Kerouac and Hunter Thompson (sans the psychedelics) undertones in a country with military checkpoints and machine guns.
The motivation for Christopher, the protagonist, joining the Peace Corps is not completely clear but it is possibly because of being dumped by his girlfriend in the US. The book starts with Peace Corps training sessions in Miami, where Christopher's obvious cynicism and borderline sociopathic behavior surface almost immediately.
Soon, the volunteer in training is on to Ecuador, where he seems to spend more energy worrying about the availability of black market goods than developing a empathic cultural understanding of the country. That said, there are a number of very good cultural and Spanish linguistic insights in the book, although some might be from a clearly politically-incorrect norteamericano perspective. The action is primarily set in Guayaquil, Quito, the Ecuadorian countryside, and Peru.
The author seems to harbor disdain for authority figures in all the government and aid organizations. The officials portrayed in a favorable light are simply incompetent, rather than corrupt.
There are some interesting insights into the values and behaviors of some Peace Corp Volunteers.
Although there are some of typographical errors, the book is immensely readable.
I did not want to put the book down.