Award winning author of newly published book, The Mapmaker’s Wife entrusted Ecuador expedition to North Carolinian.

Thomasville, NC, April 30, 2004 – Back in October 2002, Robert Whitaker hired Cary Kanoy, a Thomasville native to lead his expedition into the Amazon down the Rio Bobonaza, a true off-the-beaten track route.  How did an award-winning writer come to entrust an Ecuadorian expedition to a North Carolinian?

“We had to bid for the project. When we received the e-mail request we just jumped at the opportunity.  We knew that this was different and offered us a new adventure but we had to verify whether he understood the level of difficulty, costs and logistics.  He assured us he did and so we pressed our bid. For every question he had, we answered.  And we answered the quickest. So, we won the bid.”

Kanoy’s responsibility was to plan and organize the logistics of the expedition so that Whitaker could retrace the step of his book’s heroine, Isabel Godin from Riobamba all the way down to Peru. Kanoy put together a team, composed of one of his lead guides Ricardo Alzamora, a retired colonel from the Ecuador-Peru jungle wars, Luis Hernandez, and two natives from Sarayacu, one of the villages along the Rio Bobonaza, Tito Machoa and Marlon Santi (who was recently elected as president of Sarayacu).

Isabel Godin set off from Riobamba on October 1, 1769. She followed the Chambo River out of the Andes to Canelos, and from there traveled down the Bobonaza River. To research The Mapmaker's Wife, Robert Whitaker retraced her steps, leaving from Cajabamba--which was the site of colonial Riobamba--on October 1, 2002.  Kanoy and Whitaker traveled by bicycle from Cajabama to Puyo, where they were joined by Ricardo Alzamora and Luis Hernandez. They then traveled down the Bobonaza River to Andoas by dugout canoe, piloted on the trip by Tito Machoa and Marlon Santi.

About Robert Whitaker
The author of The Mapmaker's Wife, Robert Whitaker, has won numerous awards as a journalist covering medicine and science. In the past few years, he has won the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and a National Association for Science Writers’ Award for best magazine article (which appeared in Fortune). In 1998, he co-wrote a series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.  For more information on The Mapmaker’s Wife, please visit www.themapmakerswife.com