“Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time,” by Mark Adams

This fascinating and entertaining book is one part travelogue, one part Peruvian and Incan history, and one part biography of Hiram Bingham III, the first Western explorer to “discover” the ancient mountain city of Machu Picchu.  Adams travels the same paths that Bingham did 100 years earlier, on foot, and tells his story with a lot of insight and a healthy dose of humor; and his genuine passion for the subject matter, combined with his first-hand experience of the amazing terrain of the Andes, makes for a compelling and exciting read.  So much so that I did something while reading this book that I very rarely do.  I dragged it out.  I forced myself to stop at the end of the chapter, meting out smaller portions of the book than I’d really have liked to, because part of me wanted to stay up there in the Andes Mountains, surrounded by those amazing stone ruins and an equally amazing landscape for just a little while longer.  I really didn’t want the experience to end.

Adams’ talent for describing the breathtaking scenery is worth the read all by itself.  The sights, sounds and smells of the mountains, deserts, rivers, animals and jungle, to say nothing of the descriptions of the artifacts, architecture and truly mind-boggling engineering of the city of Machu Picchu itself are simply fantastic.  I literally found myself stopping, closing my eyes, and envisioning the majestic vistas, inhaling the wild sage, rosemary and other intoxicating aromas of the forests, and hearing the birds, the rushing water and the cadence of the languages of the native peoples.  There aren’t a lot of people who can make even such a singularly remarkable place come to full color, 3D life via the written word alone, but Adams is one who can.  As I read, I lamented the lack of glossy, panoramic photographs, but only for a few short chapters.  They actually might have detracted from the words, and I decided that they made the right decision by not trying to turn the work into a picture book. 

But these sensual scenes and the long, difficult and dangerous journey to the top of the highest mountain in the range, to the marvel of engineering and architecture that Machu Picchu is, are only part of the story.  There are Incan kings, princesses and warriors, Spanish conquistadors and missionaries, and engrossing tales of their clashes and the inevitable downfall of one whole, enormously advanced civilization at the hands of another.  There are also daring raids, jealous rivalries, and heartbreaking deceptions and cruelties that abound right through the time of Bingham’s expeditions of the early 20^th century that ultimately come face to face with the changing political climates of our own contemporary world.   Indeed, just a few days after finishing this book I noticed a news stories about the Peabody Museum’s decision to finally return most of the artifacts that Bingham himself had brought back to Harvard after his several expeditions to Peru. 

Adams has managed to infect me with his enthusiasm and I’m already half-way through another book about the Andes, although I’m finding the new book not nearly as exciting and readable as “Turn Right…” is.  I may just have to go back and read it again.

"Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond

It's an exciting and rare thing, so I love it when I find a book that takes theories from several various disciplines and blends them into a work that offers a totally new perspective on the world.

Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" is an inspired work that merges geology, archaeology, history, biology, agriculture and anthropology (am I missing anything?!) to offer a thorough, and thoroughly satisfying, answer to the fundamentally human question, "why do some societies on this planet have so much while others have so little?". As the title of the book suggests, it has a lot to do with the development of weapons, immunity (or lack thereof) from disease, and technological advancement. And in turn, those factors rest upon other matters, the most important being basic geography (is the soil fertile, are the crops and animals nutritious, are there plentiful natural resources, is the weather conducive to supporting varied types of plants and animals, etc.).

The research that went into this book is nothing less than a man's entire adult life. Diamond has traveled the globe in many capacities and has consulted with friends, colleagues, and the native peoples of various continents to piece his theories together. Like all truly great thinkers he has mixed science with creative insight to come up with a startling new way for us to understand our planet and the dramatically diverse human societies that have sprung up on it's surface to either prosper or wither.

Diamond won a Pulitzer for this book, and PBS created a three-part documentary based upon it, which can be viewed on their website at www.pbs.gunsgermssteel/.