For some time now, there has been a great deal of concerned reflection on the ways in which the tropical lowlands of the Americas have been perceived and exploited. This book addresses this concern. It is also something of an appreciation of tropical lowlands, as they emerge along one particular road, gathered from the accounts of early nineteenth-century observers.

Aerial reconnaissance has shown that many wetlands in the lowlands which these travellers crossed are patterned with the remains of prehispanic platforms and canals, an old and effective system for the cultivation of wetlands. These show particularly clearly in the pastures of modern ranches -- a very different land use, and yet perhaps governed by similar constraints. The pastures are dotted with palms which eloquently indicate repeated burning and long use and scored by drainage ditches cut according to contemporary practice, thus giving evidence of both ancient and modern use. The travellers' accounts throw light on this juxtaposition.

Early nineteenth-century visitors to Mexico usually entered the country at Veracruz and proceeded inland along the Jalapa road. Their impressions of the surrounding landscape have long been relied upon for a contemporary interpretation of this region. They produced a rich literature which reveals a great deal about what the European and North American travellers thought about the tropics.

The reader is taken along the Veracruz-Jalapa road up to the summit of the pass and on to the central tableland and allowed to see the coastal landscape take shape from the commentary, step by step -- detailed and coloured by predisposition, the 'objective' landscape often aggrandized and misperceived. The accounts are not benign; they are tinged with an evaluation of tropical lowlands that unfortunately persisted and proved prejudicial to actual development here and elsewhere.

In this book, Alfred Siemens brings together a wide array of commentary to coalesce as though it were a piece of landscape theatre, always with the recognition that the fascinating and at times entertaining observations carry venom.

Alfred H. Siemens' profile page

• Winner, Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers

Alfred H. Siemens is a professor in the Geography department at the University of British Columbia.