Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time ridged
Author: Mark Adams ID: B0080JLQEC
Writer for the New York Times and GQ, Mark Adams is also the acclaimed author of Mr. America. In this fascinating travelogue, Adams follows in the controversial footsteps of Hiram Bingham III, who’s been both lionized and vilified for his discovery of the famed Lost City in 1911 – but which reputation is justified?
Done.
Audible Audio EditionListening Length: 10 hours and 12 minutesProgram Type: AudiobookVersion: UnabridgedPublisher: Recorded BooksAudible.com Release Date: May 4, 2012Whispersync for Voice: ReadyLanguage: EnglishID: B0080JLQEC Best Sellers Rank: #9 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > History > Latin America #10 in Books > Travel > South America > Peru #24 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Latin America
Mark Adams’ "Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time" is a book that’s a bit hard to classify. All at once, it’s a serious (and seriously funny) travelogue; a smart and tightly written history; and an investigative report into the greatest archaeological discovery of the last century.
Author Adams spent time writing and editing for the now defunct National Geographic Adventurer magazine and despite working with and alongside some of the world’s hardest core adventure travelers, he admits to not being much of one himself. He’d visited Machu Picchu with his son, but he’d done it the tourist way. He wanted to REdiscover Machu Picchu – the way its’ original discoverer, Hiram Bingham, had 100 years ago this July. He wanted to hike, climb, slog, tent and explore his way through the Vilcabamba region of Peru and finish at the site that was recently named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.
Adams doesn’t camp and hadn’t been in a tent for years leading up to his Peruvian excursion. His preparation for the trip was extensive, including dressing the part of adventurer. "Have you ever seen Mr. Travel Guy? He’s the fellow who strides through international airports dressed like he’s flying off to hunt wildebeests – shirt with dozens of pockets, drip-dry pants that zip off into shorts, floppy hat with a cord pulled tight under the chin in case a twister blows through the baggage claim area. All of this describes exactly what I was wearing. I could have been trick-or-treating as Hemingway."
Make no mistake. Adams trip was an uncompromising adventure. There were no soft train rides, or helicopter drops into the jungle.
Back when Al Franken was a comedian and not a U.S. senator, he did a bit on "Saturday Night Live" in which he would describe some major event and end by asking, "how does this affect me, Al Franken?"
That, to me, is the stupid heart of the stunt memoir, those books in which the author undertakes a challenge outside his or her comfort zone, and then reports back on what it means to him. Such memoirs start with the assumption that the author is much more interesting than whatever they’re doing (usually false) and that just become something interesting happens to them makes them even more interesting (always false).
Thankfully, Mark Adams doesn’t participate in that nonsense. Although "Turn Right at Machu Picchu" starts with a similar elevator pitch ‘ "travel magazine copy editor gets out from behind his desk to explore Incan ruins in Peru" ‘ he comes back with a book that looks more outward than inward. Like a "Seinfeld" episode, there’s no learning and no hugging.
Adams uses three narrative threads to weave his story, starting with the Incans and their fatal encounters with the Spanish invaders during the 1500s. It’s not a pretty story, starting with the most commonly known story of Francisco Pizarro and Atahualpa, in which the Incan emperor promised a room full of gold in return for his freedom, an offer which Pizarro accepted and then reneged on by having Atahualpa strangled
Over the next three decades, subsequent Incan ruler moved between building new capitals in the jungle and raiding the Spanish. The Spanish responded with raids and various atrocities until, in 1572, they declared all-out war on the rebel Incan state. The empire dissolved when its last ruler, Tupac Amaru, was captured and executed.
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