Benedict Allen's enthralling account of his 3600-mile journey from the Andes of Ecuador and Peru to the dense forests of the Mato Grosso confirms him as one of our most intrepid explorers. By placing his life in the hands of a remote tribe and learning the intimate ways of the rain forest, he acquires the skills to pass the supreme survival test. 'Benedict Allen's adventurous travelogue records his attempt to become the first white man to cross the Amazon at its widest point. Travelling by canoe and on foot, living on his wits and a fistful of dollars, he takes up the trail of explorer Colonel Fawcett who set off in 1925 and has not been seen since. En route, Allen encounters the Matsés – the jaguar people – and experiences enlightenment under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug administered nasally by his shaman … Allen reveals himself to be a true descendant of Fawcett, he's an Englishman abroad, espousing the virtue of standing on your own two feet.'TIME OUT 'For hotter reading, top travel book is Benedict Allen's 'Through Jaguar Eyes' … Is the man a nutcase? Probably, but for wimps like me … he's a hero. Poisonous snakes, electric eels, drug traffickers – Allen encounters them all. Hats off to him.'VAL HENNESSY, 'Daily Mail'