Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan

Volume One

By: John Lloyd Stephens

Narrated by: Scott Nilsen

Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

These are the true life tales of adventure and travel throughout Central America by John L. Stephens who employed Frederick Catherwood to create artistic renderings of their discoveries. First published in 1858, the world was amazed and intrigued by their travels.

Public Domain (P)2008 Lumos Publications Inc.

A Classic Account

This is a classic tale of the exploration of Maya ruins in Central America and much more. Stephens and his traveling companion, Mr. Catherwood, were among the first outsiders to depict the great centers of Copan and Palenque, among others.
Unfortunately, the web site which is supposed to provide the reproductions of Catherwood's drawings was blank and the reader indulged in some questionable pronunciations at times. But all in all, this is a spellbinding adventure well told.

Review of Incidents of Travel in Central America..

The book contained some good insight on the areas in question. The author provided a great level of detail of his journey, but I was looking for more of a historical writing of the region. It appears that I went in to the book with a different set of expectations than what I got from it.

Great book

Great book and great story. There’s a couple of mistakes or repetitions during the reading. Other than that it’s all good.

Part 1 is mostly an 1839 travelogue

I bought this title because I visited several Maya sites on an archaeological tour and am very interested in what Stephens and Catherwood saw and thought. The first volume, set in Guatemala beginning in 1839, has very little of this to offer. It mainly focuses on Stephens' travels in Guatemala and only describes one archaeological site. Catherwood is a minor character.
The reading begins agonizingly badly, with phrasing nonexistent. It improves somewhat as the book continues, but the editing is poor. There are spots where the reader notes he'll try that again (and repeats), for example.
As many have noted, the website provided for Catherwood's illustrations is currently "under construction".
Hopefully the future volumes will offer more that is of archaeological interest.

This Book should be a Movie

It is so enjoyable to come across a book that not only tells a good story but it is performed so well. I learned and was entertained at the same time.

narration is terrible

I was so excited to listen to this book, and so disappointed in the narration. The guys sounds like a robot. Very dull and just can't capture my attention. Unfortunately I couldn't finish the book.

inadequate reader, illustrations claimed, absent

Only one audiobook reader has shocked me more, and that one had a speech impediment. This narrator sometimes pronounces ague so as to rhyme with vague and other times so as to rhyme with gag. Neither is correct and both grate. Transposed letters commonly mangle the pronunciation of English words as well as Spanish words. Most Spanish words, however, are correctly pronounced. Prosody lacks verve. The narrative is quite gripping and so far I have been able to gag this down, but it is difficult to recommend. To the best of my knowledge, there is no alternate audiobook, so consider reading it rather than listening to it. The illustrations are critical, and they no longer seem to be available at the narrated URLs. The illustrations can, however, be found at Internet Archive, and also the text.