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

This guide contains everything you need to plan and enjoy hiking a choice of three Inca Trails to Machu Picchu in Peru. Step-by-step sections cover the Classic trail (4-5 days), the longer, more strenuous trek from Mollepata (6-7 days) and the Shortest option (2 days). The book includes: drop-down map showing all three trails (three panels); detailed site plan of Machu Picchu ruins (two panels); detailed description of Machu Picchu, with side-trips and photographs; background on Inca culture and stonework, Andean wildlife and modern Peru; advice on planning and preparation, including a packing checklist; medical advice on how to prevent and manage altitude symptoms; phrasebook in Spanish, Quechua and English; in full colour, with over 75 photographs.

The book includes:

* Drop-down flap with map of all three trails and a detailed site plan of Machu Picchu.

* Over 75 colour photographs illustrating the trails, wildlife and Inca ruins.

* Advice on planning and preparation, including fitness training and packing checklist.

* Medical advice on how to prevent and manage symptoms of altitude sickness.

* Background information on Inca culture, the ruins and modern Peru.

* Information about the Andean wildlife to be seen along the trail.

* Reference information and vocabulary in Spanish, Quechua and English.

Jacquetta Megarry is an enthusiastic walker turned publisher. She devised the Rucksack Reader format to suit the needs of hikers, and walked these trails in 2001 to research and take photographs for this book. Roy Davies is a science librarian at the University of Exeter. Roy first walked the Inca Trail in 1989, and his long-standing interest in the Trail is reflected in his comprehensive website.

From the Introduction: "The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is unlike any other hike. You may be able to walk up mountains that are higher or tougher, to visit archaeological sites that are older or larger, or to find nature reserves with more or rarer species. But there is nowhere on earth where you will experience such a gratifying combination of stunning scenery, physical challenge and spectacular plant life. Yet hiking the trail is only an extended prelude to arriving at arguably the most photogenic ruins on the planet.

Machu Picchu combines mystery, beauty and history in equal proportions. It represents the apogee of an extraordinary civilisation that was destroyed by one of strangest conquests in history. Mysteriously, the city was abandoned even before it was completely finished. Miraculously, it escaped discovery by the Spanish conquistadors. Its superb engineering has withstood earthquakes, five centuries of neglect and the encroachment of the tropical jungle. In July 1911, it was found almost accidentally by an American.

Although it is possible to visit Machu Picchu as a day-trip from Cusco by train or helicopter, hiking the trail provides the most authentic and satisfying approach. After walking for several days through narrow undulating valleys, making visits to ruins that are successively more extensive and finer, the stage is set for your final approach to Intipunku, the Gate of the Sun.

From Intipunku, the spectacle below of the ruined city draped over its ridge is so compelling that it must have been planned. The Incas surely created this succession of vistas culminating in Machu Picchu both as a pilgrimage and a religious work of art on a vast scale."