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sugo1985 's review for:
I usually love travelogues, particularly those about travels on foot. But I struggled a fair bit with this book. In terms of structure, I think it was the fact that the author alternated chapters between the story of Hiram Bingham "discovering" Machu Picchu and his own story of following in Bingham's footsteps that made the narrative feel quite choppy to me. That and the fact that the whole narrative felt...dry. Perhaps the enthusiasm just didn't translate for me, because the author couldn't possibly have been unenthusiastic if he embarked on a multi week hike across the Andes, but beyond retracing Bingham's footsteps 100 years after his first visit I didn't really feel like I understood why the author was keen on pursuing this journey. And for Bingham, while you can't accuse the author of any sort of hero worship, I also can't say I fully understand how the author really felt about Bingham after the trip and after doing all of his research. I guess my biggest problem was I never really found out much about the author and his reasons for doing this trip beyond the most basic, and for a travelogue about a personal journey that just didn't work for me.