Once Upon a Continent

If she had known that she would fall into a cannibal-size soup pot in Peru, risk losing toes and fingers in the high Andes, and high-jump out of a marriage proposal in a Bolivian discotheque, Susanna Janssen might have had a second thought. But she drank yerba mate with gauchos in Argentina, visited Machu Picchu with just six other tourists, downed shots of firewater with gravediggers in Ecuador, sailed the Galápagos Islands before crowds of tourists discovered them, and met a volcano in Patagonia that changed her life.

Susanna's recounting of the wonders, worries, and wows of her travels is high on adventure, tinged with pathos, and spiced with humor. Once Upon a Continent is a cultural and deeply personal odyssey of South America etched through four months of charting the unknown.

"Packed with eye-opening cultural reflection and gripping moments of near-disasters and engrossing discoveries, Once Upon a Continent is more than a travelogue and a memoir. It's a venture into wonder. Prepare to be amazed."

- Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review