Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail

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Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 2,254 ratings · 234 reviews

Rusty Young was backpacking in South America when he heard about Thomas McFadden, a convicted English drug trafficker who ran tours inside Bolivia's notorious San Pedro prison. Intrigued, the young Australian journalisted went to La Paz and joined one of Thomas's illegal tours. They formed an instant friendship and then became partners in an attempt to record Thomas's expe...more

Paperback, 400 pages

Published May 1st 2004 by St. Martin's Griffin

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Apr 22, 2010 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

This book made me angry because it was so poorly written - such an interesting story made into something so flat and annoying. The narrator was not trustworthy - in high school lit, we would have called him an "unreliable narrator." One of the faults of the first-person narrative structure - the narrator had no independent authority and the author didn't have the skill to bolster his narrator's credibility (He would say, "I did this bad thing, but I'm not a bad guy" and my reaction would be "I d...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Mark rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ghost writer wanted!
I love a good ripping yarn - tales of adventurous stupidity, derring do and the right mix of good and bad luck. Throw in a good dose of local colour and corruption, and away you go! But not this time...
I can't believe how dull this book turned out to be. Thomas bleats on and on ad infinitum about how crazy the jail is and how loco the situation is - prisoners taking out mortgages on cells, imbibing in the purest cocain in the world, restaurants run by prisoners and even a cat...more

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Jun 29, 2009 Manda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-true-story

This memoir of a British drug dealer's nearly five years inside a Bolivian prison provides a unique window on a bizarre and corrupt world. McFadden, a young black man from Liverpool arrested for smuggling cocaine, finds himself forced to pay for his accommodations in La Paz's San Pedro Prison, the first of many oddities in a place where some inmates keep pets and rich criminals can sustain a lavish lifestyle. McFadden soon learns how to survive, and even thrive, in an atmosphere where crooked pr...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Bryce rated it 2 of 5 stars

Everyone has one of those friends that drink too much and tell outrageous stories. Things like "The time I sat next to Hannah Montana in first class and she totally hit on me," "The time I got lost in the NYC subways and spent the night hanging out with a bunch of homeless guys," or "The time my boat almost sank but I was saved by a magical friendly dolphin." If you're lucky, your friend is entertaining and the ridiculous stories are actually fun to listen to. If you're unlucky... your "friend"...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jun 12, 2011 Ray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Concur w/ Raghu's 10/25/10 review, much of which is duplicated below:

Rusty Young's 'Marching Powder' is the real-life account of Thomas McFadden, a black Englishman and cocaine trafficker, and his nearly five years in the San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia. What is bizarre and unusual and incredible about the book is the nature of the San Pedro prison. One is used to hearing about notorious third-world prisons where corruption, crime, violence and inhumanity is rampant. Police brutality and cor...more Concur w/ Raghu's 10/25/10 review, much of which is duplicated below:

Rusty Young's 'Marching Powder' is the real-life account of Thomas McFadden, a black Englishman and cocaine trafficker, and his nearly five years in the San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia. What is bizarre and unusual and incredible about the book is the nature of the San Pedro prison. One is used to hearing about notorious third-world prisons where corruption, crime, violence and inhumanity is rampant. Police brutality and corrupt judges are generally the rule. San Pedro has all these and so that is not unusual. But San Pedro also is a prison where the prisoners have to buy their own cells in which they live. The cell is bought just like any other piece of real-estate in the outside world. Inside San Pedro, prisoners live with their wives and children and the children go to school outside as if they are living in a regular suburb! Some prisoners run grocery shops or restaurants. Side by side, there are laboratories which make pure cocaine which is sold to inmates as well as to the outside world. All of this goes on under the nose of the prison guards and governor who are, of course, bribed. As if this is not enough, Thomas McFadden also runs tours of the prison for backpackers visiting La Paz and backpackers get to spending even nights in the prison to get the 'full experience'! The prison also has annual elections where inmates are elected as representatives.
Rusty Young is one of those backpackers who gets to meet Thomas McFadden and eventually ends up spending three months inside the prison and writing this book on San Pedro and Thomas' life inside. McFadden eventually gets released after bribing the judges and spending nearly five years inside.
For people on the outside like us, who live a regular life and mostly being law-abiding citizens, the book is exciting to read as it opens up a world that we are not purview to. I was fascinated by the first chapter itself where McFadden describes the process of packing cocaine in suitcases so that even the sniffer dogs cannot find it and how he surveys an airport and identifies who the drug-busting security personnel were and how he will conduct himself to throw them off his trail. Elsewhere he describes the process of sending small amounts of cocaine by regular postal mail without the customs finding it and how he uses probability as one of the tools. Other interesting aspects of the book are the concern the inmates have for children inside the prison and how they would avoid violence in the presence of children. When a young six-year old girl gets raped and murdered inside the prison, the inmates vow to catch and punish the perpetrator with a sense of determination that is not found in civil society outside.
The book is sympathetic to Thomas McFadden and generally paints Bolivia as a corrupt, violent and cruel society as seen from the prison. But a reader cannot escape the feeling that McFadden was ultimately a cocaine trafficker and he was caught red-handed in Bolivia for which he was sent to prison. The narrative does not indicate that he really repented for the act of trafficking because he trades in cocaine till the time he was released...
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There's something which captures the imagination in a book which is non-fiction but reads as fiction. Being naturally suspicious, I had trouble buying into the facts as presented in the book. So I tried to research the factual aspects of the book, and found various supporting sites, including respected news sources such as BBC, which support McFadden's accounts. So now I believe, which made the book that much more amazing. (less)

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Jul 03, 2010 Donnie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub

This is just one of those amazing true stories. If a fiction author wrote it, you would think it was too unbelievable. I dare anyone to try to read this book and remain non-nonplussed by the fuctupedness in this story.

The story takes place in a Bolivian prison which is unlike any in the world, I imagine.

The protagonist is a drug smuggler; he was caught red-handed and is sent to a bizarre prison in which you pay to enter and pay to own a cell. The guards never really enter the prison grounds in...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Sophie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While this book was quite shocking and interesting, I found that it left me a little disappointed in regards to the central character Thomas...I liked how he didn't try and excuse his actions, he admitted that yes, he was a drug trafficker and was a cocaine user, that is not why I was left disappointed. What I didn't like was that there was no background story about his life before he was busted in Bolivia. I personally would have liked to know how he got into the business and what his motives w...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Jessyca rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was intrigued to read this book after hearing about it at my last book club. The story of Thomas McFadden is one of corruption, intrigue, and I presume a little bit of tall tales. The setting is in the San Pedro Prison of La Paz, Bolivia. We get immersed in a world of cocaine, tourism, love, and friendship and although the stories were intriguing, they weren't "deep". After a while I found myself thinking that these are the types of stories that one might hear around a campfire. A part of me a...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Vicki rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. The corruption, the drugs, the crime and all the details placed me right there sitting and listening to his story. Good insight to what happens in other countries and makes our convicts look like they're on an all expenses paid for holiday. A friend of mine went to San Pedro prison on a holiday in 2011 and said the similarities were pretty spot on. Whilst at times we as readers were made to feel sorry for Thomas Mcfadden, at the end of the day he was a drug smuggler and knew w...more

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May 02, 2013 Ted rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading this page-turner was a lot of fun. I looked forward to my lunch break every day just so I could devour more of this book. There is something fascinating to me about being imprisoned a foreign country. If you like the TV series "Locked Up Abroad" then you will enjoy this book.

Unfortunately, however, the story seems to be very much embellished, perhaps even totally fabricated in parts. Also, we learn nothing of Thomas's life outside of the prison. What was he doing in England? Did he miss...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Sandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. Now granted this is a second hand narration from the main character to Rusty, but I could still get a picture of what was going on despite the narrators ill grammar. Moving past that, this is a tale of living inside a prison that at times can be viewed as better than being outside. There is a huge drug problem, but there was also a sense of community, especially where children are involved and it can have horrible consequences if you cross the line. There is a lot of politic...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Sharlane rated it 4 of 5 stars

An eye opening story about possibly the most corrupt country in the world. Now has a cult following among the pack backer world.
Marching Powder is the story of a convicted drug tafficker, Thomas McFadden, inside the notorious Bolivian Prison, San Pedro. The story is told by one of the may backpackers who visited with Thomas whilst he ran illegal tours and partied hard on the cocaine made inside the prison.
one of the best aspects of this story is that the main character is not an innocent victim...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: black-humour, crime, drama, educational, non-fiction, south-america, male-author, 2000s, 2004

I first heard about this book a couple years ago and was interested straight away. A book set in the San Pedro prison in Bolivia. Full of corruption, crime and drugs.

What I got was full of corruption, crime and drugs. But also a fair bit of boredom and self-pity. No matter how nice he was he was still a convicted drug smuggler and dealer and I can't have any sympathy for him at all. If he'd been innocent I would have felt differently. But he was there because he deserved to be. So for me that re...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Awesome. Fascinating look into the inside of a South American jail where the inmates have almost unlimited freedom, run their own businesses and have their families staying with them inside the prison, come and go seemingly at will, have drugs-fuelled parties (cocaine, mostly, naturally!) and invite guests in to take tours of the prison ... but start out with nothing, living amongst filth and scum in a common and dangerous central compound, having to buy their way into a cell. This was an eye op...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Rebecca rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, audio-book, memoir, non-fiction, travel

I don't get the 4 star average for this one. At first I thought it was beacuse I had listened to the audio, and the main character who is British and spent 5 years in a Bolivian prison had a South American accent, really? But as I got further along I realised it was the character of Thomas that got to me. He always seemed so hard done by, full of excuses and stories. Yes I believe about paying for your cell, but there's plenty of others I don't believe.

I also don't get why tourists would ever wa...more

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May 01, 2013 Melanie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Tex Clarke

If it turns out that only half of this is actually true it is still a helluva story!

There's the things you suspect go on in every prison - a certain amount of violence among inmates, heirarchies of offenders, some drug taking and even corruption - but this place was over the top! Nothing happened without a bribe, drugs were not just freely available but PRODUCED inside the prison, whole families lived together because it was more cost-effective than leaving wives and children outside, and that'...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Carlie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Fascinating story on a convicted English drug trafficker in San Pedro, a Bolivian prison.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading how San Pedro was run and about the people and politics in Bolivia but the story dragged in places and it was not written well. At times I found myself wondering how much of the story was true as Thomas, the English drug trafficker, spends most of his time stoned or drunk whilst in prison and surely this would affect his memory and ability to retell his story?
I also found it di...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Mat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic bio on a true story. I wouldn't say 'tragic' though because the guy knew the risks, new the ballgame.
The inside of a Bolivian jail sounds like absolute living hell.
If you like to read books which give you a taste of the underworld, then this is right up your alley.
Incidentally, I have tried cocaine a few times but the comedown off of it is absolutely dreadful. I know different substances affect people differently, but a word to the young: don't do it. If you want to try something, t...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction

This is the true story of a man named Thomas McFadden, who spent 4+ years in the notorious San Pedro prison in La Paz Bolivia. He was caught trying to smuggle cocaine out of the country and had to adjust to a very different life inside the walls of San Pedro. What is truly amazing is that San Pedro is a city behind walls. Inmates have to buy their cells and everything works on having money, American dollars at that. Rusty Young, an Australian backpacker/lawyer was the man who helped Thomas chron...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Miranda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, crime-and-thrillers, non-fiction

So, this wasn't terribly well written - if you're after a masterpiece, don't read it. But it's a fascinating story with lots of descriptions involving corruption and how money buys influence. And how corruption focuses around a lack of basic human rights.

I started reading this book as I've had a couple of friends who travelled through South America and said that EVERYONE was reading it (similar to One Day or Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on the London Tube). I can understand why it would be fascin...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Rosita Jimenez-nunez rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book certainly was the best book I read for 2010!! The title says it all,it is truly the strangest jail ever. The writer really transports you to this place and you can visualize everything that happens clearly,and I actually felt sorry for the main character. He was a petty criminal,seemingly harmless,was just trying to make some money so I felt bad that he landed in this situation,and I found myself longing for his release. If from this experience he didn't change his life,I just don't kn...more

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Nov 24, 2011 Elizabeth Lhuede rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-author, crime

I read Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail over one wild, windy weekend, only getting up off the couch to eat, say hi to my long-suffering partner and sleep. Then I read the reviews.

Strange, but I agreed with both the 5-star and the 1-star comments. It's a fascinating, page-turning story, told in a simple, easy-to-read style. It has touches of surreal comic brilliance, as it tells of the narrator Thomas's survival through incredible hardships...more I read Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail over one wild, windy weekend, only getting up off the couch to eat, say hi to my long-suffering partner and sleep. Then I read the reviews.

Strange, but I agreed with both the 5-star and the 1-star comments. It's a fascinating, page-turning story, told in a simple, easy-to-read style. It has touches of surreal comic brilliance, as it tells of the narrator Thomas's survival through incredible hardships and injustices of his 4-year sentence for drug-trafficking in a Bolivian jail. The first-person narration allows Thomas to gloss over the enormity of his crimes, not only of the original trafficking offence, but his subsequent drug-use and drug-dealing inside the prison, his bribery of prison and court officials, and his bashing of other inmates (described by horrified visitors as torture).

Whereas some readers have seen Thomas's crimes and apparent lack of remorse as a flaw in the story, I see it as a strength of the book's real author, Rusty Young, who allows "Thomas" to speak for himself, to spin his yarns of prison life in a way that is engaging, but not totally believable - Thomas is the archetypal unreliable narrator and readers can judge him for themselves.

Although I missed some contextualising by the "Rusty" character at the end - some hint that we're not meant to swallow Thomas's story uncritically - it wasn't hard to read between the lines. The overall impression I got is that Thomas the person shares the personality profile of many successful criminals: a sociopath - a narcissistic manipulator who charms people and gets them onside, but always manages to see to his own needs; someone who ultimately has very little moral sense of culpability of responsibility for the hideous crimes he's perpetrated against others.

Far from being a weakness, I see this narrative choice as one of the story's strengths. But because of Thomas's unreliability, I'm not so sure the book should be characterised as "non-fiction" or "biography".

(This review first appeared on Amazon in July 2011 where I was able to include hotlinks that don't appear here.)(less)

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Nov 08, 2010 Tom Collin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Everyone I'd talked to about this book told me it was incredible. I feel that I might need to stop asking everyone about books. The headline on the back of the novel boldly states:

"A darkly comic, sometimes shocking account of life in the world's most bizarre prison"

Why is it, then, that I feel so underwhelmed by this novel? Is it because the protagonist fails to conjure up any charisma? Is it because all of the "shocking revelations" could've probably been summed up in a 5 page summary? Is it...more

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Oct 27, 2010 Raghu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rusty Young's 'Marching Powder' is the real-life account of Thomas McFadden, a black Englishman and cocaine trafficker, and his nearly five years in the San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia. What is bizarre and unusual and incredible about the book is the nature of the San Pedro prison. One is used to hearing about notorious third-world prisons where corruption, crime, violence and inhumanity is rampant. Police brutality and corrupt judges are generally the rule. San Pedro has all these and so th...more Rusty Young's 'Marching Powder' is the real-life account of Thomas McFadden, a black Englishman and cocaine trafficker, and his nearly five years in the San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia. What is bizarre and unusual and incredible about the book is the nature of the San Pedro prison. One is used to hearing about notorious third-world prisons where corruption, crime, violence and inhumanity is rampant. Police brutality and corrupt judges are generally the rule. San Pedro has all these and so that is not unusual. But San Pedro also is a prison where the prisoners have to buy their own cells in which they live. The cell is bought just like any other piece of real-estate in the outside world. Inside San Pedro, prisoners live with their wives and children and the children go to school outside as if they are living in a regular suburb! Some prisoners run grocery shops or restaurants. Side by side, there are laboratories which make pure cocaine which is sold to inmates as well as to the outside world. All of this goes on under the nose of the prison guards and governor who are, of course, bribed. As if this is not enough, Thomas McFadden also runs tours of the prison for backpackers visiting La Paz and backpackers get to spending even nights in the prison to get the 'full experience'! The prison also has annual elections where inmates are elected as representatives.
Rusty Young is one of those backpackers who gets to meet Thomas McFadden and eventually ends up spending three months inside the prison and writing this book on San Pedro and Thomas' life inside. McFadden eventually gets released after bribing the judges and spending nearly five years inside.
For people on the outside like us, who live a regular life and mostly being law-abiding citizens, the book is exciting to read as it opens up a world that we are not purview to. I was fascinated by the first chapter itself where McFadden describes the process of packing cocaine in suitcases so that even the sniffer dogs cannot find it and how he surveys an airport and identifies who the drug-busting security personnel were and how he will conduct himself to throw them off his trail. Elsewhere he describes the process of sending small amounts of cocaine by regular postal mail without the customs finding it and how he uses probability as one of the tools. Other interesting aspects of the book are the concern the inmates have for children inside the prison and how they would avoid violence in the presence of children. When a young six-year old girl gets raped and murdered inside the prison, the inmates vow to catch and punish the perpetrator with a sense of determination that is not found in civil society outside.
The book is sympathetic to Thomas McFadden and generally paints Bolivia as a corrupt, violent and cruel society as seen from the prison. But a reader cannot escape the feeling that McFadden was ultimately a cocaine trafficker and he was caught red-handed in Bolivia for which he was sent to prison. The narrative does not indicate that he really repented for the act of trafficking because he trades in cocaine till the time he was released.
But there are some questions which nag me as the reader. Thomas talks about a beautiful Israeli girl named Yasheeda who is a backpacker and eventually becomes his girlfriend. Thomas claims to love her very much. However, Yasheeda fades away gradually in the latter couple of years of his stay in San Pedro. In the end, there is no mention of Yasheeda and whether Thomas tried to catch up with her once he was released. In these days of emails and Facebooks, it is hard to believe that Thomas could not find her again on the outside. I am left with the doubt about Yasheeda being a figment of imagination of Thomas and/or Rusty in order to spice up the book. The book has photos of backpackers visiting the prison and many other inmates but there is no photo of the beautiful Yasheeda. There are no indications that Rusty really tried to corroborate Thomas' accounts of Yasheeda and test its veracity. He needed to do that because Rusty stayed there only three months and that too only towards the end of Thomas' prison term.
The book is a bit lengthy at 371 pages. Once the novelty of the San Pedro prison was exposed in the initial 150 pages, the narrative loses its zip somewhat as the rest of the book is about prison life in general. The only mystery that one looks forward to then is how Thomas gets out.
The book is certainly worth a read and most readers will find it gripping overall as I did. It would have been a great book had the author taken more pains to reduce the doubts on the reliability of some of the accounts.(less)

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Aug 30, 2010 Joseph rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this book was riveting.
ever since working in jails, i've always been curious about jails in other countries. after having watched a national geographic episode about jails in peru and mexico, i was even more interested. this book tells a "real life" account of one drug smuggler's life inside of a bolivian prison . . . that's actually not a prison. it's a large housing complex with its own innerworkings, economy, drug factories, and apartments to rent. amazingly, there are several parallels to t...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Cedar rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: australian, biography, jail, bolivian, save-your-eyes-put-it-down

Um WTF...

At first, reading about the prison conditions, the prisoners lifestyles and bribery I was entertained. Not amazed, as its a third world prison and they will never amaze me... Unfortunately from about halfway through I found Thomas to be whiny and self centered. And the more I read, the more it grated.

Granted it would be hard being thrown into a third world prison, hell it would be hard being thrown into any prison, but the fact that Cocaine is glorified throughout the novel, until the...more

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Dec 09, 2009 Peachy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: addiction, capitalism, disturbing, homelessness, made-into-movies, memoirs, non-fiction, survival

Marching Powder is the true account of Thomas McFadden, an English drug trafficker whose luck runs out whilst trying to pass through the airport in Bolivia with cocaine hidden in the spires of his suitcase. We follow his journey through his incarceration in one of the most unbelievable prisons to be found in all of South America, where most facilities are ridiculous in their own right. San Pedro is a place where children and wives live with their incarcerated fathers and husbands, where the best...more

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Dec 20, 2008 Sharm Alagaratnam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Marching Powder is quite a departure from my regular reads - I can't remember the last time I read a non-fiction book, much less a biography. The incredulous true story told in the first person had me through the book in record time.

Thomas McFaddon, international drug smuggler, gets caught on a run from Bolivia to the UK and put in San Pedro Jail in La Paz. The first few chapters are fascinating in themselves, describing the mechanics of a drug run from false suitcase bottoms and bribing customs...more

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Feb 29, 2008 Courtney Kons rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

*My review
I began reading this book upon recommendation. My friend said it was his favorite book, and I must admit it is definitely up there for me. I enjoyed this book because it was really interesting. It was a fascinating true story about one man’s survival in one of the most dangerous and unusual places in the world. At times grotesque, the novel still had moments of humor and hope. The characterization in this novel was really strong and due to the graphic and descriptive way the novel was...more
*My review
I began reading this book upon recommendation. My friend said it was his favorite book, and I must admit it is definitely up there for me. I enjoyed this book because it was really interesting. It was a fascinating true story about one man’s survival in one of the most dangerous and unusual places in the world. At times grotesque, the novel still had moments of humor and hope. The characterization in this novel was really strong and due to the graphic and descriptive way the novel was written events were easy to picture. The humanity and easygoing quality of the main character, Thomas McFadden, was a welcomed relief. This was one of those books that was hard to put down. One gets entangled and caught up in Thomas’s story and the reader gets emotionally invested in how Thomas’s struggles. It is one of the strangest books I have read. The book was well written and honest.

*Summary
Marching Powder is the true of story of a drug smuggler and his time in San Pedro prison, one the most dangerous and outrageous I really enjoyed this novel. It was a gripping and occasionally surreal read. The book follows Thomas McFadden from his conviction to San Pedro through to his final release. Arrested in Bolivia, the English drug smuggler soon was to find himself in the hardest situation of his live. While in custody, Thomas endured starvation and nearly froze to death. That was nothing compared to what he was about to endure in the jail. San Pedro is unlike any prison I have ever heard of. It is a prison where money is absolutely necessary for survival. Prisons are force to pay right when they arrive. Entrance fees are nothing when prisoners are required to buy their own cells. If an inmate does not want to die outside by the cold or exposure, then they have no option than to pay for a cell. Just like a normal neighborhood, the jail has different sections with different fees and different safety levels. There are high class sections that are community orientated. Initially, the jail is a difficult place to understand: there are many elections among inmates and the economic situation is centered on capitalism. Despite the danger, prisoner’s wives along with their children stay in the jail as it is better than live on the outside. Everything can be bought in the prison, including guards and the governor. Cocaine is worthless in the prison as the purest cocaine is manufactured inside the prison. Many drug deals to the outside world are done out of the prison. Speaking English, Thomas encounters a lot of hostility at first as he is considered a “Gringo” (American). However he makes friends with an older man in the higher class section of the jail. His friend tells him all about prison life and protects him. After a few days of becoming accustomed to the jail, Thomas starts working and starts up a little grocery store. He soon learns Spanish and begins to make friends. Eventually Thomas starts giving tours through the jail to tourists. He tells them all about the jail and then shows them around; touring restaurants and different spots of interest. Thomas discovers his passion for the tours as they keep his mind off of being imprisoned. He begins to develop a close relationship with the governor and is able to bribe the guards. Knowing that a 5000 dollar bribe could get him out, Thomas works hard to get the money in order to attain freedom. Some of his backpacking friends that he met during his tours send him money to help out. I am not going to give away the ending because I feel that this is a remarkable and enthralling story of endurance and determination that everyone should read. Thomas survived many horrible and at time sickening situations at the San Pedro jail in Bolivia.

*Personal connections
Since I am not a drug dealer (as far as anyone knows :O), I cannot relate to the basic plot of this story. As I was not arrested on trafficking charges and I have never been sentenced to serve time in one of the most bizarre prisons. However I can relate to the struggles Thomas McFadden faced during his four plus years at San Pedro, obviously in a lesser degree. The challenges he faced are like what many others all over the world face. For instance he struggled with not fitting in with the other inmates, as well as being intimidated. Whether in sports, school, or whatever; being intimidated is a big issue in our society. He also faced issues between what is right and what is wrong. In difficult times, I have struggled with doing what is right. A main component of this book is the importance of relationships. Some key relationships helped out and probability saved McFadden’s life. Relationships can have both a positive or a negative impact in one’s live. I have positive relationships that have really helped me out. There have been people in my life that have cared for me and shown me what to do. There are a lot of relatable themes and aspects in this novel.
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Sep 30, 2012 Krysty Sullivan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Thomas McFadden's true story of the years he spent in a Bolivian jail and how he got there was a compelling read. I enjoyed the diary simplicity in which he wrote and the care he took in describing the various people he met along the way. Although surely a sociopath, I couldn't help hoping things would turn out alright for the author.

Sociologically, this was a very interesting look at a bizarre and corrupt micro-economy. If you enjoy hearing how other people live, this is a fascinating read.

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“You have fallen badly, señor gringo. Bribery is a very serious crime in this country. You will have to pay.” — 2 people liked it

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title link	preview: Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail
avg rating	preview: Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail Goodreads rating: 4.11 (2254 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43081.Marching_Powder?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316129323l/43081.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43081.Marching_Powder?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail by Thomas McFadden[/url]

Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail

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