This journey through the Americas by train, is probably only 35% about the train travel itself, 45% about the architecture, history, politics and people and 20% grievances of the author (whether its about his fellow travelers or the state of the train/station). The Old Patagonian Express describes the author’s self-imposed mainly train-only journey from Boston, Massachusetts to Esquel, Patagonia through Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecudor, Peru, Chile & Argentina. This time I steeled myself to just take note of the racist & condescending tone but not let it bleed into the description of the places or the journey itself. Having read the breezy Bill Bryson, earnest Karen Blixon & contemplative Pico Iyer, I found it really hard to ignore the misogynistic tone of Paul Theroux, thus causing the stall. And what seems like eons later thanks to Covid, I picked it up again resolving to finish it this time! So, I started reading The Old Patagonian Express but couldn’t progress beyond the 40th page. Almost 4 years ago, I was bitten by a kind of travel bug – of the armchair kind – and I bought a dozen travel books to satiate this desire.
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