Bandit Roads by Richard Grant
Technically this is an information book, but in reality it is an adventure travel guide, or travel advisory.
Richard Grant has a fascination for Mexico, especially the Sierra Madre mountains. He is determined to see them regardless of threat to life and limb. Before he begins he finds and interviews several Americans who have spent time there. They all give him the same advice. 1. Never travel alone. 2. Learn to ride a horse because you cannot depend on motor vehicles in the wilderness.
Grant heads off in a new Toyota SUV. You see, he doesn’t like horses. However, he does start off with company. But it isn’t too long before he is off on his own with the simple protection of a few popular names to drop as necessary. The other alteration to his immediate plans is that instead of traveling through the mountains north to south or east to west, he ends up following contacts around a district and then moving on to another district.
This book gives a fascinating insight into the modern version of the lawless west. It seems that the Sierra Madres are the new agricultural base for the marijuana and narcotics industry serving the US. There are very few lawmen and those that do exist are usually corrupt. Grant must have a very warm confident personality that others find interesting, and as a result his book is filled with real people.
This is also a cautionary tale. When I began to read about his final trip I began to wonder how on earth he was going to travel down the east side of the mountains, cross them and then half-way up the coast to meet his next contact, all in less than 50 pages. The reason became clear very quickly.
This book is a very good read. It gives the reader a rare look at one of the truly wild areas of the modern world and the trip is worth the time.
