Editors Reads Verdict
The most readable history of Machu Picchu and the Andean citadel context — self-deprecating about the author's discomforts, rigorous about the history, and completely honest about the colonial complications of Bingham's 'discovery'.
What We Loved
- The dual narrative — Adams's journey and Bingham's original expeditions — is perfectly balanced
- Adams's self-deprecating voice as a physically unprepared desk journalist makes the adventure sections both funny and readable
- The historical research on Hiram Bingham and the controversy over his treatment of Inca artefacts is genuinely illuminating
- The Peruvian Andes — the altitude, the villages, the landscape — is rendered with specific, convincing detail
Minor Drawbacks
- The jokes about physical discomfort can outstay their welcome in the middle section
- Readers who want pure travelogue rather than historical investigation may find the Bingham sections slow
- The book's conclusions about the ethics of exploration are handled carefully but somewhat cautiously
Key Takeaways
- → Hiram Bingham 'discovered' Machu Picchu in the sense that he introduced it to the Western world — local Quechua people had known it throughout
- → The Inca road system connecting Cusco to Machu Picchu was an engineering achievement as significant as the citadel itself
- → Archaeological 'discovery' in the early 20th century was inseparable from colonial extraction — Bingham removed thousands of artefacts
| Author | Mark Adams |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Plume |
| Pages | 322 |
| Published | January 1, 2011 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Travel Writing, History, Adventure |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Travellers planning to visit Peru and Machu Picchu, history readers interested in the Inca civilisation and the ethics of discovery, and fans of self-deprecating adventure writing. |
Mark Adams was, by his own description, the last person who should have been hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. As executive editor at a travel magazine, he had spent fifteen years commissioning other people’s adventures from behind a desk in New York — and when he finally decided to retrace Hiram Bingham’s 1911 journey through the Peruvian Andes, he hired an experienced Australian explorer named John Leivers to guide him, and packed boots he had never broken in.
Turn Right at Machu Picchu (2011) works as both adventure travelogue and serious historical investigation, and both strands are engaging. Adams’s own journey — through Cusco, along remote Andean trails, over high passes at altitudes that kept doing unpleasant things to his body — is narrated with genuine comic self-deprecation. Leivers, the experienced guide, treats Adams with the measured patience a professional reserves for a client who is trying their best.
The historical strand is more substantial. Hiram Bingham III was a Yale lecturer in Latin American history who reached Machu Picchu in July 1911 with a Peruvian guide named Melchor Arteaga — who knew exactly where he was leading the expedition, because he had farmed there. The citadel had never been “lost” to the Peruvian locals; it had been unknown to the Western world, which is a different thing. Adams traces this distinction carefully, and also investigates the controversy surrounding the thousands of Inca artefacts Bingham removed to Yale — artefacts that Peru spent decades trying to repatriate, and that were finally returned in 2011, the centenary of Bingham’s arrival.
The Peru of the book — its landscape, its altitude, its villages, its specific quality of light and isolation — is one of the best available accounts of what the Inca heartland actually looks and feels like to walk through.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Turn Right at Machu Picchu" about?
A desk-bound travel editor retraces Hiram Bingham's 1911 journey to Machu Picchu through the Peruvian Andes, interweaving his own misadventures with the controversial history of the 'discovery' that wasn't.
Who should read "Turn Right at Machu Picchu"?
Travellers planning to visit Peru and Machu Picchu, history readers interested in the Inca civilisation and the ethics of discovery, and fans of self-deprecating adventure writing.
What are the key takeaways from "Turn Right at Machu Picchu"?
Hiram Bingham 'discovered' Machu Picchu in the sense that he introduced it to the Western world — local Quechua people had known it throughout The Inca road system connecting Cusco to Machu Picchu was an engineering achievement as significant as the citadel itself Archaeological 'discovery' in the early 20th century was inseparable from colonial extraction — Bingham removed thousands of artefacts
Is "Turn Right at Machu Picchu" worth reading?
The most readable history of Machu Picchu and the Andean citadel context — self-deprecating about the author's discomforts, rigorous about the history, and completely honest about the colonial complications of Bingham's 'discovery'.
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