South America – Stanfords Blog

Non Fiction Book of The Month August 2025

Small Earthquakes by Shafik Meghji

Small Earthquakes uncovers the fascinating story of Britain’s forgotten connections with South America, from the Atacama Desert to Tierra del Fuego, Easter Island to South Georgia. By blending travel writing, history and reportage author Shafik Meghji tells a tale of footballers and pirates, nitrate kings and wool barons, polar explorers and cowboys, missionaries and radical MPs.

He sheds light on Britain’s impact on Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, from sparking wars, forging national identities and redrawing borders to its tangled role in their colonisation and decolonisation. But it also reveals how these countries, in turn, have shaped Britain in profound and unexpected ways, from Fray Bentos to the Falklands.

Small Earthquakes is available now from Stanfords for £25.00

https://www.stanfords.co.uk/small-earthquakes-a-journey-through-lost-british-history-in-south-america

Patria by Laurence Blair

Writer and journalist Laurence Blair shares the inside story behind Patria: Lost Countries of South America, a dazzling history of the continent available now.

-by Laurence Blair

In eastern Peru, where the Andes crumple into the Amazon, lies Espíritu Pampa: a labyrinth of jungle-shrouded chambers, temples and tombs. Though rarely visited today, this was the capital of The Vilcabamba: a fragment of the Inca Empire where four emperors held out for a generation after the Spanish landed in Peru. “Imagine,” says Jorge Cobos, whose family helped explorers identify the ruins just decades ago. “There are lots of buildings left to discover in the forest. And beyond, in the mountains: who knows?”

The Vilcabamba is just one of the vanished kingdoms, nations and territories featured in my non-fiction debut PATRIA: Lost Countries of South America, which hit bookshelves across the UK last week. In my decade covering the continent as a foreign correspondent – rafting down Amazonian rivers with Colombian rebels, helicoptering into marijuana plantations with Paraguayan special forces, and following Venezuelan refugees into the lawless Darien jungle – I’ve witnessed South America’s fragile natural beauty and searing inequality up close. Stretching from the edge of Antarctica to the shores of the Caribbean, it’s a cultural, culinary, and economic powerhouse that feeds, fuels and cools the planet.

‘8,000 Miles in the Andes by Bamboo Bike’ with Kate Rawles: Stanfords Travel Writers Festival 2024

From Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show in London’s Olympia, The Stanfords Travel Writers Festival welcomes author and eco adventurer Kate Rawles. She talks to author Ben Aitken about cycling the length of the Andes on an eccentric bicycle she built herself.

Pedalling hard for thirteen months, she witnesses the devastation of goldmining and oil drilling but finds hope in the incredible people working to regenerate habitats and communities. As she reaches the ‘end of the world’, she realises that to tackle biodiversity loss we all have a role to play.

An extract from the prologue of Crossed off the Map: Travels in Bolivia

-by Shafik Meghji

In 1867, so the story goes, Mariano Melgarejo, the 15th president of Bolivia, asked the British ambassador to pay respects to his latest mistress. When the request was haughtily declined, Melgarejo, whose time in office was marked by brutality and political miscalculation, took great offence. The ambassador was swiftly apprehended, stripped naked, tied to an ass – facing the rear, naturally – and paraded around the main square of La Paz, before being kicked out of the country.

Top Three Stunning Landscapes in South America

By Michael Webster, author of the newly published travel memoir The Condor’s Feather.

For nearly five years I wandered 100,000 kilometers back and forth across the Spanish speaking countries of South America. At the time I loved every single place. But which of those places stirs memories in my waking hours now? Which are the landscapes I wished I’d spent more time in? Which landscapes will I never forget?

I am a naturalist, so for me a memorable landscape should also have memorable wildlife.

Top 3 Birds in South America

My Top Three Birds in South America

by Michael Webster, author of The Condor’s Feather

For five years we followed and filmed birds the length of the continent. We started in Tierra del Fuego and blazed trails in our Toyota Hilux along the length of the Andes all the way to the Caribbean coast of Colombia. We survived dust storms in Patagonia, treacherous floods in the rainforests, slept in sub-zero temperatures with the aid of oxygen masks and finally were inches away from being swept out to sea. It was our love for birds and supporting those protecting them that kept us going. Out of a list of a thousand species seen here are the three species that resonate in my memories.

7 Things You May Not Know About Ecuador

You may know Ecuador for its volcanoes or the Galapagos islands, but there’s so much more to the small South American nation than that! A spectacular cycle path, rival cities, Inca words mixed in with Spanish, popcorn with everything and a new president called Lenin are just a handful of other reasons to put this compact Latin American nation on your travel bucket list… Continue reading 7 Things You May Not Know About Ecuador

5 types of advice to ignore when you travel solo by Amy Baker

If you’ve ever set off of on a solo adventure you’ll be no stranger to the hoards of advice, warnings and cautionary tales that get thrown at you. In Amy Baker’s debut book Miss Adventures: A Tale of Ignoring Life Advice While Backpacking Around South America she shares her often hilarious experiences of solo travel and sifts through what advice is actually worth listening to. We managed to pin her down long enough to tell us what advice you should ignore to ensure you get the most from your trip. Continue reading 5 types of advice to ignore when you travel solo by Amy Baker