ve been books, this has been a kind of book."

The amount of history involved made this book hard to pick up, but the short, bite sized chapters made for an easy read. Worth it for the first chapter alone -- a quick, funny, and colloquial history of the travelogue genre itself.