Literary Travel to Peru

Literary Travel to Peru

I was lucky enough to travel to Peru with nine high school students and a teaching partner recently.  We traveled from June 22nd to July 2nd, 2015.

Peru is a very cool place with such a varied geography and culture. We started our journey in Lima, Peru on the Pacific ocean and met wonderful people and ate some excellent ceviche.  We then traveled to the Andes Mountains and spent time in the Sacred Valley, at Machu Picchu and Cuzco.  The mountains are so beautiful and I have no words for how amazing it is.  I didn't want to leave.  The mountains were definitely my favorite part of the trip and the little old ladies were the best!  We then flew to Puerto Maldanado in the Amazon Rainforest where we traveled two hours downriver on the Madre de Dios and we stayed in a eco lodge.  This place was like heaven on earth and it was really hot and humid.  We fed monkeys and caiman and hiked through the jungle.  I loved, loved the loud noises of the jungle.

Whenever I travel, I choose to read a book about the place I'm visiting and it always enhances my experience.  It was hard to choose just one book to carry with me.  Here is the group of books I had to choose from.  I hope you find one or two to enhance your literary journey to Peru.

The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland by Hugh Thompson

This is the book I carried all over Peru.  It was so perfect for me. The White Rock is full of Inca history and the history of Peru.  The White Rock has chapters titled on Inca ruins, places I visited and places I didn't.  This book was a great traveling companion and informed me of all I needed to know.  Highly recommend.  the only downside it was written around 10 years ago.  I had a hard time finding recent books written about Peru as this one seemed to be the most current.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Following in the footsteps of the explorers Gene Savoy and Hiram Bingham, Thomson set off into the jungle to find the lost city of Llactapat. This is the story of his journey to discover it via the interconnecting paths the Incas laid across the Andes.


Eight Feet in the Andes; Travels with a Mule from Ecuador to Cuzco by Dervla Murphy

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The eight feet belong to Dervla Murphy, her nine-year-old daughter Rachel and Juana, an elegant mule, who together clambered the length of Peru, from Cajamarca on the border with Ecuador, to Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital, over 1300 miles to the south. With only the most basic necessities to sustain them and spending most of their time above 10,000 feet, their journey was marked by extreme discomfort, occasional danger and even the temporary loss of Juana over a precipice. Yet mother and daughter, a formidable duo, were unflagging in their sympathetic response to the perilous beauty and impoverished people of the Andes.

Inca Kola; a traveler's tale of Peru by Matthew Ferris

I love the cover on this one.  Inca Kola is actually the brand name of their soda pop company.  I actually bought a shirt for son that says Inca Kola.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
Paperback. Pub Date: 1993 08 Pages: 248 in Publisher: Orion Paperbacks Inca-Kola is the funny. Absorbing account of Matthew Parriss fourth trip to Peru on a bizarre holiday which takes him among bandits. Prostitutes. peasants and riots He and his three companions seem to head into trouble. not away from it. and he describes the troubles. curiosities and wonders they meet with the spell-binding fascination of a traveller relating adventures over the campfire. 'A backpacker's classic:
atmospheric. touching. instructive and compulsively readable 'The Times.

Cradle of Gold; The Story of Hiram Bingham, A Real-Life Indiana Jones and the Search for Machu Picchu by Christopher Heaney.

This is the book I wanted to read but couldn't find in my local library.  Indiana Jones is based on the explorer, Hiram Bingham who is credited as the scientific discoverer of Machu Picchu.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
In 1911, a young Peruvian boy led an American explorer and Yale historian named Hiram Bingham into the ancient Incan citadel of Machu Picchu. Hidden amidst the breathtaking heights of the Andes, this settlement of temples, tombs and palaces was the Incas' greatest achievement. Tall, handsome, and sure of his destiny, Bingham believed that Machu Picchu was the Incas' final refuge, where they fled the Spanish Conquistadors. Bingham made Machu Picchu famous, and his dispatches from the jungle cast him as the swashbuckling hero romanticized today as a true Indiana Jones-like character. But his excavation of the site raised old specters of conquest and plunder, and met with an indigenous nationalism that changed the course of Peruvian history. Though Bingham successfully realized his dream of bringing Machu Picchu's treasure of skulls, bones and artifacts back to the United States, conflict between Yale and Peru persists through the present day over a simple question: Who owns Inca history?

In this grand, sweeping narrative, Christopher Heaney takes the reader into the heart of Peru's past to relive the dramatic story of the final years of the Incan empire, the exhilarating recovery of their final
cities and the thought-provoking fight over their future. Drawing on original research in untapped archives, Heaney vividly portrays both a stunning landscape and the complex history of a fascinating
region that continues to inspire awe and controversy today.

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim Macquarrie

One of the teachers I traveled with was reading this book in Peru.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Kim MacQuarrie lived in Peru for five years and became fascinated by the Incas and the history of the Spanish conquest. Drawing on both native and Spanish chronicles, he vividly describes the dramatic story of the conquest, with all its savagery and suspense. This authoritative, exciting history is among the most powerful and important accounts of the culture of the South American Indians and the Spanish Conquest.

There is a lot of non-fiction written about Peru and is much harder to find fiction.  Yet, I found some.
These last two books are fiction:

Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer.  Several of his books take place in Peru but many do not.  I have never read any of his books but I noticed them in all the airport bookstores in Peru.  So reading Llosa would be a good way to experience Peru.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:
Set in an isolated, rundown community in the Peruvian Andes, Vargas Llosa's novel tells the story of a series of mysterious disappearances involving the Shining Path guerrillas and a local couple performing cannibalistic sacrifices with strange similarities to the Dionysian rituals of ancient Greece. Part detective novel and part political allegory, it offers a panoramic view of Peruvian society; not only of the current political violence and social upheaval, but also of the country's past and its connection to Indian culture and
pre-Hispanic mysticism.

God of Luck by Ruthann Lum McCunn

I love this author and have read several of her books.  I will definitely be reading God of Luck.  The Chinese culture is prevalent in Peru, especially in Lima.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

“ Held me captive right from the start.”—Alan Cheuse, NPR, All Things Considered

“Her clear voice and simple but elegant style easily turns this work into a real page-turner.”—Library Journal

“A vivid tale of a faraway time.”—Asian Week

“Beautifully combines the hardships and brutality of the kidnapping of a Chinese man, conditions on the slave ships, and the bitterness of backbreaking labor in a foreign land with the sadness and determination of a wife and family back home. . . . A story of emotional depth and truth.”—Lisa See, author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

“Will keep readers spellbound and cheering to the final page.”—Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, author of Farewell to Manzanar

“I love God of Luck.”—Da Chen, author of Brothers

Ah Lung and his beloved wife, Bo See, are separated by cruel fate when, like thousands of other Chinese men in the nineteenth century, he is kidnapped, enslaved, and shipped to the deadly guano mines off the coast of Peru. Praying to the God of Luck and using their own wits, they never lose hope of someday being reunited.

So there you have it folks.  I wish you all the opportunity to travel to Peru and experience the wonders Peru has to offer.  If there are any books about Peru you have read and can add to the list, please put in the comments.

Literary Journey to Berlin, Germany

Literary Travel to Berlin, Germany

I just returned from a wonderful weekend in Berlin.  I met some awesome teachers from around the United States and learned so much about the history of Berlin and experienced the unique German culture.  It was amazing.  The German people are so nice and friendly.  The public transportation system is awesome, the food is good and the history is memorable.

The are a multitude of books and films that take place in Berlin.  If you can't travel there in person, you can always take a literary journey.

Here are some of the books I found:

The Good German by Joseph Kanon

This is the book I took to Germany with me.  I always read a book that takes place in the area I am traveling to.  I knew I wanted a book that started after WWII and this was it.  It was perfect.  I visited many of the places I was reading about in the book.  It was so cool.  I learned so much about the occupation of Germany after the war and the devastation that permeated Berlin.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
With World War II finally ending, Jake Geismar, former Berlin correspondent for CBS, has wangled one of the coveted press slots for the Potsdam Conference. His assignment: a series of articles on the Allied occupation. His personal agenda: to find Lena, the German mistress he left behind at the outbreak of the war.
When Jake stumbles on a murder -- an American soldier washes up on the conference grounds -- he thinks he has found the key that will unlock his Berlin story. What Jake finds instead is a larger story of corruption and intrigue reaching deep into the heart of the occupation. Berlin in July 1945 is like nowhere else -- a tragedy, and a feverish party after the end of the world.

As Jake searches the ruins for Lena, he discovers that years of war have led to unimaginable displacement and degradation. As he hunts for the soldier's killer, he learns that Berlin has become a city of secrets, a lunar landscape that seethes with social and political tension. When the two searches become entangled, Jake comes to understand that the American Military Government is already fighting a new enemy in the east, busily identifying the "good Germans" who can help win the next war. And hanging over everything is the larger crime, a crime so huge that it seems -- the worst irony -- beyond punishment.

At once a murder mystery, a moving love story, and a riveting portrait of a unique time and place, The Good German is a historical thriller of the first rank.

Joseph Kanon has a new book out called Leaving Berlin, released in April 2015.  This one takes

place in 1949 and looks really, really good.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
From the bestselling author of Istanbul Passage, called a "fast-moving thinking man's thriller" by The Wall Street Journal, comes a sweeping, atmospheric novel of postwar East Berlin, a city caught between political idealism and the harsh realities of Soviet occupation.

Berlin 1948. Almost four years after the war's end, the city is still in ruins, a physical wasteland and a political symbol about to rupture. In the West, a defiant, blockaded city is barely surviving on airlifted supplies; in the East, the heady early days of political reconstruction are being undermined by the murky compromises of the Cold War. Espionage, like the black market, is a fact of life. Even culture has become a battleground, with German intellectuals being lured back from exile to add credibility to the competing sectors.

Alex Meier, a young Jewish writer, fled the Nazis for America before the war. But the politics of his youth have now put him in the crosshairs of the McCarthy witch-hunts. Faced with deportation and the loss of his family, he makes a desperate bargain with the fledgling CIA: he will earn his way back to America by acting as their agent in his native Berlin. But almost from the start things go fatally wrong. A kidnapping misfires, an East German agent is killed, and Alex finds himself a wanted man. Worse, he discovers his real assignment is to spy on the woman he left behind, the only woman he has ever loved. Changing sides in Berlin is as easy as crossing a sector border. But where do we draw the lines of our moral boundaries? Betrayal? Survival? Murder?

Filled with intrigue, and the moral ambiguity of conflicted loyalties, Joseph Kanon's new novel is a compelling thriller and a love story that brings a shadowy period of history vividly to life.

The Innocent by Ian McEwan

Psychological thriller set in Berlin during the Cold War, based on an actual (but little known) incident which tells of the secret tunnel under the Soviet sector which the British and Americans built in 1954 to gain access to the Russians' communication system. The protagonist, Leonard Marnham, is a 25-year-old, naive, unsophisticated English post office technician who is astonished and alarmed to find himself involved in a top-secret operation. At the same time that he loses his political innocence, Leonard experiences his sexual initiation in a clandestine affair with a German divorcee five years his senior. As his two secret worlds come together, events develop into a gruesome nightmare, building to a searing, unforgettable scene of surrealist intensity in which Leonard and his lover try to conceal evidence of a murder. Acting to save himself from a prison sentence, Leonard desperately performs an act of espionage whose ironic consequences resonate down the years to a twister of an ending. Though its plot rivals any thriller in narrative tension, this novel is also a character study--of a young man coming of age in bizarre circumstances, and of differences in national character: the gentlemanly Brits, all decorum and civility; the brash, impatient Americans; the cynical Germans.

McEwan's neat, tensile prose raises this book to the highest level of the genre.

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Translated by Michael Hoffman

This book was suggested by one of my tour guides in Berlin.

"The greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis." -Primo Levi

This never-before-translated masterpiece-by a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn't join the Nazi Party-is based on a true story.

It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail, and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in.

In the end, it's more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest order-it's a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what's right, and each other.

Hans Fallada was one of Germany's best-selling authors-ranking with Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse-prior to the rise of the Nazis. But while those writers fled Germany, Fallada stayed. Refusing to join the Nazi Party, he suffered numerous difficulties, including incarceration in an insane asylum. After the war, he wrote Every Man Dies Alone based on an actual Gestapo file. He died just before its publication in 1947.

There is excellent Non-Fiction as well.  Several of the books here were suggested by one of my tour guides in Berlin.

Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 by Marie Vassiltchikov

The secret diaries of a twenty-three-year-old White Russian princess who worked in the German Foreign Office from 1940 to 1944 and then as a nurse, these pages give us a unique picture of wartime life in that sector of German society from which the 20th of July Plot -- the conspiracy to kill Hitler -- was born.


Includes index.

In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.

A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men
of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947
by Christopher Munro Clark

Iron Kingdom traces Prussia's involvement in the continent's foundational religious and political conflagrations: from the devastations of the Thirty Years War through centuries of political machinations to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, from the enlightenment of Frederick the Great to the destructive conquests of Napoleon, and from the "iron and blood" policies of Bismarck to the creation of the German Empire in 1871, with all that implied for the tumultuous twentieth century.

FILM 

Here are some movies and documentary films that one of the tour guides suggested to watch if you
want to learn more about Germany and Berlin.

The Good German was made into a film in 2006.
Girls in Uniform (also a book) was made into a film in the 1930s.
BBC- Behind Closed Doors on World War II
BBC - Frederick the Great and the Enigma of Prussia

The BBC films can be found on YouTube.

Are there other books and film you suggest?
Please comment.

Enjoy your literary journey to Berlin.

Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day by Doug Mack

Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day; One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide by Doug Mack

One day, Doug Mack is out with his mom scanning stacks of used books when he stumbles upon a worn copy of Frommer's, Europe on 5 dollars a day, written in 1963.  It just so happens that his mother used the exact same travel guide on her Grand Tour of Europe in 1967 and she was so excited that Doug found a copy of it, she was jumping up and down.

When Doug and his mom got to talking, he discovered that her trip was well documented as she had saved all her letters and postcards to his father and his return letters.  He grew up reading travel memoirs and inherited the travel bug and from his parents, so he decided to travel to Europe using Frommer's book as his guide, as a sort of experiment to see if he could travel cheaply without the use of the internet. He also wanted to document how things have changed in Europe since 1963.

Doug's European Grand Tour:

Florence, Italy:  First stop.  Full of awe and amazement. Visits Statue of David and has a museum overload.  So much art, architecture and gelato.

Paris, France:  Something's Gotta Give memorable moment.  Favorite place; Montmartre at sunset.

Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Anne Frank's house is a must see.  Beer drinking, bar hopping and people watching.  Must tour the red light district.

Next stops include;  Brussels, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Venice, Rome and Madrid.

Mack is a witty writer and Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day is well-researched and a interesting look into the history of travel, Frommer style.  It also contains some of the post war history of the European countries and cities that he visits.  It is very entertaining and I found myself getting a strong case of wanderlust and reminiscing about my travels in Europe and wanting to go back, like, right now!  Mack includes lots of travel advice and of course his musing's on tourism and traveling.

Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day contains some of Doug's parent's letters as well as a few pictures of his travels.  It is full of entertaining stories of getting lost and almost killed and so much more.  He includes 5 lists in the back of the book on such topics as 5 things you can actually buy for 5 dollars in Europe today.

Traveling is a life changing experience and you learn so much about yourself and the places you visit.  I have only visited two of the cities out of the eleven that Doug Mack travels to and I have to say that I learned some very interesting tidbits from Reading Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day and I'm hoping to go to Rome and Athens this summer.  Fingers crossed.

This is excellent book to read if you are planning a trip to Europe and even if you're just traveling via armchair, you will have a grand adventure and then get to sleep in your own bed.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

At age 44, Bill Bryson decided he wanted to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.  The Appalachian Trail spans fourteen states and some 2200 miles.  Bill is a first time backpacker who needs to get set up with equipment, check out maps and make a plan.  Hiking this distance takes time, preparation and skill.  Bryson is inexperienced and has no idea how to survive in the wilderness.  He spells out his goals, (to see a rare salamander) and his fears, (getting eaten by a bear) and sets off on the trail in Georgia with his friend Katz.


Katz, is Bill's over weight, out of shape, friend from 20 years ago, who agrees to hike the first part of the trail.  This "walk" will be a good way to invigorate their long lost friendship.  Georgia happens to be experiencing a record cold Spring as the two walk north to Maine.  The two survive by their wits, eating noodles, snickers, and slim jims.  They meet some interesting and annoying people along the way as they hike through snow, fog, rain, heat and humidity carrying everything they need on their backs.

A Walk in the Woods is a hilarious romp through the Appalachian wilderness.  Bryson details the history and geography of the trail.  He talks about landmarks, National Parks, the park service and describes the joys of a bed, warm showers, clean clothes and good food after the stress and hard work of back packing. 

I loved this book and could really relate to it as I am a backpacker.  I have only backpacked on The Superior Hiking Trail in Northern Minnesota which follows the ridge line of Lake Superior.  It is about 286 miles and I personally have backpacked about 60 miles of it.  It is so beautiful.  Last summer, I turned 44 and I took my 13 year old son and introduced him to the joys of hiking on the trail.  He loved it!   After reading A Walk in the Woods, I am seriously thinking I need to backpack a part of the Appalachian Trail.  It sounds so amazing and beautiful. 

A Walk in the Woods is a great way to participate in a journey into nature from your comfy chair.  I felt like I was right there with Bill and Katz as they experienced the trail for the first time and then became veteran backpackers.  A Walk in the Woods is a journey worth taking and one that will have you laughing all the way to your front porch swing.  Happy Hiking and Reading!