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Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time Paperback – Illustrated, April 24, 2012
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What happens when an unadventurous adventure writer tries to re-create the original expedition to Machu Picchu?
In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and “discovered” Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artifacts and credit for finding the great archeological site, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer’s perilous path in search of the truth—except he’d written about adventure far more than he’d actually lived it. In fact, he’d never even slept in a tent.
Turn Right at Machu Picchu is Adams’ fascinating and funny account of his journey through some of the world’s most majestic, historic, and remote landscapes guided only by a hard-as-nails Australian survivalist and one nagging question: Just what was Machu Picchu?
- Print length333 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDutton
- Publication dateApril 24, 2012
- Dimensions5.33 x 0.79 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100452297982
- ISBN-13978-0452297982
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“[An] engaging and sometimes hilarious book.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A serious (and seriously funny) travelogue, a smart and tightly written history, and an investigative report into perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery in the last century.”—NationalGeographic.com
“An engaging, informative guide to all things Inca.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Adams deftly weaves together Inca history, Bingham's story, and his own less heroic escapade....Those favoring a quirkier retelling [of Bingham's exploits] will relish Mr. Adam's wry, revealing romp through the Andes.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Quite funny and unpretentiously well informed...The perfect way to acknowledge the lost city’s one hundredth birthday.”—Christian Science Monitor (“Editor’s Choice”)
“[An] entirely delightful book.”—The Washington Post
“With a healthy sense of humor...Adams unearths a fascinating story, transporting his readers back to 1911, when Yale professor Hiram Bingham III hiked the Andes and stumbled upon on of South America's most miraculous and cloistered meccas.”—NPR.org
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
“That's all right,” John said. “We'll need mules for a trip like this and the arrieros—the muleteers—can set up the tents. How do you feel about food?”
“Sorry?”
“You like cooked food?” John asked.
I admitted that I did, in fact, have a weakness for victuals prepared over heat.
Product details
- Publisher : Dutton; Reprint edition (April 24, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 333 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0452297982
- ISBN-13 : 978-0452297982
- Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.33 x 0.79 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #33,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Peru Travel Guides
- #2 in Ancient Incan History
- #2 in Peru History
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Mark Adams is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Meet Me in Atlantis and Turn Right at Machu Picchu. A writer for many national magazines, including GQ, Men’s Journal, and New York, he lives near New York City with his wife and children.
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Mr. Adams, the author, was the editor of several travel magazines in New York and held an interest in explorers and travel, but had never slept in a tent except once as a child and had never made his way through a jungle like the one he was about to tackle. The one-hundredth anniversary of Bingham's finding of Machu Picchu and other cities of the Inca people was a perfect time for Adams to go. With the help of an Australian veteran explorer and guide, John Leivers, and with help from an Alaskan explorer named Paolo Greer, Mark Adams started his journey from the ancient Inca capital of Cusco and on the same route that Hiram Bingham had taken one hundred years ago when he discovered the Lost City of the Incas. Mules and mule tenders who spoke the language of Quecha were part of the expedition party, also.
Adams and his expedition party took the Inca Trail to their destination, or as much of it as they could. "The greatest Inca of all, Pachacutec" is believed to be the one behind the road system of the Incas and there were at least a hundred and fifty miles of trails, but there were many more and some that were finding their way under blacktop. Adams' party took the Inca Trail that went right to Machu Picchu.
Archaeology was a new science at the beginning of the twentieth century and while Bingham was looking for the lost city of the Incas, the Mayan city of Chichen Itza was being excavated and in Egypt the Valley of the Kings was expected to reveal wonders. In 1900 Knossos was discovered. Explorers who went to Peru earlier were not so much looking for what would be Machu Picchu but for the legendary El Dorado that was supposed to be the city of gold that people had tried to find since the days of the conquistadores.
For Adams the walking was hard, but he kept up and at times the expedition came to areas where they had to descend nearly a mile by taking an Inca staircase that was 3500 stone steps down. At the bottom it was humid and hot, but they soon saw some signs of people living in the area with small houses and potato fields being plowed by hand with a stick. The ways of farming in this area of Peru hadn't changed much in centuries.
There is a good bit of humor in the book, especially from the viewpoint of the author. The expedition following in the footsteps of Hiram Bingham's 1911 trip was hard-going, but it was worth it when the goal was reached. So much was learned about other cities in the area that the Inca had built and how far their empire went and that it was a very populated empire. The arrival of the Spanish is covered and what happened with the advent of that, and there is quite a bit of information on the climate of the area, foods, and languages.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it fascinating to read about a modern day expedition into the world of the Incas, and I learned an awful lot about them. The guide, John Leivers, was a very nice man who helped Adams in any situation where he was needed and he also had some humorous times. If you enjoy this period in history and the early people of South America, then you should thoroughly enjoy this book. My first three cats were named Inca, Aztec and Maya, so that should give an idea of how much I enjoy reading about these people and their culture.
Mark Adams doesn't seem to suffer from my affliction; it seems his motivation was more due to the 100th anniversary of Hiram Bingham's "rediscovery" of the site. I especially enjoyed the research the author did on Bingham himself, giving us an insight of an upper-cruster, who enjoyed rubbing elbows with the social movers and shakers, more often to shake them down for expedition funding than anything. It is obvious that Mr. Adams is more than a bit suspicious of Bingham, not only to what degree the documentation of his travels bore accuracy, but about the character of the man himself.
As far as global exploration of the time was concerned, the turn of the 1800's into the new century was indeed an interesting era. It was also during this period that in Cambodia a French naturalist by the name of Henri Mouhot "rediscovered" the ancient Khmer kingdom on the shores of Tonle Sap known as Angkor. Personally, having visited Angkor many times I will be quite surprised if once I fulfill this promise to myself to find Machu Picchu eclipses the wonder and majesty of Angkor. We'll see.
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Adams book, well written and descriptive of not only the event itself, but of the characters he describes. He paints Bingham with a brush dipped in a can of part flim-flam man, part egomaniac, and part snob as he rushed through the Inca trail area nary giving Machu Picchu a second glance (he was there all of five hours). He seemed much more concerned in giving the investors back home their money's worth in return for their financial stake in his explorations, to the point of looting the Inca sites he tripped over and shipping home anything that wasn't red-hot or nailed down.
Mr. Adams gives color to the problematic desire to visit this place, the hazards involved and even his own misgivings leading him to wonder what he had gotten himself into. This is a very unforgiving place of the planet, the never-ending steep grades up and down the mountains of the Andes is not for the infirm of body nor heart. There is a reason why llamas can dance on the head of a pin.
In the end, you come away glad that you read his account especially, if like me, you've always had a desire in the back of your mind to pay a visit to Machu Picchu. His book not only furthered that desire, but made me aware that I will need to devote a lot longer period of time to do it the right way than I originally thought I would.
Top reviews from other countries
Funny and informative with good photos