Braver Than You Think

Braver Than You Think was written by Maggie Downs. This book is a mixture of a travel adventure story and a memoir about grief. Maggie's mother has Alzheimer disease and no longer recognizes her. This is hard for Maggie so she handles it by going on a year long adventure. Her adventure starts by hiking to Machu Picchu. From there she travels through Peru and Bolivia and South Africa. She doesn't have much money so she sleeps in hostels or tents most of the trip. She volunteers at an ape rescue place where she gets attacked and bitten by an ape. Then it's on to Uganda where she thinks she will be volunteering to plant rice or possibly teach English to children. Instead she anchors a radio show for several weeks. Volunteering is another way for her to travel cheaply. Along the way she runs into a few dicey situations. Some people try to take advantage of a woman traveling alone. The author rationalizes her trip by the fact her mother wanted to travel to most of these places but never did. I enjoyed the travel parts of the story. Regarding the grief I thought the author was a bit selfish.