Explore the Inca Trail (Rucksack Reader) [Spiral-bound]

As I hint at in the beginning of this review, what I found most interesting about EXPLORE THE INCA TRAIL is the respect it pays to the indigenous group who still speaks the official Incan language of Quechua. I have always been fascinated by the topic of South America's relationship with its indigenous cultures and how these cultures fused with the Hispanic culture imposed from Spain. My main focus of study in this theme has been the life of Eva Peron ("Evita"), the former first lady of Argentina. Some scholars say that one reason Evita was so popular with Argentina's poor masses was because she had a degree of indigenous Argentine blood. Robert D. Crassweller writes in PERON AND THE ENIGMAS OF ARGENTINA that Evita's brief career was so successful because "she was so profoundly of the ethos.... Like Peron, she was wholly indigenous in origin and formation [page 248]." EXPLORE THE INCA TRAIL describes the fall of the Inca Empire, and describes how the Inca king Atahualpa was betrayed and deceived by the Spaniards. I learned in this book that Atahualpa was murdered on July 26, 1533; eerily, Eva Peron would die of cancer exactly 419 years later, on July 26, 1952. After sharing this bit of information with my co-worker from Peru, I learned something more unusual: he celebrates his birthday on July 26th.

Needless to say, I highly recommend EXPLORE THE INCA TRAIL.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I, taking a grand holiday from Britain, spent part of the time - ten days - in the Inca peaks of Peru. Each day this involved ridiculously strenuous activities - spending hours in the hot sun, climbing hundreds of metres almost vertically along nearly invisible goat tracks, and realising how foolish we were by seeing nobody but our guide the whole time. And then we would burst up into some splendid Inca edifice, towering above the terraces - and find that we were not alone: in every Inca ruin are two or three urchins running gaily around in the thin atmosphere, never panting at all, and taking time off only to try to sell us cold drinks and souvenirs.

We learned our lesson. We made our pilgrimage to Machu Picchu the easy way: first on the tourist train (yes, the one with a necessary oxygen supply by each seat) and then on the bus up the hair pin hillside to the settlement itself. And there, what did we find? Two or three dozen tourists scrambling gaily around in the thin atmosphere while wearing great heavy kit bags, never panting at all, and looking far fresher than us, although they had arrived along the Inca trail. Mad, all mad - and some of them were older than us!

Books like this are absolutely wonderful for armchair trail-blazers like me. On the first level, I am able to see what I missed. (Actually all I missed was the aching joints; we were able to enjoy pretty well all the rest - "there is nowhere on earth where you will experience such a gratifying combination of stunning scenery, physical challenge and spectacular plant life... arguably the most photogenic ruins on the planet.") On a higher level, an hour or two with this book would allow me to be able to sparkle at any dinner party by describing my adventures on the Inca trail. Higher still, with little more study, I am sure I could persuade a real Inca trail hiker that I had followed any of the three main walking routes to those splendid ruins.

All that's because this is no mere guide book: sure, it provides plenty of well written text and many superb illustrations (frightening mountain scenes, many Inca structures, and loads of wildlife - from condors and guanacos to marvellous tiny plants) to describe so much of that wonderful Andean wilderness. But it does a great deal more: here you find full details of every kilometre of each of those three routes, a wealth of health and safety information, even Spanish and local vocabulary. Arguably this is an encouraging book: "This stiff climb will provide the most serious test of your fitness and acclimatisation so far." "Just plod on steadily and you will make good progress." "The campsite here tends to be busy, and once it had a bad reputation for theft."
Without doubt, you have to be mad to set out on such walks as these - but it would be truly insane to do them without this excellent book in your bag.