Machu Picchu: Known to Some

Turn Right at Machu Picchu
by Mark Adams

I seem to have read quite a few travel lit books in which the mission is to follow in the footsteps of a famous explorer.  There was The Lost City of Z by David Grann last year, Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz a number of years ago and a multitude in between.  Mark Adams joined this group with his retracing of Hiram Bingham's explorations in Peru in his book Turn Right at Machu Picchu.

Bingham, of course, well known as the scientific discoverer of Machu Picchu didn't actually discover anything.  The site was known to locals and a few western explorers had probably been there as well.  Bingham brought it's marvels to everyone's attentions, however.  He also did wonders for National Geographic Magazine which devoted an entire issue to the ruins and doubled their previous circulation.  Adams traces both the bloody Spanish conquest of Peru and Bingham's explorations. He might have been one of the models for Indiana Jones but some of Bingham's accomplishments during those explorations are somewhat dubious--including questionable removal of relics from the site and passing off some bought in Cusco as found at the site.  As a matter of fact, many of the relics removed were just returned to Peru from Yale where they had resided for nearly a century.

In between the history are Adam's adventures hiking through the Peruvian jungle with a true treasure leading him over hills, though valleys and down ancient trails. John Leivers, an Australian adventurer, played guide to the inexperienced Adams and shared his passion for the Incas and the landscape they lived in, infecting Adams and consequently the reader.  The first two thirds of the book traces the route of Bingham's 1909 and 1911 expeditions. The last third, a journey on the Inca trail.  I truly wish that I could accomplish a journey like this because it sounded utterly astonishing, but I know better.  The only way I am ever going to experience hiking in the jungle is through the pages of a good book.  This book took me on a funny adventure and a wonderful trip.  I appreciated both Adams' novice point of view (after years of writing about adventure he wanted one of his own) and the more experienced one of his guide.  It got me thinking I would like an adventure too, after all I have spent years reading about them!

The one thing that bothered me about the book were the black and white photos in the book. I immediately went online to see pictures of the ruins visited and the mountains mentioned to get a clearer picture of the grandeur of the high remote Andes.  I have a feeling not even the color photos could ever do it justice.