Extraordinary Books – serie

People often assume that Steven Froelich is a rock star, with his flowing blond locks and manic ‘where’s the party at!’ vibe. His Keith Richards-level consumption of narcotics and booze does nothing to dispel the impression.Froelich has now set his sights on the reputed El Dorado of ‘white gold’. Colombia: Playing with Powder is the latest instalment of his Latin American travel memoirs – a peripatetic trail of debauched cocaine use, furtive transactions in hostels, taxis and bars, and oddball characters.Froelich’s trademark illiberal rants, unfiltered stream of consciousness and indifference to social or political tensions unpeel the workings of the mind of a true addict; but equally, he yearns for a more elusive substance than cocaine: human connection

When you’re every kind of addict, planning a trip comes down to one question: where can I secure vast quantities of my preferred substances at reasonable cost?To Nicaragua, then! Steven Froelich is at ease here – getting high, staying high, ingratiating himself into the lives of a motley collection of expats and locals…and extricating himself in haste when they become too intense for him. The coke is of variable quality, the rum is plentiful and his newfound comrades are anything but dull, from the intense, problematic American Jed to Ernesto and Carla, local and US-naturalised Nicaraguans in an occasional relationship.Froelich is frank about his fathomless addictions, as he careens from paranoia to crude offensiveness to joyful fellow-feeling. And from the cities and coastal hangouts to the islands and the rainforested interior, Nicaragua comes into focus even through the haze.