17 h 41 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 17 h 41 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Low riverbanks, a huge sky, and a slow passage: how does South America look from the deck of a boat?
In Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena, John Augustine Zahm follows two great rivers through northern South America. The Orinoco carries him through Venezuela; the Magdalena brings the journey to Colombia. His journal follows the roads, the water, and the people he meets along the way.
Zahm is both a Catholic priest and a scientist, and his interests shape what he notices. Natural history and geography sit beside the practical business of travel and accounts of earlier explorers. On the Orinoco, heat, delays, and uncertainty test his patience, while open plains give the river a vast horizon.
What you’ll discover
- Two rivers, different worlds Follow routes through contrasting country, from Venezuela’s Orinoco to Colombia’s north-flowing Magdalena.
- The pace of river travel Experience a journey where heat and uncertainty matter as much as the destination.
- A scientist on the water See how Zahm brings natural history and geography into his account of travel.
- Wide plains and Andean beginnings Picture the Orinoco’s low banks and trace the Magdalena’s course from the Andes.
- Earlier explorers in view Discover how the record of past exploration accompanies Zahm’s own journey through South America.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy armchair travel, tropical plants and birds, tales of conquistadors, and a cheerful narrator who checks every rumor himself.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A song sends the writer south
- Florida's name and its Fountain of Youth
- Havana, tobacco and the tomb of Columbus
- Caracas and the coast of pearls
- The Orinoco delta strips away old myths
- Up the Great River in revolution time
- The Meta shows a land emptied of missions
- Hospitality and mules carry them to the Andes
- Over the Andes to Bogotá and its conquistadors
- Down the Magdalena and out to the Caribbean
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Den Orinoco hinauf und den Magdalena hinab
by J. A. Zahm · 1910
Two travelers cross the Andes by mule in the rainy season and find kindness where friends predicted danger.
Challenging10–20 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
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In short
What would make a man leave a snowed-in New York in January 1907 for rivers that his friends call deadly? In the journal of J.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A song sends the writer south
In late January 1907, the writer stands at a window in New York and watches workers dig out streets buried by three and a half days of snow. He wants a rest far from drawing rooms and visitors. What he lacks is a wilderness of great rivers and mountains.
Then a young musician, whom the party calls La Niña, sings Goethe's song about the land where the citron grows. The writer decides at once to go south, and days later he boards a Pullman car full of people fleeing the winter for Florida.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1910
- Language
- Deutsch
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Zahm, John Augustine. Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/up-the-orinoco-and-down-the-magdalena.
Zahm, J. A. (2026). Up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/up-the-orinoco-and-down-the-magdalena (Original work published 1910)
Zahm, John Augustine. Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/up-the-orinoco-and-down-the-magdalena.
@book{zahm2026up,
author = {Zahm, John Augustine},
title = {Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/up-the-orinoco-and-down-the-magdalena},
note = {First published 1910}
}
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What is Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena about?
It is J. A. Zahm's journal of a 1907 journey from Florida through the West Indies and Venezuela, up the Orinoco and Meta rivers, over the Andes to Bogotá, and down the Magdalena to the Caribbean coast.
Who is C. in the book?
C. is the nickname Zahm gives his travel companion, a language professor met in Trinidad. He is a cheerful, adventurous young man, a lover of Spanish literature, who rides with the author from the Orinoco to Colón.
Is Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena a true story?
Yes, it is a factual travel account of a real 1907 trip. It mixes Zahm's diary with quotations from Columbus, Raleigh, Humboldt, Peter Martyr and the early missionaries and historians he read along the way.
The author
John Augustine Zahm
1851–1921 · American priest and author
John Augustine Zahm (1851–1921) was an American Holy Cross priest, scientist, author, and explorer. He was born in Ohio and worked at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He travelled in South America and published Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena in 1910. He died in Munich, Germany.
More by J. A. Zahm
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