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AMAZON HITCHHIKER 



​​
Amazon Hitchhiker:
​A Woman's Solo Adventures from Canada to Brazil 

​
by
​Alycin Hayes
 ​


An Amazon #1 New Release Best Seller in Traveler & Explorer Biographies 

Available as paperback or ebook worldwide wherever good  books are sold​
Click here to buy Amazon Hitchhiker
"It is almost impossible to explain how it feels to be lost in the middle of nowhere with no end in sight. Dawn began with the call of exotic wild birds as the sun peeked over our lifeline: the muddy Putumayo River. We ate a meager breakfast of leftovers from supper the night before and set out in our leaky dugout canoe, each taking turns paddling until we became too tired.
Exhausted and wondering if we were ever going to find an end to this endless river adventure, we were rewarded when loud calls from above revealed a brilliantly colored, large flock of red tailed macaw parrots flying overhead. Their joyous freedom in flight was contagious. They inspired us to continue on through this everchanging dangerous green wilderness."

Excerpt from AMAZON HITCHHIKER: A Woman’s Adventures from Canada to Brazil 
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AMAZON HITCHHIKER is the true story of Alycin Hayes, a young woman who follows her dream and hitchhikes alone in the 1970s from Canada across the USA, Mexico and Central America to South America where she buys an old dugout canoe thinking she can paddle from Colombia to Brazil on the Amazon River.

Without enough food or even a map she soon discovers the Amazon rainforest is not the idyllic paradise she had imagined. She forges her way through this challenging, sometimes mystical adventure, facing life-threatening obstacles, while falling in love along the way.
​
With candid honesty and a lifesaving sense of humor, Hayes has written an account of her travels that you won't be able to put down.

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​​amzn.to/3XEYyoNClick here to buy your paperback or ebook of 
"Amazon Hitchhiker: A Woman's Adventures from Canada to Brazil
." on Amazon. 


"Amazon Hitchhiker" is available for sale wherever books are sold. 
Reviews:
​

"I loved this book. Alycin Hayes brings back a time of free-spirited adventure we may never see again." 

" Hayes is a wonderful story teller" 

​"This book awakened my adventurous side... I read it at once during my flight to Brazil for the holidays. I could not put it down until I was finished...What an adventurous and courageous woman! And to have done this in the 70s... Double WOW! "
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David Attenborough was kind enough to send me this lovely personal note and  I am pleased to report that my adventure travel memoir AMAZON HITCHHIKER is doing extremely well in the UK.. ​

EXCITING NEWS:
Alycin Hayes is honored and very pleased that UK's amazing World Adventurer, Alistair Humphreys include me and my book “AMAZON HITCHHIKER” in his newsletter "Shouting from the Shed".  Check out his wonderful website’s: inspiring newsletters, films, books and podcasts.
March 13, 2022
I am overjoyed that my memoir AMAZON HITCHHIKER about my solo travels from Canada to deep into the rainforests of Brazil is a new release best seller on Amazon and continues to get 5 star reviews. It is truly rewarding to know that readers throughout the world are enjoying my writing.  It inspires me to write more. 

 Click here to read an Interview of Alycin Hayes for Donika's Bulgarian Book Club
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.March 1, 2022
If you saw Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope you saw an aerial view of the ancient Mayan city of Tikal. I climbed through the jungle to the top of the highest temple that you see in the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecJAH7e79PA
“Tikal had been a major Mayan city for over 600 years until it was finally abandoned in the ninth century. Long before the Spanish Conquistadors arrived, the Mayan people had discovered a vast world of knowledge that peaked around the sixth century AD. I studied the hieroglyphics in the ancient stone temples, many of which were stille covered with wild, clinging green vines that tried to obscure their message from my sight. Their hidden meaning gripped my heart with a mesmerizing unfathomable power. I wanted to know more but the creators were long gone. Questions flooded my mind.
Why was Tikal Abandoned? What secrets do the ancient Mayans ruins still hold? "
Excerpt from AMAZON HITCHHIKER by Alycin Hayes
Buy
 Book at this link:  www.amazon.com/dp/0973032049 ​
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​“It is almost impossible to explain how it feels to be lost in the middle of nowhere with no end in sight. Dawn began with the call of exotic wild birds as the sun peeked over our lifeline: the muddy Putumayo River. We ate a meager breakfast of leftovers from supper the night before and set out in our leaky dugout canoe, each taking turns paddling until we became too tired. 
Exhausted and wondering if we were ever going to find an end to this endless river adventure, we were rewarded when loud calls from above revealed a brilliantly colored, large flock of red tailed macaw parrots flying overhead. Their joyous freedom in flight was contagious. They inspired us to continue on through this ever changing dangerous green wilderness.” Excerpt from AMAZON HITCHHIKER: A Woman’s Adventures from Canada to Brazil by Alycin Hayes

"Move over Indian Jones, you have met your match.”
-The Little Black Dress author Leo Hines

“A rip-roaring adventure that is also thought provoking” 
-Live Your Bucket List author Julia Goodfellow-Smith
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February 12, 2022
On my travels into the Amazon Basin in the 1970’s I saw a woolly monkey being kept as a pet by an indiginouys woman. It was not kept in a cage. She carried the monkey in her arms as one would carry a small child. This gentle monkey enjoyed being coddled. When put down it became upset and appeared to weep until it was cheered up with a game of hide and seek and picked up again. Sadly woolly monkeys are now endangered as their natural rainforest habitat is being destroyed. 


“ One woman held a woolly monkey in her arms and some of the children played with a pair of green parrots that were perched inside their house. After I sat down, several of the women from the tribe came up to me and gently touched my hair. I don't think they had ever seen blonde hair before.” 
Excerpt from AMAZON HITCHHIKER by Alycin Hayes
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  Read Alycin Hayes'  interview with Donika Mishineva for her Bulgarian Book Club Blog. 

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"I hiked up to Machu Picchu, Peru when I travelled in South America. More than 7000 feet above sea level, tucked high up in the Andes Mountains, one of the new seven wonders of the world, Machu Picchu rests remarkably on a mountain top. With over 100 flights of stone stairs and 150 buildings all made of large perfectly carved rocks it truly is a remarkable work of man. It is believed the Incas didn’t use wheels to move any of the multitude of heavy rocks up the mountain either. They rolled and pushed them. How they accomplished this incredible feat is still up for debate." Alycin Hayes
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Dec. 2021,
"Amazon Hitchhiker"  is being read all over the world!
 
" Being stalked by a wild jaguar was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything" Excerpt  from "Amazon Hitchhiker . 
Here is the link to learn more about my adventures:

https://www.amazon.com/Amazon.../dp/0973032049/ref=sr_1_1...
#adventuretravel


December 13, 2021 
 Some really positive Verified Amazon reviews are coming in for my new book -  AMAZON HITCHHIKER
Here a two of them:

I couldn’t put this down and kept on reading into the night. Alycin’s intrepid and compelling sense of adventure, combined with a gift of telling her story in such a way that takes us right along with her makes this book such a delight. I’m left wanting to find out more about the places she visited and the people she met. So I must read her story again, taking notes to look up places and especially some of the indigenous people she encountered. I highly recommend this book." G. Yergeau
​

"I absolutely LOVED this book !! Could not put it down, wanting to know what happened next in this authors extraordinary adventures. Her bravery of continuing to discover more of the Amazon and its peoples and landscape blew me away. I hope there will be stories of the India trip !!!! " Dawson

December 7, 2021 
 Today "Amazon Hitchhiker" made Amazon Kindle's #1 best selling New Release in Adventure & Explorer Biographies! 
December 6, 2021
​Today 
Amazon made Amazon Hitchhiker their #1 New Hot Release  in General Brazil Travel Guides!


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December 4 , 2021
Breaking News!  
​I am excited to announce that my book "AMAZON HITCHHIKER: A Woman's 
Adventures from Canada to Brazil"  is now available in the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and India as both a Kindle ebook and a paperback on Amazon.  Here is the link to the US  Amazon.com

Some Early Reviews
"A rip-roaring adventure that is also thought provoking” 
-Live Your Bucket List author Julia Goodfellow-Smith

“A fascinating adventure...when backpacking was in its infancy.” 
-Adventure She Magazine editor Jane Harries 

"Move over Indian Jones, you have met your match.”
-The Little Black Dress author Leo Hines
​
"AMAZON HITCHHIKER is the true story of Alycin Hayes, a young woman who hitchhikes alone in the 1970s across the USA, Mexico, and Central America to the Amazon Basin. On the spur of the moment, she buys an old dugout canoe thinking she can paddle from Colombia to Brazil.
Without enough food or even a map she soon discovers the Amazon rainforest is not the idyllic paradise she had imagined. She forges her way through this challenging, sometimes mystical adventure, facing life-threatening obstacles, while falling in love along the way.
With candid honesty and a lifesaving sense of humor, Hayes has written an account of her travels that you won't be able to put down."

November, 2021 
My editor Jacqui Corn-Uys lives in South Africa and my book cover designer Donika Mishineva lives in Bulgaria. With the advent of the internet our world has become a wonderfully small and intimate place.  It has been a delight to work with both Jacqui and Donika on my book Amazon Hitchhiker - A Woman's Adventures from Canada to Brazil. 

Throughout the journey of my book's progression we exchanged not only edits and ideas, but also learned about each other's lives in our very different respective countries.
​

If all goes as planned by December 2021 my true adventure story, Amazon Hitchhiker should be ready for publication and  be available to be purchased throughout the world from Amazon.com and their affiliates in both paperback and Kindle ebooks. 
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October, 2021 
This has been  a busy month of travel. I hope to dedicate the rest of this month to the very final edits of my new book AMAZON HITCHHIKER -A Woman's Adventure's from Canada to Brazil.  Here is a link to one of the films made at Echo Hill by Maryam Astaneh this summer. ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ODEEm24LUE&t=30s
September, 2021 
I started September working on a few new documentary films with filmmakers Maryam Astaneh and
 Bardia KarbalaEi.  One film features Organic Farmer, Marc Langlois and his son. The other shows how planting trees has dramatically changed  Echo Hill's landscape and potentially the world. Plant trees! The dedicated film crew camped at Echo Hill while they were shooting the films. 
July & August 2021
​
I spent most of July and August finishing my new book Amazon Hitchhiker -  which is a memoir of my travels, an adventure travel narrative that takes place in the 1970's primarily in the Amazon Rainforest paddling a dugout canoe.  My book should be released this Fall, hopefully October. Release date to be announced. 
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June, 2021 "Our trip was seemingly endless when suddenly, out of nowhere, like a miracle, a pod of pink river dolphins surrounded our canoe. It had been my dream to find these rare Amazonian dolphins. They had found me! I was overjoyed" Excerpt  from AMAZON HITCHHIKER   by Alycin Hayes. AMAZON HITCHHIKER will be out in print  later this Fall. 
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 May, 2021
My new book Amazon Hitchhiker-A Woman's Adventures from Canada to Brazil is now in the hands of my editor. It will be ready for release in print and ebook later this year. 


April, 2021
We are honored that the new Cinema Verde International Environmental Film Channel, that launched on Earth Day 2021 is now streaming on https://www.cinemaverde.org/, and is featuring  our 2020 Award-Winning film,  Best Local Film, “Wild Florida’s Vanishing Call,” directed by Alycin Hayes and Jimmy Evans.
This film is a moving, powerful inside look at what has happened to wild Florida with a compelling, emotional soundtrack that carries you through the past destruction of wild Florida to beautiful footage of rarely seen native wild animals including the most endangered cat in North America, the Florida Panther. We must protect Florida's native wildlife habitat before it is too late. https://filmfreeway.com/VanishingCall
https://soundcloud.com/violetcomberwilen/florida-panthers
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  March, 2021 
When I was in Costa Rica I worked at Pueblito - a Village for Abandoned children. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  
AMAZON HITCHHIKER 
A Woman's Adventures from Canada to Brazil
 
​Exerpt from Chapter 4.
​Orchids of Our Jungle - Costa Rica
​ 
I​f you have ever left North America and travelled to any Third World country you will have seen lost children in small groups or alone on the street. Some are selling cheap articles and others are begging or crouching fearfully in doorways. They are the unwanted children of the poor, the mistreated victims of human torture; children who have been abandoned in the city by families too poverty stricken to feed them and left to make it on their own by stealing, scavenging in garbage and engaging in prostitution. They are the rejects on the outskirts of a society incapable of caring for them. The children at Pueblito were amazingly strong, independent little souls. They had been on the streets alone and managed one way or another to survive... Alycin Hayes


February, 2021
I just finished writing my new book. 

AMAZON HITCHHIKER
A Woman's Adventures from Canada to Brazil ​

Excerpt from Chapter 9
Cayman and Pink Dolphins-Peru
​ 
It is almost impossible to explain how it feels to be lost in the middle of nowhere with no end in sight. Dawn began with the call of exotic wild birds as the sun peeked over our lifeline, the muddy Putumayo River. We would set out in our leaky dugout canoe,each taking turns paddling until we became too tired. Exhausted and wondering if we would ever find an end to this river adventure, loud calls from above would reveal dozens of brilliantly colored red tailed macaws flying overhead. Their joyous freedom in flight was contagious. They inspired us to continue on through this everchanging dangerous green wilderness... Alycin Hayes
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January, 2021
​I spent most of my 2020 COVID quarantine writing my new book 

AMAZON HITCHHIKER-
A Woman’s Adventures From Canada to Brazil 

It is the true adventure travel story of my solo travels hitchhiking overland and paddling  dugout canoes from Canada to Brazil in 1975/76.
My story includes hitchhiking across the USA & Mexico, finding love in Guatemala, working with orphans in Costa Rica, paddling a dugout canoe through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, being led by pink dolphins to find a primitive Amazonian tribe, meeting an escaped Nazi in the Bolivia Rainforest, learning from San Pedro in La Paz, being penniless in Argentina during the "Dirty War", finding love again in Brazil  … 
My plan is to get it published in 2021.

​Alycin Hayes







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Sunset on the Putumayo River
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