Tim Cahill is a travel writer - one of those "hateful" people whose work is to travel around the world, and make money writing about it.

In this book he describes how he joined the professional endurance driver Garry Sowerby to break the world record on driving all the way from the southernmost tip of South America (near Ushuaia, Terra Del Fuego) to the northernmost tip of North America (Prudhoe Bay, Alaska).

They completed this task in just under 24 days, driving a slightly modified GMC Sierra truck 15,000 miles and crossing 13 countries along the Pan-American road, which climbs north through South America's west coast (Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia), continuing to Central America (Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico) and then through the US and Canada to Alaska.

No doubt, Tim Cahill knows how to tell his story. My earlier remark about him being hateful was, of course, tongue in cheek. At least these travel writers know to convey their stories so well that we, who don't go to such places, can almost experience being there, all from a $10 soft cover. This book is a pleasure to read, and the author doesn't cringe to add some historical and political remarks on the countries he passed through, which in my opinion only enriches the plot.