Be Prepared

In January 1935, three Venezuelan scouts left Bolívar Square in Caracas with five bolívares, a promise, and a new pair of boots. What followed were two years and five months of jungle, fever, arrest, theft, a near-amputation, and the slow fracture and rebuilding of a friendship tested by an entire continent. Rafael Ángel Petit refused to turn back, even when the road nearly killed him. Juan Carmona walked for the honor of Spain and the pride of a man who had nothing to prove and everything to lose. Jaime Roll walked as far as his reasons carried him — and had the courage to say so. They crossed ten countries, built a handcart by hand in Mexico, and walked the final miles to the steps of the Capitol carrying the Venezuelan flag. On June 16, 1937 — day 886 — they arrived in Washington. Be Prepared is the true story of the longest raid in the history of the scouting movement. It is also something more: the story of what it costs a man to keep his word — and of what he becomes when he does.