Adams, Mark. Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time. New York:Penguin. 2011. Print.
First Sentences:
Description:
2012 marked the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of the fabulous Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru by English explorer Hiram Bingham. Bingham, a Yale professor of history, happened to be in Cusco, Peru, in 1909 when he heard about an unsolved Incan mystery. It was whispered that when the Spanish conquistadors invaded Peru, the Incans had stealthily evaporated into the highland jungles, taking their riches and sacred objects somewhere, never to be found by their enemies.
Bingham, intrigued, talked with experts, consulted ancient documents, and began searching for this lost city. Eventually, he followed the ancient Incan Trail through the mountains and, after years of searching, stumbled upon Machu Picchu in 1912. And he brought back artifacts to Yale to prove the fabulous discovery because he felt no one would believe his story.
Now Mark Adams, a confirmed city person, decides to retrace Bingham's exploration of the Incan Trail and discover Machu Picchu for himself to "get a taste of Bingham's experience." His account of this adventure, Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time, is both historically fascinating and unexpectedly funny in the spirit of Bill Bryson.
He tells of the wondrous Incan empire and its hidden cities (yes, there are more hidden cities than just Machu Picchu) that he finds along the Trail. Along with these historic "discoveries," Adams also pokes fun at his own ineptitude on the hike and his interactions with the people he encounters.
Allen's guide, John Leivers, is a man with "jungle explorer" written all over his face and clothes. Leivers has walked the Incan Trail many times, once barefoot to better experience the Incan mode of travel. Paired with Juvenal, the local 74-year old mule driver, Justo, the 4' 6" cook who talks non-stop at 15,000 words a day (counted by Leivers), and enough coca for all Peruvian team members to prevent altitude sickness (supposedly), Allen and Leivers' group is off to the trail.
Allen soon feels the frustrations of Peruvian Time. "'I'll be right back' can mean just that, or it can mean that the speaker is about to depart via steamship for Cairo." And there is a huge gap in jungle hiking experience and general social skills as well. Guide Leivers is a bounder, racing up and down narrow, slippery tracks, while author Allen plods and stumbles along behind. Communication also can be strange, as when Leivers says he wants to stop for a "wee break," which Allen embarrassingly discovers means not that they would take a rest but rather that Leivers merely wants to take a pee.
But the discoveries along the route are fabulous. The Incan Trail turns out to be a series of spokes emanating from hub cities hidden in the mountains. By using these rough paths, ancient Incans could travel to any number of cities hidden in the jungle mountains to elude enemies.
And the cities are equally astonishing. So covered with jungle vines, Allen's party almost walks by several huge crumbling buildings without noticing them. One city that Bingham stumbled on and recorded years ago became completely so completely hidden again in only one year that Bingham could barely find that city and therefore hired students to do nothing but continually clear away the jungle vines from these ruins until he returned the next time.
I love "personal quest" books like Turn Right at Machu Picchu, accounts equally divided between the telling the fascinating historical discoveries by an obsessed explorer, and then pairing those accounts side by side with the modern day experiences of an author who retraces that same historic route.
This is a book that fills you with admiration for the bravery and perseverance of Bingham as well as the Allen through the details of their experiences and discoveries. While most of us will never plunge into the jungles of Peru to follow the Incan Trail, through Turn Right at Machu Picchu we can be totally absorbed into the Incan culture and the everyday trials and triumphs of people intrepid enough to walk this ancient route.
Happy reading.
Fred
As the man dressed head to toe in khaki turned the corner and began race walking uphill in my direction, I had to wonder: had we met before?
It certainly seemed unlikely. John Leivers was in his late fifties and spent most of his time exploring the remote parts of the Andes, machete in hand, searching for ancient ruins. The overdeveloped pop-culture lobe of my brain noted his passing resemblance to Crocodile Dundee -- John wore a vest and a bush hat and greeted me on the sidewalk outside my hotel with a cheery "Halloo Mark" that confirmed deep Australian roots -- but there was something else strangely familiar about him.
Description:
2012 marked the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of the fabulous Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru by English explorer Hiram Bingham. Bingham, a Yale professor of history, happened to be in Cusco, Peru, in 1909 when he heard about an unsolved Incan mystery. It was whispered that when the Spanish conquistadors invaded Peru, the Incans had stealthily evaporated into the highland jungles, taking their riches and sacred objects somewhere, never to be found by their enemies.
Bingham, intrigued, talked with experts, consulted ancient documents, and began searching for this lost city. Eventually, he followed the ancient Incan Trail through the mountains and, after years of searching, stumbled upon Machu Picchu in 1912. And he brought back artifacts to Yale to prove the fabulous discovery because he felt no one would believe his story.
Now Mark Adams, a confirmed city person, decides to retrace Bingham's exploration of the Incan Trail and discover Machu Picchu for himself to "get a taste of Bingham's experience." His account of this adventure, Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time, is both historically fascinating and unexpectedly funny in the spirit of Bill Bryson.
He tells of the wondrous Incan empire and its hidden cities (yes, there are more hidden cities than just Machu Picchu) that he finds along the Trail. Along with these historic "discoveries," Adams also pokes fun at his own ineptitude on the hike and his interactions with the people he encounters.
Allen's guide, John Leivers, is a man with "jungle explorer" written all over his face and clothes. Leivers has walked the Incan Trail many times, once barefoot to better experience the Incan mode of travel. Paired with Juvenal, the local 74-year old mule driver, Justo, the 4' 6" cook who talks non-stop at 15,000 words a day (counted by Leivers), and enough coca for all Peruvian team members to prevent altitude sickness (supposedly), Allen and Leivers' group is off to the trail.
Allen soon feels the frustrations of Peruvian Time. "'I'll be right back' can mean just that, or it can mean that the speaker is about to depart via steamship for Cairo." And there is a huge gap in jungle hiking experience and general social skills as well. Guide Leivers is a bounder, racing up and down narrow, slippery tracks, while author Allen plods and stumbles along behind. Communication also can be strange, as when Leivers says he wants to stop for a "wee break," which Allen embarrassingly discovers means not that they would take a rest but rather that Leivers merely wants to take a pee.
But the discoveries along the route are fabulous. The Incan Trail turns out to be a series of spokes emanating from hub cities hidden in the mountains. By using these rough paths, ancient Incans could travel to any number of cities hidden in the jungle mountains to elude enemies.
And the cities are equally astonishing. So covered with jungle vines, Allen's party almost walks by several huge crumbling buildings without noticing them. One city that Bingham stumbled on and recorded years ago became completely so completely hidden again in only one year that Bingham could barely find that city and therefore hired students to do nothing but continually clear away the jungle vines from these ruins until he returned the next time.
I love "personal quest" books like Turn Right at Machu Picchu, accounts equally divided between the telling the fascinating historical discoveries by an obsessed explorer, and then pairing those accounts side by side with the modern day experiences of an author who retraces that same historic route.
This is a book that fills you with admiration for the bravery and perseverance of Bingham as well as the Allen through the details of their experiences and discoveries. While most of us will never plunge into the jungles of Peru to follow the Incan Trail, through Turn Right at Machu Picchu we can be totally absorbed into the Incan culture and the everyday trials and triumphs of people intrepid enough to walk this ancient route.
Happy reading.
Fred
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
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Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.
Detailed adventures of British explorer Percy Fawcett in the early 1900's and his many forays into the Amazon jungle in search of the City of Gold. (Previously reviewed here).
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