I had read some of Peter Moore's oeuvre before and been slightly disappointed but he's Australian so I decided to take a look at "The Full Montezuma". Again I was slightly disappointed.

Moore takes his new girlfriend around the Caribbean and central America as cheaply as possible and the relationship doesn't go quite as well as they hoped. Moore also goes into great detail about what coke costs in different countries and touches on the sad state of Cuba at the turn of the millennium.

Other travel writers have covered the same territory better than Moore. ( )

Another humorous book by Moore, very easy to read. Enjoyable ( )

Tended to agree with 'skinglist''s review until I actually completed some backpacking through the area myself and ended up finding the book incredibly useful. Travelled along much of the same route as Moore, dined at the same eateries, slept at the same dingy hostels, rode the same excruciating bus rides and found not much had changed from between the 15 odd years since he had made the journey. I even travelled with my girlfriend as well, and had to put up with the bed bug complaints and desires for white sand beaches.

If you are travelling to the region I DEFINITELY recommend the book, if not, its not a bad read but definitely not his best work. ( )

The Full Montezuma is Peter Moore at his riotous best

You know what, I really didn't think so. I usually like, no love Peter Moore but I didn't care for this book. I know it was one of his earlier ones so maybe he hadn't yet grown into his writing voice, despite "Wrong Way" being first. And I'll admit, the anti-American rant didn't really help much. Yes, it's always the case where a small group of people acting poorly leave a bad taste in your mouth for the whole group, but I still think that rant was uncalled for.

Apart from that, I frequestly wanted to take his and the GND's heads and smack them together in an effort to knock some common sense into them, but that's just me. I know better than to think I can travel for six months with someone, I'm having enough trouble living with someone for four. I really don't think either one of them put enough thought into this trip which showed by, above all, their running out of money. It also seemed that she expected him to pay for a lot more than she did, despite their going to her family for money when they ran out in Jamaica.

But there were some things I did like--I liked hearing about some areas in Central America because it's where I'm headed at the tail end of this trip. And I so can empathize with their getting ruin-ed and volcano-ed out because I certain;y experienced it while living in Japan--after a while, they all blend together and you don't care if this next one is the "best ever" because you just don't want to see any more at all. I can also understand the difficulties of trying to live and travel in a place where you don't speak or understand the language, though I think he and the GND could have tried a little harder than the one week immersion class, but I guess that's what's meant to make this book funnier--there's nothing interesting in hearing "I was able to communicate fine and we had no trouble with the language barrier".

Oh well, any author is allowed to have an "off" book in the eyes of the reader and this is mine for PM. I still can't wait for Crikey to come out, though I might give No Shitting in the Toilet a miss. We'll see. ( )

Moore's a great travel writer, but I wouldn't advise folks who've never read him before to start with this one - try "Vroom with a View" instead. ( )