Exclusive Interview with Author Sara Stewart

Clutching The Handbook to South America, and a pad of blue airmail paper on which to write letters home, I was totally unaware of political upheavals in countries I would travel through and how they would impact my journey, nor was I prepared for the immense kindness shown by many strangers I met offering me an insight into their widely varying often eccentric way of life.

Tell us about some of the moments that live strongest in your memory?

Arriving in Mexico and seeing land for the first time in two weeks was thrilling, and soon I was staying with a man who lived amongst the cacti with his pack of hounds and hunters. Memories of train and bus journeys which lasted for days, sharing life with brightly clothed indigenous locals and their livestock, from high into the thin air of the dramatic Andes to the heavy heat of Pacific coasts. Dingy, stinking windowless rooms to opulent grandeur, a constant kaleidoscope of highs and lows. Tanks in the streets, fearless beauty of Galapagos animals, falling in love, always saying goodbye.

You met some famous folk along the way - Ronnie Biggs and Bruce Chatwin - how did that happen?

Travelling and meeting people along the way is about luck. I happened to bump into a then unknown and unusual man called Bruce Chatwin and travelled with him on especially rough seas in southern Chile. He was still writing what would be his first book, In Patagonia, becoming famous for a new genre of travel writing. Later, in Brazil, I met Ronnie Biggs, well known as one of the Great Train Robbers who had managed to keep ahead of the British police who were hot foot after him. Happenstance meant I partied with him at his home near Rio, along with an unusual bunch of fellow guests, hearing what he missed most from England.

Who made the most powerful impression on you?

Impressions of people I met, both joyous and irritating, remain as strong as the scenery which I was travelling through. Often funny, or sad, old or young and from all walks of life. A generous nymphomaniac in Mexico, a film director with whom I fell in love, an indigenous farmer who mended my broken case on a bus with his only piece of twine, the fisherman from whom I was lucky to escape, the hilarious and annoying captain of a boat round the Galapagos Islands, the smuggler women in Bolivia, and so many more. All the time making new travelling friends for a day, a week or a lifetime. Indigenous people, so friendly in some countries, suspicious in others, sharing life between us without a word in common.

The reader reviews have been tremendous - what is it that resonates so bout a book recounting a travel experience from 50 years ago?

Reactions to the book have been thrilling, from young people who have never known life without being able to contact home, or book a ticket from the phone in their pocket, to those who remember writing actual letters and queuing for hours to book a seat on a bus. Travel writing is about the people as much as the place, and this is filled with stories of ordinary people in remarkable places, and of extraordinary people in unexpected places. It is funny, poignant, vivid and as valid today as it was 50 years ago.

If a young woman of today asked your advice on a solo trip to a similarly unstable part of the world, what would it be?

I would encourage her to go, real travel being the best education we can have. But obviously don’t go into a known war zone. Everyone today has a mobile phone, both a helpful tool and an invasive menace, so don’t get distracted by endless news from home. Look up and out and stay curious. Many of the politically dodgy sounding countries have the most charming, generous and hospitable people, happy to help foreign travellers. Trust your gut instinct and usually the worst moments of travel make the best stories afterwards (of which I have many).

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