Going up country

About this book

Going Up Country is the first anthology of travel essays by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. No one knows the back roads, the short roads, the right roads better than Peace Corps Volunteers. Here, in thirteen never-before-published essays, these authors recount their travel experiences in far corners of the world and on distant shores. These travelers' tales are filled with the spirit of adventure, with honesty, and with laughter. These authors are the descendants of Conrad, Twain, Orwell, Greene, and scores of others, expatriates and wanderers all, who have enriched our literature. In "Jumping into the Rainbow," Richard Wiley relays his experience on a weekend photo safari in Kenya, where he's able to astonish and surprise a group of lost Japanese tourists by both speaking their language and offering them much-needed directions. In "Piquing the Spirits," author Mary-Ann Tirone Smith agrees to take a film location scout up Mt. Cameroon but finds he is appalled at her selection of mountain guides - a fourteen-year-old boy who brings along his five-year-old sister - and their supplies - a tin of Danish ham and twelve cookies. And Bob Shacochis offers readers a survey of the best Caribbean beaches well off the tourist route in "Beauty and the Beach." These essays will get you up and packing for your next adventure or urge you to snuggle down deeper in a comfortable chair and keep reading.