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A review by bonnybonnybooks
Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams
3.0
I am certainly more interested in walking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu after this book; Adams made it sound appropriately appealing (if crowded).
A dilettante hiker/camper, Adams became inspired to follow in the footsteps of Hiram Bingham III, the man who "discovered" Machu Picchu. It is very clear from this book and from history that Bingham discovered nothing. The locals knew about Machu Picchu - there were several families actually living on it. He was not even the first foreigner to have known about it. It was never a lost city buried by the jungle. Bingham's real claim to fame is that he energized the American public's interest in it through his self-promotion.
Adams seems to have liked Bingham more than I do, but the real downside of this book is that there is not enough about the Incans or modern day Peru. Although Adams provides descriptions of the Incan Empire as it was conquered by the Spanish, I did not feel like I came away with as much understanding of their culture and history as I had wished. Same for Peru - there are tidbits about Peru and Peruvians, but I still do not have a firm sense of the country.
The other downside was that the book was a bit disjointed, with sometimes abrupt changes of topic within a chapter. Overall, I found it enjoyable and a good introduction into Machu Picchu but I wanted a little bit more out of it.
A dilettante hiker/camper, Adams became inspired to follow in the footsteps of Hiram Bingham III, the man who "discovered" Machu Picchu. It is very clear from this book and from history that Bingham discovered nothing. The locals knew about Machu Picchu - there were several families actually living on it. He was not even the first foreigner to have known about it. It was never a lost city buried by the jungle. Bingham's real claim to fame is that he energized the American public's interest in it through his self-promotion.
Adams seems to have liked Bingham more than I do, but the real downside of this book is that there is not enough about the Incans or modern day Peru. Although Adams provides descriptions of the Incan Empire as it was conquered by the Spanish, I did not feel like I came away with as much understanding of their culture and history as I had wished. Same for Peru - there are tidbits about Peru and Peruvians, but I still do not have a firm sense of the country.
The other downside was that the book was a bit disjointed, with sometimes abrupt changes of topic within a chapter. Overall, I found it enjoyable and a good introduction into Machu Picchu but I wanted a little bit more out of it.