Along the Inca Road: A Woman's Journey into an Ancient Empire (Adventure Press)

Throughout her adventures, Muller weaves a lively history of the rise and fall of the Incan empire. While the old road is hard to find, the Incan legacy is everywhere, from curanderismo (shamanism) to roundups of golden-fleeced vicunas by villagers spread in human chains to the farming of coca leaves. Her explication of the coca tradition is particularly interesting: the "quintessential Andean sacrament" and the ultimate marker of indigenous identity, chewing coca leaves is akin to sharing a cup of coffee. Of course, she also joins a Bolivian special forces drug patrol in the Amazon to see the more familiar face of cocaine. While Muller doesn't slow down long enough for introspection or much genuine human connection (and you have to occasionally wonder about her cultural sensitivity), she does have a remarkable knack for putting herself in the middle of events, and an unflagging enthusiasm for taking risks most tourists wouldn't dream of. --Lesley Reed

Product Description

One of the engineering wonders of the world, the Inca Road was built more than five hundred years ago to link the far-flung outposts of a fabled empire -- an empire that ruled in golden splendor until the conquistadors arrived to plunder El Dorado and put a swift, cruel end to its extraordinary culture. But its legend survives in the masterful masonry of its paving blocks and the ruined glory of ghost cities such as Cuzco. In this vivid, free-wheeling expedition, Karin Muller travels the ancient route to explore its dramatic history and discover new adventures along its length and breadth.

Along the Inca Road shares the stillness of sunrise in the haunted aerie of Machu Picchu, clings to the roof of a rattletrap bus skirting the vertiginous precipices of the Andes, carouses through the streets of an Altiplano city on Carnival, and inches warily forward as Ecuadorian soldiers probe for land mines with bayonets. Muller's ready for just about anything, whether it's challenging the Pacific surf in a traditional Inca reed boat, locking horns with a bull in a cheering Peruvian arena, or joining a crack Bolivian anti-narcotics team on a hunt for clandestine cocaine labs deep in the jungle. She initiates us into the mysteries of the spirits at a shaman's rite involving hamsters, hallucinogens, and copious libations of moonshine, and high in a mountain meadow captures a struggling vicuna, whose prized silky fleece once was reserved for the Inca god-king alone. And these are only a few of the traveler's tales from a 3,125-mile odyssey encompassing four countries and every form of transportation under the sun, from footslogging, mule train, and motorbike to state-of-the-art military vehicles.

As she spins the wool of her stories into a modern tapestry of faces and memories, Muller intertwines a chronicle of the ancient Inca from their race's mythical birth on an island in lofty Lake Titicaca to their sudden plunge from the height of imperial power at the hands of a ragtag band of Spanish soldiers of fortune. We learn how they lived, worshipped, and warred, and why such a magnificent culture proved so vulnerable to invaders.

As spectacular as the mountainscapes that are its breathtaking backdrop, Along the Inca Road is a wonderful panorama of past and present -- the kind of sharply observed portrait of a unique part of the world and its colorful people that displays the art of travel literature at its best.

Muller's keenly-observed journey skillfully interweaves past and present, giving the reader a glimpse of what life must have been like in the golden heyday of the Inca empire as she walks along stones and walkways trodden by warriors and peasants for hundreds of years. She writes with compassion and genuine understanding of those she meets along the way - peopling her book with characters who come to life and leap off the page. Along the Inca Road transports the reader into a world most of us will never see - probably for the best, since the road is long and arduous. I'm glad I didn't have to do it - but I'm even more glad that she did!


You won't be able to put it down   June 10, 2001
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Along The Inca Road is a fresh and exciting experiential travel documentary written by a woman who follows a route of the ancient Inca Road from Quito, Ecuador to Santiago, Chile, along the mountains and coast of western South America. Her experiences are immediate, vivid, demanding and colorful. She clearly enjoys the challenge of dipping into and sampling all aspects of local culture. We are with her as she learns to pilot a caballero (reed boat) on the coast of Peru, carries the feast table of Mama Negra in Lacta Cunga, and climbs endless roads and trails to meet the people. Along The Inca Road is a book about the author's experiences with the people as much as about geography and history. After many hair-raising, sometimes hilarious, always challenging and intriguing experiences, she sums it up with the following:

"I had once thought that I was embarking on a 'hero's journey' - an odyssey into the unknown, filled with obstacles, success and failure, and newfound knowledge. And so it had been - only I wasn't the hero of this story. I was just the chronicler. The true heroes were the people I met along the way... They had all stopped for a while to lend me a hand. What I learned from them would carry me through the weeks to come. As long as their memories stayed with me, this journey would never really end (p. 294-295)."

And even more succinctly, she remarks: "The history books have it all wrong. The Inca Empire was never really conquered. It's alive and well (p.294)."

To participate vicariously in her fresh experiences, read this bright travelogue. You won't be able to put it down.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer


facinating   March 30, 2001
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

I've always been facinated by the Incas. This book only whetted my appetite further and now I'm reading everything I can about them. This book is full of Karin Muller's adventures while travelling the Inca road and has plenty of Incan history, too.


Magnificent!   January 9, 2001
Compelling, entertaining, historical... this book is a real page-turner.

Muller's keenly-observed journey skillfully interweaves past and present, giving the reader a glimpse of what life must have been like in the golden heyday of the Inca empire as she walks along stones and walkways trodden by warriors and peasants for hundreds of years. She writes with compassion and genuine understanding of those she meets along the way - peopling her book with characters who come to life and leap off the page. Along the Inca Road transports the reader into a world most of us will never see - probably for the best, since the road is long and arduous. I'm glad I didn't have to do it - but I'm even more glad that she did!


Tells of a woman's journey on the Inca Road   February 21, 2001
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

This armchair adventure story tells of a woman's journey on the Inca Road - a 3,124-mile odyssey across four countries in search of the peoples and history of the region. Stories blend Inca history with observations of contemporary peoples, providing a first-person 'you are there' feel.