A "Death Train" chugging through a remote, dense jungle. A run-in with an anaconda. A crushing bout of typhoid fever. Yet, with all its many unexpected hazards and holdups, a trip to Bolivia was a life-changing success for two adventuresome brothers in search of Spanish lessons and new cultural insights.
The Sunbaked Tin Can, told to many of his students as The Chicken Story, is F.P. Nieman's enthralling account of an incredible journey across Bolivia with his older brother in 1980. What started out as a well-laid plan to learn the Spanish language immediately devolved into a high-flying, perilous adventure that was rife with every possible hassle, from combatting marauding mosquitos to evading armed militia. As the two young men negotiated uncharted cultural waters and forbidding terrain, they encountered the gamut of human experience, from humor to danger, from failure to conquest, and from struggle to survival.
A must-read for anyone who craves lighthearted armchair travel with a hair-raising twist, The Sunbaked Tin Can is a true, adrenalin-spiked travel adventure that will get your blood pumping, and amp up your wanderlust. Fasten your seatbelt, read it, and enjoy the ride!
About the Author: F.P. Nieman is a foreign-language teacher who has worked at Independence High School in San Jose, California, for more than thirty years. Prior to his career as a teacher, he was trained and worked as an auto mechanic, until he answered an inner calling to see the world and study languages. He has traveled through much of the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, and Asia. Raised in a family of ten, he had moved eight times by the time he was in eighth grade. Nieman's extensive travels inspired him to write two nonfiction books, Under Every Stone and The Sunbaked Tin Can. He holds a BA in German from the University of California, Berkeley, a teaching credential from California State University, Hayward, and an MA in education from San Jose State University. He currently lives in San Ramon, California, and enjoys summers in Anacortes, Washington.
