The Wonder Trail

True Stories from Los Angeles to the End of the World

By: Steve Hely

Narrated by: Steve Hely

Steve Hely, writer for The Office and American Dad!, and recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, presents a travel book about his journey through Central and South America. Part travel book, part pop history, part comic memoir, Hely's writing will make readers want to reach for their backpack and hiking boots.

The Wonder Trail is the story of a trip from Los Angeles to the bottom of South America, presented in 102 short chapters. From Mexico City to Oaxaca; into ancient Mayan ruins; the jungles, coffee plantations, and remote beaches of Central America; across the Panama Canal; by sea to Colombia; to the wild Easter celebration of Popayán; to the Amazon rainforest; the Inca sites of Cuzco and Machu Picchu; to the Galápagos Islands; the Atacama Desert of Chile; and down to wind-worn Patagonia at the bottom of the Western Hemisphere; Steve traveled collecting stories, adventures, oddities, marvels, bits of history and biography, tales of weirdos, fun facts, and anything else interesting or illuminating.

Steve's plan was to discover the unusual, wonderful, and absurd in Central and South America, to seek and find the incredible, delightful people and experiences that came his way. And the book that resulted is just as fun. A blend of travel writing, history, and comic memoir, The Wonder Trail will inspire, inform, and delight.

Critic reviews

“Full of…anecdotes, local color and touches of the cheerfully bizarre…making [it] indispensable.”
--New York Times

“The Wonder Trail may be my favorite travel book of all time. Steve Hely’s voice is casually insightful, refreshingly honest, and, most of all, amazingly funny.”
--B.J. Novak, author of One More Thing

“Fast-paced, informative, and funny…Hely’s hilarious descriptions of the stunning sights and quirky people he encounters along the way will delight experienced globetrotters and armchair travelers alike…Highly recommended.”
--Library Journal (starred review)

"A very funny book."
--Outside Magazine

“As informative as it is funny.”
--Chicago Tribune

“Wryly observed essays…[find] insight and humor in unexpected encounters on the road."
--The Citizen-Times

Enjoyable Story

His voice sounds like the guy that does the ads for Trader Joe's that you always hear on Pandora.

Very well told Adventure

This is a book that may be even better told by the author than read by myself because of his humor. I enjoyed it beginning to end, although the history of places became a bit in depth and confusing at times. This was a very funny, entertaining and informative book.

Got me excited to hear more

the way it was told and written always had me excited to keep listening. I would listen to it again and go on the trip to experience even a tenth of the tales.

Fun and entertaining travel book

I really enjoy the writers experiences and history of the areas he visited. He read really fast for me some days it was almost to fast and energetic for me to handle! Overall a very informative and entertaining read and I am glad he wrote it for us. I recommend getting the hard copy so you can bookmark it and reread and investigate it better. I plan on picking up the real book myself to take along when I head that way.

Wondrous Wonder Trail

Maybe overboard on the five stars for overall, performance AND story. No, it's not. A book read by the author is a gift. And Hely has a great delivery. THat he had to likely rehearse how to get through some of his long sentences in one breath is just poetic justice. This book would be super on a road trip - but actually I listened while organizing my son's sock and tshirt drawers, canning tomatoes and doing other mundane house chores! This book ramped up our wanderlust and opened a whole new trove of historical interest that I'm embarrassed that I didn't know I didn't know. Shame on me for not being a better student of the Americas. This book helped. Enjoy it!