Paddle to the Amazon

When Don Starkell and his teenaged son Dana put their 21-foot canoe in the water they had a simple plan: they would paddle south into the Mississippi system and keep going until they reached the mouth of the Amazon. Two years and 12,000 miles later Don and Dana had each paddled nearly 20 million strokes, and had lost and gained traveling companions. They had survived hurricanes, floods, and gigantic seas that all but drowned them. They had encountered whales, sharks, piranhas, wild pigs, giant bees, and hungry alligators. They had eaten tapir, paca, shark, and heaps of roasted ants. They had been arrested, shot at, taken for spies, and attacked by pirates. Yet they survived to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest journey ever made by canoe. Paddle to the Amazon is their record of a classic voyage of discovery - and self-discovery - that you will never forget.