Andes

The Andes, earth's longest mountain range, spans seven countries, from Colombia to Argentina, include rain forests and deserts, virtually deserted areas, massive cities, Incan ruins, pre-Incan ruins, Spanish ruins, and more. It's a lot to take on, but Jacobs (The Factory of Light: Tales from My Own Andaluc%C3%ADan Village), author of numerous travel books, is nothing if not game. He braves high altitude, terrifying bus rides, endless delays, crime-ridden cities, and wackjob mystics. He's read all earlier accounts, from Che Guevara to Mario Vargas Llosa, along with history, geology, and archeology, and uses their work to supplement his own and to show the overlapping routes and varying agendas of Francisco Pizarro, Simon Bolivar, and generations of explorers and scientists. Jacobs is a good writer, balancing different strands%E2%80%94past and present, contemporary politics, the Spanish Conquest, his own history and that of the people he meets%E2%80%94but he's a great traveler: well connected, tireless, enthusiastic, and interested in everyone he meets. While we could use less of his Spanish village and his dog and a few more notes on why he goes where, he conveys the region's difficulties and challenges as well as its beauty and enduring fascination. (May)