He's just been notified his book, "The Darien Gap" has been
shortlisted along with three other books for the 2009 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction,
administered by Wilfred Laurier University.

The full press release is at https://www.wlu.ca/news_detail.php?grp_id=0&nws_id=5755

A writer's travelogue from one of the most dangerous places in the Western Hemisphere- the jungle gap between Panama & Columbia- the only gap in the entire TransAmerica Highway, the densest jungle in Central America, drug traffikers, guerrila forces, & tribesfolk.
A tale of living in the 'gap' for 14 months.

Martin Mitchinson's "The Darien Gap" is a wonderful book, a great collection of histories, mythologies, and personal adventures and reflections. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in traveling in Central America, as well as for anyone who loves good, and thoughtful travel writing.

In a place that is infamous for kidnappings, Colombian Guerrillas, and thick jungles, Mitchinson performs the unthinkable act of remaining in the region for a year and a half to gather together Darien's many stories into a book that is a pleasure to read. In a series of wonderfully-crafted vignettes, Mitchinson writes with a very personal voice to bring Darien's jungle to the reader - from the 65 million years of ancient geological formation, to native histories, pirates, eccentrics, and ridiculous canal schemes that are part of Darien's past and present.

This book has just been released, but I've found a handful of early reviews:

"What Mitchinson has produced, with bugs, mud, graces, dangers, superstitions and all... is a wonderfully entertaining book full of close observation and flourishes of poetry."

- Garry Geddes, poet and author of "Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things"
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"... impressive and compelling..."

"... threading the history of the area, with accounts of its indigenous peoples and early explorations, into a dramatic and involving tapestry. There is much humor here,... passages of genuine suspense, including a harrowing account of a near-drowning in a jungle river..."

- The Vancouver Sun
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"... the summer's best read."

- The North Island Midweek
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"...hairy enough to scare even the most intrepid armchair traveler. But the stories that he tells of this wild barrier make his book come doubly alive.

Combining one part history with one part travelogue... escape reading at its best."

-The Sun Times
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"... personal anecdotes are lush with honesty and sparse with reservation... it sucks you from your reading chair only to plant you in the mangrove swamps of the Darien Gap."

"...intriguing tale connects the reader to Mitchinson, the people of Darien and the Darien province itself."

- Comox Valley Record

There are those among us who have journeyed to some of planet Earth's wildest, most untamed areas and survived to tell the tale. Martin Mitchinson of Powell River is one of them, and his new book 'The Darien Gap: Travels in the Rainforest of Panama' could be the summer's best read.

Travelling by foot and dugout canoe, Martin crossed the continental divide from the Caribbean side of Panama to Pacific tidal waters, along the physically challenging and historic route used by Spanish explorer Balboa.

The 50-km wide, 160-km long Darien Gap is a missing link in what would otherwise be uninterrupted highway from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

Few would even consider traveling through this swath of undeveloped swampland and forest separating Panama and Colombia, but although Central American guidebooks warned against going there, Martin persevered.

Martin speaks fondly of the Darien people who fed, sheltered, guided and befriended him during his rainforest adventures, but the book details a labyrinth of hellish primitive situations better read than endured.

Lured by its exotic geography and eccentric history, Martin spent 18 months overcoming challenges in this strange and extraordinary landmass - a stubborn barrier between the American continents. He endured life-threatening and spine-chilling physical and political challenges and emerged as one of few travelers to survive this primitive, roadless disease-infested terrain.

Challenges and perils were numerous and daunting. At times, he survived on small fish and rice for weeks while burnt corn kernels sufficed as 'coffee beans'. Red-headed sardines nipped at his skin when he swam, and a swarm of stinging Africanized bees invaded his termite-weakened beach hut.

No three-day "gringo sprint across the land," the lengthy adventure gave Martin a good sense of the land and its people, as well as time to fully explore and experience what he terms "a bountiful land, providing (the natives) more than they need."

On one occasion, traveling at night in a dugout canoe with a basket of food, a machete and a mosquito net for sleeping, Martin swamped his boat but struggled to shore, where he set up a makeshift camp to dry out. Asked about this experience, Martin says: "When a difficult physical disaster happens, people just dig in and solve it." He felt clarity, he says, in knowing what to do, but sans the panic and screaming employed on the big screen.

Still culturally simple, the Darien people chose village life only recently (1950s and 1960s) but, Martin says "it's not a natural thing for them to live so close together." They share the same struggles faced by indigenous groups the world over, including exploitation by outsiders. Indeed, some parallels exist with West Coast First Nation cultures.

In compelling prose, he writes of "the morning half-light in the mangroves," and the lush evening green of Colombian mountains.

Towards the end, Martin felt the experience "was complete enough" while musing that possibly, the worst facet of this strange land was "fear of your own shadow."