Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

Magic Realism for Lonely Planet Colombia Guide
April 16, 2008

Pardon me but I have a bone to pick. I guess that Lonely Planet collaborator from Hell, Thomas Kohnstamm, who confessed this week to inventing sections in the Colombia guide took the idea of magic realism too seriously. And he sure missed out on one hell of a country to write about. Sure Lonely Planet is infamous for paying their writers too little, but why do it then? Go write somewhere else, no? Fabrication isn’t cool especially when what’s invented depicts outdated and cliched situations that might occur to a North American tourist that could have been plucked out of scenes from Clear and Present Danger, Collateral Damage, or Romancing the Stone (fyi: films supposedly filmed in Colombia but filmed in Mexico). That's even more insulting.  First he claimed that to survive in Colombia he had to traffic drugs and accept bribes from hotels and restaurants that he later recommended in the book. Wow, now he’s imagining he’s Oscar Zeta or Hunter Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. But then Kohnstamm stuck his foot in his mouth when his confession became contradictory to what he claimed. He said in an AP interview, ''They didn't pay me enough to go to Colombia,'' saying that he wrote the book in San Francisco based on “the information from a chick I was dating who was an intern in the Colombian consulate.”

Colombia isn’t the only guide that this recipient of a masters degree in Latin American studies travel writer has contributed to either. So beware, there’s more than a dozen books listed: Chile, Venezuela, the Caribbean, and Brazil for starters. Here’s a Lonely Planet link to a post that the editors at Lonely Planet published with books by Kohnstamm that they’re verifying.

And hey, I’m sure he’s not the first person to do this. But he’s also profiting from a book he’s trying to sell entitled Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?  I’m not even going to answer that for you, Thomas. Wouldn’t want to make it too easy for you again.

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on April 16, 2008 | Comments (1)