Summary of Mark Adams's Turn Right at Machu Picchu

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 John Leivers, a guide in Cusco, had been recommended to me. He had started coming to Cusco twenty years ago when he was working as an extreme-trip leader, driving fearless globe-trotters across four continents in an open-back truck. He had seen interest in serious adventure dwindle. People wanted hotels, cafés, and the Internet.

#2 Hiram Bingham III was the explorer who discovered Machu Picchu. He was a Yale University history lecturer who happened to be passing through Cusco in 1909 when he learned of a four-hundred-year-old unsolved mystery. He thought the experts were wrong, and he scoured obscure texts and maps for clues to its location.

#3 I wanted to retrace Bingham’s route through the Andes on the way to discovering Machu Picchu.

#4 The Inca Trail is a popular trek in Peru that leads to Machu Picchu. It is not very far, but it is a bit steep. It is a must-do if you want to get a sense of Peru’s natural beauty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669387732

IRB Media

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Insights from Chapter 1

#1

John Leivers, a guide in Cusco, had been recommended to me. He had started coming to Cusco twenty years ago when he was working as an extreme-trip leader, driving fearless globe-trotters across four continents in an open-back truck. He had seen interest in serious adventure dwindle. People wanted hotels, cafés, and the Internet.

#2

Hiram Bingham III was the explorer who discovered Machu Picchu. He was a Yale University history lecturer who happened to be passing through Cusco in 1909 when he learned of a four-hundred-year-old unsolved mystery. He thought the experts were wrong, and he scoured obscure texts and maps for clues to its location.

#3

I wanted to retrace Bingham’s route through the Andes on the way to discovering Machu Picchu.

#4

The Inca Trail is a popular trek in Peru that leads to Machu Picchu. It is not very far, but it is a bit steep. It is a must-do if you want to get a sense of Peru’s natural beauty.

#5

The hike to Llactapata was a lot harder than the Inca Trail. It was a hundred miles of walking, and we would go north, through the mountains, left toward the jungle, then double back toward Cusco.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Cusco is a city in Peru that was the center of the Inca empire. It was sacred to the Incas, who considered it the navel of their world. The Sapa Inca was the ruler of it all, and his power derived not only from his parentage but from his religious status as the son of Inti, the sun god.

#2

I met with John the next day at a fake English pub. I was to bring a cook, who would need four mules to carry the food and gear. I was to focus on my core, upper back, and joints, as my body would take a lot of abuse on the expedition.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

The ability to arrive uninvited in an alien land and convince your hosts that almost everything they believe is wrong requires a rather forceful personality. The Reverend Bingham, Bingham’s grandfather, was a missionary who sought to Christianize Hawaii by bending its inhabitants to his will.

#2

Hiram Bingham II, the son of Hiram Bingham I, was sent to the Gilbert Islands in 1856 to spread the word of God to the inhabitants. He spent nearly two decades evangelizing the islands, but only a few dozen souls