The Darkest Jungle: The True Story of the Darien Expedition and America's Ill-Fated Race to Connect the Seas

Balf does a great job of bringing readers up to speed with the time period the narrative takes place in, since most readers wouldn't know much of the race between the United States and Britain to find a path through central America and the various attempts before Strain's. The narrative itself reads extremely well, I finished this book in just a few days, yet I remember much of the details, particularly the botflies, which make me shudder to even read about. I agree with other reviewers who recommend it to adventure readers as well as history fans. 'Skeletons On The Zahara" by Dean King is also another worthwhile read, though I prefer Balf's less intrusive background information.

Great book, great story. Would have been an even better book if Balf had included more maps, illustrations, and even photos. The arrogance of Strain in taking on the Darien jungle reminds me of our going into Baghdad in 2003 completely oblivious of the local reality and survival strategies. In Baghdad the deadly challenge was the Sunni/Shiia historical rivalry and the Darien it was the jungle. In the Darien the Spanish had been there for 300 years and the indigenous populations for mileniums more. Yet, Strain went ahead without getting local support, an action that was key to Balboa's success. I've spent quite a bit of time in Panama hiking the colonial Camino de Cruces and can attest to tremendous challenge the jungle represents. The humidity is debilitating and the chiggers ubiquitous. I could barely endure hours and yet Strain endured weeks. I understand the Panama Historical Society has plans to locate Strain's grave and move his remains to the U.S. Military cemetary in Corazal. I hope they go through with this idea.

Great story and told in a very interesting way. This author obviously did a lot of quality research. Very interesting topic.

Excellent story. Not the most prolific, or creative, of writing, but the story alone is well worth the read! Looking forward to his others.

As a collector of “survival” books of over 200 I must comment on this book ! The author did a fine job BUT -for whatever reason- the text and it’s complexity makes it imperative that you refer to maps as one navigates this complex saga. There really aren’t any !! Hard to believe but the only map covers two pages, has small lettering and the crease of the book goes down the middle ! I cannot believe any editor worth his salt would allow this. The lack of maps really detracted from the narrative. Too bad !

The narration in this book is very dense and oftentimes challenging to follow. The summary boils down to a horrendous journey to attempt to confirm a distorted view that a canal could be constructed. This books requires more than on map and would also benefit for many more details on the maps. Essentially, one party gets totally confused and lost while attempting to try and prove that it would be possible to build a canal, At the same time, at least for me, I got lost. The book later picks up on a secondary party sent out to search for the lost expedition and their journey, like the first is a horrific story of the pain and suffering any human get endure. The second party searching for the first, finally reaches the Pacific. This is the basic summary. More to be said but I got lost and should have referenced the only map to figure things out but I lost my motivation to make sense of the story. Maybe it is just me but I believe this book requires much more clarity which might entail dropping out so many details to which the reader, gets sidetracked with.

Fantastic book - I couldn't put it down.

I really like the way that Todd Balf presented and researched the topic. A lady friend who won't let me join her on the cruise she is taking through the canal recommended the book to me. It has sparked my interest as does she.