Cultured Travel Guide Books - Along the Inca Road: A Woman's Journey into an Ancient Empire (Adventure Press) |
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 918.044
EAN: 9780792276852
ISBN: 079227685X
Label: National Geographic
Manufacturer: National Geographic
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2000-09-01
Publisher: National Geographic
Release Date: 2000-09-01
Studio: National Geographic |
| Spotlight Customer Reviews: |
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful read!
Comment: Although this is a National Geographic travel chronicle it reads more like an adventure story. You will not believe what Karin gets herself in to. I don't want to say more for it would spoil your adventure with the book.
This book is also a wonderful exploration of an amazing area. For those who have not been to Peru or neighboring countries, it is a good taste. For those who have visited, it will stir up good memories.
Enjoy!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: not a trek to emulate!
Comment: Like other reviewers, my first complaint about this book is the lack of a map!
The drifts into lectures on the Spaniards invasion of the Inca empire got tiresome because there was nothing new to anyone who has read any history of South America already. I found the jumping into local (mostly men's or government-related) activities sometimes surprising and adventurous, sometimes appalling. And it sounds like everything was dirty and the food mostly unappetizing or disgusting, both of which I find hard to believe.
That said, I admire a woman who would undertake such a trek on a semi-solo basis (having a photographer along takes away much of the solo aspect). I found the first chapter, the brink of the adventure, the most appealing. It would have been interesting to have a little more background on Karin herself and on how National Geographic funded it. Did she have to stay in hovels because there weren't enough funds, or was that a personal choice (likely because she notes her disdain for luxury hotels).
Basically, I was glad I read the library's copy and didn't purchase my own.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Read it for the adventure, not the facts.
Comment: I decided to read this book with much caution; it seemed at best a very superficial account of an adventurous travel narrative. While I applaud the author's courage and willingness to endanger herself for the sake of telling a good story, her willingness to learn about Andean traditions along the Inca road camouflages her ingrained ignorance and arrogance of people and cultures of the Andean region.
I did not expect to read an anthropological analysis of the author's encounters along the Inca Road, but neither did I expect her demeaning attitude of indigenous culture. Muller's treatment of events and traditions she encountered reflects a shallow understanding of Andean cultures. The precise moment where my disgust of the author's vision overcame my interest in her adventures occurred when she described an Aymara person speaking in a mixture of broken Spanish and in the Aymara dialect. This statement completely overlooks the fact that Spanish varieties exist in various forms and that the Aymara language was never a dialect, but a language of a civilization that predates the Incas.
For centuries, the process of translating cultures has exacerbated the conditions of difference, and the wide gap between the "us versus them". While, the author seems to want to avoid further alienation between the materialistically modernized, namely herself, and the Andean world, her contributions fall into this category. She paints herself a heroic woman, challenging social roles and customs, but along the way proves that the stereotypical version of the "ugly American" still exists in ignorant travelers.
While I commend her efforts in her travel narrative, I caution all readers to not read her book for cultural understanding of the region.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Winter Gateway
Comment: This is an exellent book to read, while snow and ice falls from the sky. Heading to South America next year, found it to be a great starting point to plan the trip. She has a some great stories to share with others on the trip.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I don't really know why I didn't like this book that much...
Comment: The strange thing about this book is that theoretically everything's fine about it - looking for and at the remains of a fascinating culture, the author taking part in the local rituals and daily life, writing of acceptable quality. It should be grand - and still I don't like it for some reason. What made this book quite tiresome was Karin Muller's lack of a sense of humor. It is my firm belief that it is very hard to write a breathtaking book about a difficult journey without being able to see the funny side of different situations. Perhaps that was why I can't say I like the author as a person - and since this book is based on her personal experiences, that itself takes away from the fun of reading this book. Also - as another reviewer correctly noted - she constantly tries to do things that are only done by men in this country, ignoring the gender roles there are a part of the local culture. Is it some misguided attempt to show that women are equal to men? It's certainly very out of place in this country of so ancient traditions. Karin Muller's descriptions lack real vividness, and she is considers too many local people to be weird. True, their lifestyle is quite different, but it can be said with absolute certainty that so are the lifestyles of many individuals of her own country. She gives fake respect to the world views of these people, talking about how perhaps that is the right way to live. It is obvious she doesn't have the intention of ever doing so. My review is almost certainly too negative, do not expect the book to be so bad, but I have outlined the main faults simply trying to guess why I instinctively didn't like this book. And - too much amateur philosophy, perhaps?
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| Editorial Reviews: |
In its heyday, the Royal Inca Highway was an extraordinary feat of engineering. Meriting comparisons to the Great Wall of China, legend has it that the route was built not by men, but by the gods. An essential component of the far-flung Inca Empire, the original course of the 3,200-mile Inca Road remains a source of speculation. Along the Inca Road is the dramatic account of Karin Muller's seven-month adventure following and documenting her experiences along these ancient routes. Affording a rare and revealing glimpse into the present-day descendants of the Inca, Muller's odyssey begins at the border of Ecuador and continues down the Andes, culminating in Santiago, near the southernmost reach of the Inca Empire. Along the way, Muller has a tense encounter with Brazilian soldiers, tries her hand at bullfighting at a festival in the ancient Inca town of Ollantaytambo, joins in the yearly roundup and shearing of the endangered Peruvian vicuna, accompanies the Ecuadorian military on a de-mining patrol through the beautiful Cordillera of the Condors, and much more. A compelling story of a woman's solo journey through the heart of an elusive land, the literally groundbreaking Along the Inca Road will be released in conjunction with a highly touted documentary on National Geographic Explorer and National Geographic channels, airing in fifty-four countries.
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