At Machu Picchu

Destination: Peru

Book: Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time (NEW: June 2011) by Mark Adams

I’m celebrating the anniversary of the rediscovery of Machu Picchu this week, although for some reason the Peruvian government jumped the gun and celebrated early–on July 8.

Sometimes I really love this job. Once again I am able to read and share a book that amuses, amazes, and inspires the reader to pack her bags and hit the road. In this case a VERY old road in South America, known as The Inca Trail.  There are actually a lot of Inca trails, as Mark Adams discovers in Turn Right at Machu Picchu.

The amazing “lost city” of Machu Picchu, a World Heritage Site, could quickly devour more superlative adjectives than a writer could stuff into a 60-lb backpack. Mark Adams, a former editor, never resorts to telling us how spectacular the Inca lairs look. Instead he masterfully shows us. He relies both on research into Hiram Bingham, the popularizer of Machu Picchu, and the very witty tale of his own mid-life adventure as he follows Bingham’s footsteps. (Terminology coinage alert: experiential biography) In relating the history of the Spanish conquest of the great empire of the Incas, Adams describes Pizarro thus, “Pizarro was a bastard (in the genealogical sense, though he was no dream date as far as the Incas were concerned, either.)” Adams describes himself as “Mr. Travel Guy.”…”Between my microfiber bwana costume and the bags of candy that Justo (the cook) kept foisting on me, I could have been trick-or-treating as Hemingway.”  Bingham, might have been “Mr. Travel” of 1911.

Hiram Bingham

Hiram Bingham, a Yale professor with chiseled cheekbones and an ever present slouch hat, organized expeditions into Peru in the early 20th century, and 100 years ago this week (July 24, 1911) he re-discovered Machu Picchu.

Same guy?

As Turn Right at Machu Picchu tells the story of Bingham’s life, we learn that we have already met him, but his name was Indiana Jones in the movies. But more importantly, we learn that his several expeditions were daring and he quite literally broke new trails–including one very old trail–The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. No matter if someone else (after the ancient Incas) actually investigated (and looted) Machu Picchu before Bingham, he was the one who trumpeted it to the world and made it popular.

Mark Adams quotes Rudyard Kipling‘s poem The Explorers:

Well, I know who’ll take the credit–all the clever chaps that followed

Came, a dozen men together–never knew my desert-fears

Tracked me by the camps I’d quitted, used the water-holes I’d hollowed.

They’ll go back and do the talking. They’ll be called the Pioneers!

If you were thinking, as I was, that a trip to Peru would be complete once you took the train to the famous Lost City, you may revise your travel plans after reading this book.

Train to Machu Picchu

Adams shows us, toward the end of the book, why a hike up the Inca Trail packs such a wallop that those who take the Hiram Bingham  train to Machu Picchu and fly home, miss the interconnectedness of a cluster of sites.On the trail you can explore other sites along the way. For another thing, this was a sacred processional route for the Incas. The whole area is packed with similar cities in the jungle.  The other sites, a bewildering array of names with too many letter a’s and too many syllables–Ollantaytambo, Choquequirao, Vitcos, Llactapata, Patallacta, Espiritu Pampa–reward the visitor with solitude instead of the jostling for best camera angle you find at Machu Picchu.  Granted, no other sites have the grand location of Machu Picchu, but they do have Inca stonework and mysteries of their own. And get this–they are all connected in lines that tie them to the sun and stars and solstices.

Bingham wrote articles for National Geographic Magazine. In 1913, an article titled, “In the Wonderland of Peru” tells about the rediscovery of Machu Picchu. Adams says,

The story and its accompany photographs–including a panoramic view of the entire site, printed as a foldout–conveyed a romantic tale of exploration and discovery that would endure for about a century; an intrepid young American professor, searching the capital of a vanished kingdom, discovers an immense city in the clouds, lost to the jungle for untold centuries.

So how romantic and adventurous can it get? And how can you resist reading such an enthralling book? And haven’t you packed your bags yet?  Wait…you’ll need a guide. Mark Adams suggests lots of books–from scholarly to popular, the guidebook he recommends is The Machu Picchu Guidebook: A Self Guided Tour  by Ruth Wright.

A comment on an earlier post came from my friend Mark at Travel Wonders of the World: I went there a few years ago including walking the four-day camino (trail). Walking through the Sun Gate at dawn is one of travel’s great experiences as the entire city awakens below you. Mark provides two articles at his site that are well worth seeing: a brief description of the trail and the other Incan towns on the way and  the 100th birthday article with a historic Bingham photo.

I want to thank the publicity department of Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Books for sending me this book for review, and I thank Flickr and other sources linked to the photos for the wonderful illustrations. And yes, if you click on a book title and order something from Amazon I make a little money. (And it works if you are in Great Britain, Canada or France as well as the U.S.)

Your turn. Have you been to Machu Picchu? Do you have it on your list? Why not?

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Destination: Kenya

Movie: The First Grader, A National Geographic Film (2011) PG-13

I went to see The First Grader expecting to see a heart-warming feel good story about literacy. National Geographic is one of the producers, so I expected that it would be beautifully photographed and give me a scenic tour of Africa.

Justin Chadwick, whom you may remember as the director of The Other Boleyn Girl, directed the film. He worked with the BBC and the British Film Council. The fact the film was funded by a British entity is ironic, since the plot criticizes Britain’s handling of the 1950′s crisis in Kenya after the attacks of the Mau Mau, who terrorized white settlers as they battled for Kenyan independence.

The 84-year-old central character in this true story, Kimani Ng’ang’a Maruge (1920-2009), was a Mau Mau veteran and served time in a prison camp. Soldiers shot his wife for not telling who he was. They tortured him because he would not recant his pledge to the Mau Mau. Maruge never learned to read, so in the new century when he gets a letter from the now independent government, he takes the Kenyan government up on their offer of free education for everyone, and shows up at the local elementary school.

We learn the back story in flashbacks to his youth and see one scene of a Mau Mau attack and many scenes of the brutality of the British.  This was an eye opener for me.  Like many Americans, I tend to remain ignorant about the history of African nations, and all I remember about the Mau Mau times was feeling sorry for white farmers who had been in Africa for generations, as they were savaged by what we saw as a gang of thugs.

Now I see it differently. Yes, the Mau Mau did many very bad things, but the colonial rulers’ reaction, if it is anything like the cringe-inducing scenes in the movie, fought violence with violence in an equally inhumane way.

Kenya school children

The scenes in the school are delightful and at first I was thinking how my 6-year-old grand-daughter could benefit from seeing children in another country as they learned the alphabet. But DO NOT take young children to this movie.  The stark reality of the Mau Mau uprisings, and the somewhat related nastiness of townspeople toward the school teacher who decides to help the old man learn, makes a tough lesson for adults.  It is a lesson too complex for small children, particularly when you mix in a bit of government corruption and the prevailing poverty.

Oh dear, I hope I have not made this all sound too glum.  It is not glum. It is simply a well-rounded telling of the story of one man and reflection of many others. The view of Africa–both the countryside and Kenya’s capitol, Nairobi, may not be packed with travelogue beauty, but it shows real lives in a real and oddly alluring land.

Oliver Litundo, who plays Maruge, has played only bit parts before (after a career as a news reader), which makes his performance that much more amazing. Quoting from the National Geographic site: The children in the film–who are in many ways the stars–had never seen a film or television set before, let alone be involved in a filming process.

Kenyan children

Instead they are locals filmed in their own real school. And those school children are so beautiful that you would swear they are pampered little actors and actresses. And by the way, this is a good, heart-warming story about literacy. (That is my opinion, and I’m sticking with it, despite critics all over the map.)

You can make a difference by clicking over to You Tube to see The First Grader trailer . See how you will be contributing to children’s education. The film has pretty much run its course in the Western U.S., but will still be playing in East Coast states for a few weeks. The release date for London is June 24. The National Geographic movie site has a schedule for the U.S. Or put it on your Netflix or Amazon wait list.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Destination: Vermont

Book: South of the N. E. Kingdom by David Mamet (a National Geographic Series called Directions)

David Mamet

The stereotypical dialogue of Vermont, “Aye-up” and “Nope” may have influenced the spare, quirky dialogue of David Mamet’s plays and movies. Movies like Glengarry Glen Ross,  State and Main (a good Vermont movie), and my favorite, House of Games, have such a recognizable speech pattern that Mamet is easy to satirize. However, it is a mistake to take him lightly. His look at America is brilliant. I first made his acquaintance through his plays when I studied them in a university theater class.

This slim book of essays about his life in Vermont converses in a different style. From time to time he uses a word that will have you running to the dictionary, but for the most part, you feel like you’re sitting on his front porch, just listening to him talk.

Despite having lived part time in Vermont for most of his adult life, through two marriages and the growth of his children to adulthood, Mamet continues to feel like an outsider.  He ponders the destructive affect of outsiders on the traditional Vermont they came for in the first place.

Sometimes his essays meander away from Vermont to talk about politics. The book was written in 2002, and he talks about contemporary events like September 11, and the George W. Bush administration–which he doesn’t like a  bit. (Here’s a Village Voice 2008 essay about his politics). But for the most part, Mamet is talking about the importance of place and he  provides a good little guidebook, which  gives us a streetview of some towns. He tours the downtown of Hardwick, for instance, and recommends the Village Restaurant at the junction of Rtes. 14 an 15. He introduces us to craftsmen and women–weavers, woodworkers, furniture makers. And he talks about hunting and guns.

Here is Mamet at his best, talking about geography:

How can one be uninfluenced by geography?  One cannot.  We all are affected at the least by the weather, which is specific to geography.  And this is a beautiful country, so perhaps geography can inculcate civic pride, and thus perhaps civic virtue.

I loved to stand on 57th Street in New York, around sunset, around Seventh Avenue.  At that height one could look to the east, look to the west, and see the two rivers in that thrilling late-afternoon light.

It felt like love to me. As it did in Chicago, near the lake, even in that cold which freezes the inside of the nose, and gives you that copper, blood smell, which seems to live in the back of the head; or in Los Angeles, at night, which is the only time the city comes alive. And so on.

It is difficult for me to stop quoting Mamet, because I love almost all his words. But I will stop here, and let you find this little book yourself. Several times he mentions the heritage of the Scotch, and so Kerry Dexter’s Great American Music Tour will provide us with the appropriate Celtic-tinged background music for our road trip to Vermont.

On my only trip to Vermont, I was a teenager. My family visited old friends in a cabin by a lake that outlawed motor boats. The families were the well-off summer people that Mamet decries.  But we took little trips into the countryside and saw the Grandma Moses scenery, the white spired churches on village  greens and small museums and odd stores. It was all to lovely for words. Mamet has the words.

Here’s an  interview about the book that Mamet recorded with NPR in 2003.

So far the Great American Road Trip has talked about Blue Highways, the USA Book, visited Massachusetts and Connecticut. Come back next week for another New England state.

Are you familiar with David Mamet? Tell me about your experiences in Vermont. Are they similar to Mamet’s?

Thursday we take the day off, and Friday we’re celebrating Black History Month right here. And before you go away, please remember to share this post by clicking one of those buttons below.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Reading on the beach in St. Lucia

What is this notion that we need some sort of different reading list in the summer?  Once you are out of school, in America, at least, you don’t have long, uninterrupted periods of time to read. I tend to read on the airplane, and put the books away at my destination. Too busy looking at people and things to be looking at pages.

Nevertheless, people keep cranking out summer reading lists, and I keep compulsively reading those lists–if not all of the books they list.  These lists suggest books that would fit on the traveler’s library shelves.

The blog Perceptive Travel suggests a list that is getting a lot of attention on the Internet. Something different for your travel reads–graphic travel books. (If that is a new term to you–we’re talking a good step up from comic books, but stories pictorially told, nevertheless.)

Who better than a librarian to suggest a list of travel books? Here is one from a Golden, Colorado Librarian , Joyce Deming. The article comes from the online Golden newspaper, The Hub.

National Geographic Traveler majors in travel, and travel writer Don George stirs in the books to read. Don  is not really presenting a summer list, because he does these columns for the Traveler several times a year, and he does come up with some sterling books for travelers.

The New York Times brings us a collection of books about travel with a purpose.

There may be others, but I think these are the best.  Do you disagree with any of the travel book selections made here? Do you think they missed something essential in new travel books? Join the conversation.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Recent travel literature reviewed by Don George at National Geographic.

Eight Books You Shouldn’t Travel Without by Frank Bures at World Hum.

And I almost forgot about Brooklyn Nomad’s piece with good recommendations.

In my previous post, I listed ten places that I needed suggestions for. It looks like we have Vietnam well covered, some suggestions on Scotland and Australia. That leaves seven places that still need books! Come on, help out. And special thanks to my twitter friends.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.