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Turn Right At Machu Picchu by Mark Adams

Cover of Turn Right At Machu Picchu by Mark Adams

Turn Right At Machu Picchu: Rediscovering The Lost City One Step At A Time by Mark Adams is a history / travel book published in 2011.

In 1909, Hiram Bingham III was a Yale professor who found himself in Cusco, Peru. While there, the local prefect told him of a centuries-old legend – when the Spanish invaded, the Incas withdrew to a hidden city in Peru’s impenetrable cloud forest that has never been found. Bingham thought this could be his lucky break to becoming rich and famous, and it was – except not in the way he predicted. While searching for the hidden city, Bingham found Machu Picchu instead on July 24, 1911.

Author Mark Adams decides to retrace Bingham’s exact months-long route through the Andes mountains and thick jungle… despite the fact that he had never hunted or fished, didn’t have a mountain bike, can’t start a fire without matches, and hadn’t slept in a tent before. The history of the Inca civilization, Bingham’s “discovery” of Machu Picchu, and Adams’ own travel narrative are each intertwined to create this engaging NY Times Bestseller.

Machu Picchu is one of the 7 Wonders Of The World

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Enjoy!

Table of Contents

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Peru Information
  • Peru’s geography is one of the most diverse in the world
    • Rainforests (including unmapped Amazon)
    • Mountains (22,000+ ft peaks)
    • Deserts (including the driest on Earth)
    • Hotspot for seismic & volcanic activity
    • World’s deepest canyon (Colca Canyon = 2x deeper than Grand Canyon)
    • 34 types of climatic zones on the face of the earth… Peru has 20
  • Llamas were important for the Incas:
    • Wool
    • Pack Mules
    • Meat
  • The cloud forest in Peru can grow over in about three years and can get over 40 feet high
The Incan Empire
  • Empire spanned 2,500 miles & had 10,000,000 people
    • Cusco = the capital
    • Peak years = 1438 – 1532
  • Incas plotted coordinates over thousands of square miles
    • Each site was built in relation to others throughout the entire empire
  • Incas had one of the most sophisticated road systems
    • Relay a message from Quito to Cusco in 12 days (1,000+ mountainous miles)
    • Carry fish 300 miles from the Pacific to Cusco still fresh enough to serve to the emperor
    • Could walk from south Columbia to central Chile
  • Construction is a marvel even with today’s technology
    • Complex water channels & fountains still function
    • Foundations of large buildings in Cusco are still original Incan stones, fit together without mortar so tight you can’t slip a fingernail in between them (even after centuries of earthquakes)
  • No one knows what Machu Picchu was
    • Most likely constructed around 1450, so NOT birthplace of the Incan civilization
    • Popular theories are Incan emperor’s royal estate, higher education & religious center, and more
History of The Incas’ Last Days
  • 1519 — Hernán Cortés of Spain landed in Mexico & conquered the Aztec empire within two years, becoming unbelievably rich
  • 1520 — Francisco Pizarro landed in Panama, took inspiration from Cortés, and went to explore a southern land called “Birú” with rumored riches
  • 1528 — Pizarro was finally convinced of an advanced civilization & returned to Spain to receive permission to conquer these lands
  • 1532 — Pizarro arrived back in Peru with 180 soldiers, horses, and guns (the Incans still used slingshots & clubs)
  • November 1532 — Incans met with Spaniards, thinking it’s only 180 men vs our 30,000 army, BUT Pizarro kidnapped Incan emperor Atahualpa
    • As part of a ransom, 6+ tons of gold were melted down ($350m+ today)
    • Pizarro killed the emperor anyway
  • 1533 — Pizarro put Manco (brother of Atahualpa) on the throne as a puppet ruler
    • Spaniards abused, tortured, enslaved many Incans
    • Manco took command of a massive, hidden native army
  • 1536 — Headquartered at Ollantaytambo, Incans captured Sacsayhuaman and sieged Cusco
  • 1537 — Spanish eventually forced the Incas to flee into the Urubamba Valley
    • Manco retreated to Vitcos, where mountains meet the Amazon jungle
    • Weeks later, Spaniards raided Vitcos
  • 1537 — Manco and the Incas built a new capital at Vilcabamba in the Amazon rainforest
  • 1539 — A civil war broke out between the Pizarro brothers
    • The Spanish armies returned to Cusco
  • 1541 —- Francisco Pizarro was murdered at age 63
    • The seven murderers sought refuge and joined the Incas
  • 1544 —- The 7 Spaniards betrayed & killed Inca emperor Manco
  • 1545 —- Manco’s son Sayri Tupac became emperor
  • 1558 —- Sayri died, his brother Titus Cusi became emperor
    • He is famous for signing a peace treaty with Spain & converting to Catholicism
  • 1571 —- Cusi died, Tupac Amaru the final son of Manco became emperor
    • He was aggressively against the Spanish
  • 1572 — The Spanish declared a final war to rid themselves of Inca
  • July 24, 1572 — Spaniards arrived at Vilcabamba to kill the rest of the Inca but when they arrived, the city was abandoned
    • The Spanish chased emperor Tupac Amaru 200+ miles through the Amazon
    • Decapitated the last Incan emperor & put his head on a pike – it backfired, the Incas started to worship the head & believe one day, the body will rejoin the head and an Incan ruler will rise up
    • There was a city full of people in Vilcabamba – when the Spaniards arrived, there was no one left. Where did the rest of the Incas go?
The Early Years Of Hiram Bingham
  • 1875 — Hiram Bingham III was born in Honolulu
  • 1892 (age 16) — tried to board a steamship to England & get to Africa but was stopped
  • 1894 — entered Yale
  • 1897 — met Alfreda Mitchell, heir to Tiffany Jewelry
  • 1899 — completed masters at UC Berkeley
  • 1900 — began PhD at Harvard, Bingham and Alfreda married
  • 1905 — received doctorate in South American history
    • Woodrow Wilson (president of Princeton at the time) recruited Bingham to teach
  • 1905 — Bingham & Hamilton Rice (explorer) went on a 1,000 mile trek across the Venezuelan & Colombian Andes
    • Extreme jungle; for days the team had only Bingham’s hunting for food
  • 1909 — entered Peru for the first time & fell in love with Cusco
    • Heard about the Lost City of The Incas → When Spaniards invaded, the Incas withdrew to a hidden city in Peru’s impenetrable cloud forest
    • There was a craze for ancient & “lost” cities – Chichen Itza, Valley of the Kings
  • June 8, 1911 — Bingham departed to find the Lost City
Hiram Bingham & Finding Machu Picchu
  • July 1911 — arrived at Mandor Pampa
    • A local told them about a “Huayna Picchu or a Machu Picchu”
    • They promised to look in the morning
  • July 24, 1911 — Bingham “found” Machu Picchu
    • A rainy morning – the local tavernkeeper was not in a hurry
    • Bingham offered money to lead him to the ruins he was bragging about the night before
    • Bingham asked where exactly they were going… the local stared at him, then turned around and pointed straight up at the top of the mountain
    • Bingham’s companions stayed behind
    • Left @ 10 AM, ascended for 80 minutes on all fours through thick cloud forest
    • A family of tenant farmers lived there, renting from the tavernkeeper
    • Buildings were covered with trees, moss, and the growth of 4+ centuries but Bingham could tell the walls of white granite were exquisitely fitted
    • Overlooking the Urubamba river with panoramic, skyscraping mountain peaks
    • The first recorded visit to Machu Picchu was under 5 hours
  • July 1911 — The day after, continued down the Urubamba Valley
    • He knew what he saw was spectacular but wasn’t quite sure what it was – it didn’t match historical descriptions of any sites
    • He had no time for a second look since he was expected at another city
  • July 1911 — stopped at Espiritu Pampa
    • Slightly let down compared to architecture at Cusco, etc & never returned to the ghost town
  • October 15, 1911 — climbed Coropuna Mountain
    • One of the highest in entire hemisphere, with only metal spikes & a cardigan
  • December 21, 1911 — returned to NYC
    • Yale & Nat Geo agreed to fund another expedition
Bingham’s Subsequent Expeditions
  • 1912 — left again for Peru
    • Peru started to preserve indigenous treasures and made a deal where the US could export everything found but Peru could demand it back anytime
  • December 1912 — returned to NYC
    • The expedition was a failure, no artifacts or bones of importance
  • 1913 — National Geographic devoted entire issue to Machu Picchu (the first ever special issue, including 250+ photos)
    • Bingham felt a growing urgency to claim what Machu Picchu had been
    • His theories were the birthplace of the Incas & the Lost City
    • He planned the largest & most expensive expedition yet
  • 1915 — arrived in Peru
    • Informed he’s facing charges of excavating & exporting illegally
    • Smuggled thousands of artifacts out of the country
  • 1915 — returned to the US
    • The expedition was a near-complete failure except for finding the Inca Trail
  • 1916 — joined the National Guard & had 8,000 men under his command in WWI
  • 1922 — elected lieutenant governor of Connecticut
  • 1924 — elected governor & senator of Connecticut
  • 1933 — censured and voted out of Congress for putting a lobbyist on his payroll
  • 1948 — published an account of his adventures in a book called Lost City of the Incas
    • failure to share credit – said he was the first one to see Machu Picchu since the Incas (even though there was a family living there, names were carved into the stone from others, and locals showed him the way)
  • 1964 — Gene Savoy proved that the real Lost City / Vilcabamba was Espiritu Pampa
Author Mark Adams’ Trek
  • Author Mark Adams retraces Bingham’s exact route for months through Andes mountains & thick jungle
    • BUT, he had never hunted or fished, didn’t have a mountain bike, can’t start a fire without matches, and hadn’t slept in a tent
  • Includes many interesting stories within, including:
    • Children in the middle of the jungle who had never heard of the United States
    • The family that originally owned Machu Picchu but sold it to the government for some worthless bonds
    • The former Peruvian president’s wife suing the US in a public dispute because the US won’t return smuggled Peruvian artifacts (remember Hiram Bingham’s original deal was Peru could demand artifacts back at any time)

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