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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.154092321
EAN num: 9781592284306
ISBN number: 1592284302
Label: The Lyons Press
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: August 01, 2004
Publishing house: The Lyons Press
Sale Popularity Level: 590730
Studio: The Lyons Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Kidnapped by terrorists, held hostage at gunpoint, two flower-hunting Britons live to tell their amazing tale.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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A fast paced, rousing read to satisfy the thirst for adventure and curiosity.
Two young men, one looking for bold undertakings the other for orchids, endeavor traveling through the improbable and perilous Darien Gap between Panama and Columbia.
This is a story of being kidnapped and held for ransom by a revolutionary Columbian guerrilla group for nine months in a most inhospitable environment. Their day to day existence in this bug-ridden, disease-infested jungle amid these radical insurgents is a page turner.
Conveyed with wit, sensitivity and anxiety, Dyke and Winder's escapades make for a riveting read.
Rated by buyers -
The Cloud Garden came to my attention through a review in Outside Magazine. True adventure books make for an excellent break from novels and heavier literary works. This one is a perfect example. The story is gripping, the characters are likeable, and the book is hard to put down. The bad guys are painted honestly and roundly as real people. No one is all good nor all bad. This is a story about survival, wits, humanity and the romantic ideals of adventure of which so many of us dream. Find your synopsis elsewhere.
Rated by buyers -
The discoveries made by eccentric British naturalists down through the years have literally turned the scientific community on its ears. But not all exploring trips have yielded spectacular results. In 2000, a young botanist set off to Central America in search of rare and beautiful species of orchids. He met up with another young explorer in northern Mexico. Where else to go but the Darien Gap, the only place where the Pan-American Highway isn't finished.
Traveling through the Gap, collecting along the way, they were just hours away from the Colombian border when they were ambushed by FARC guerillas who were to hold them hostage for the subsequent nine months. From then on, their survival was a matter of extraordinary endurance, incredible ingenuity and not just a bit of luck.
The book written by this pair is a combination of travelogue, adventure store, and surprisingly not without a bit of humor.
Rated by buyers -
I am half way through and I love it, well written, fun, exciting.
Rated by buyers 
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The book's topic caught my interest as did a good magazine review. (The copy we purchased from Amazon.com was without pages 118 to 179 so check before you begin to read. Amazon.com was great and sent us a replacement volume which also was missing the same pages. We finally found a bookstore that exchanged it for a correct version.) The story here is about two young men who choose to hike into the guerrilla held The Darien Gap between Panama and Columbia. The gap where there is no longer any Pan-American Highway. At the end of their telling (I'm not giving anything away, after all the authors wrote the book so you know they survived) the authors make the comment that the British press caught on to the story because of Tom Hart Dykes love of flowers. It was the "hook" all newspapers look for in such stories, and that is also the hook they use in telling their story. But your not going to learn much about Orchids from this story is told in parallel very first person narrative which centers on their immature decision to tempt fate and danger and then tests their ability to survive. In a strange way the book reminded me of Jon Krakauer's excellent "Into the Wild" about a youth who graduates from College and ends up alone, dead in the wilds of Alaska. Both books share that same desire to decipher why some young males make such choices. Overall I would recommend the book as an interesting very first person adventure, but it is strangely lacking suspense and I really was let down that we really learn nothing about the band of guerillas who hold them captive. I certainly missed that insight which is so strong in the novel "Bel Canto".
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