Library Services: Peru: Travel Memoirs

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu means "Old Peak" and is often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas." It was built in 1450 as the Inca capital, but abandoned 100 years later. While the ruins were known by the locals, the site was all but lost to the outside world until the American historian Hiram Bingham rediscovered it in 1911. Today Machu Picchu is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World and is a top tourist destination.

The Andes

The Andes is the longest continental mountain range on earth, about 4,300 miles long.

Travel Memoirs

Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams
Call Number: F3429 A325 2012
ISBN: 9780452297982
Publication Date: 2012-04-24
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?
Eight Feet in the Andes by Dervla Murphy
Call Number: F 3451 M876 2003
ISBN: 9780719565168
Publication Date: 2003-09-01
The eight feet belong to Dervla Murphy, her nine-year-old daughter Rachel and Juana, an elegant mule, who together clambered the length of Peru, from Cajamarca near the border with Ecuador, to Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital, over 1,300 miles south, traveling at high altitude and with only basic necessities. Despite extreme discomfort and occasional danger, mother and daughter were unflagging in their sympathetic response to perilous beauty and impoverished people of the Andes.

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