Viva South America! sets out to discover if the dream of Simon Bolivar - for independence, freedom and equality - lives on in modern South America. Armed with a reporter's notebook and an open mind, Oliver Balch hits the road in search of answers. With the ghost of Bolivar as guide, the quest takes the reader off the tourist trail and into the weird and wonderful worlds of South American culture and society. By stepping into people's homes and into inmates' prison cells, by climbing onto dance floors and over road blocks, Oliver Balch unearths untold stories from the front line of South America's contemporary fight for freedom.