The White Rock

"I try to read every travel book that appears on South America, and most are either lightweight, superficial, gung-ho or pseudo-spiritual, with tales of visits to shamans and mystical experiences in front of Inca stones. Some of the more popular ones, such as Matthew Parris’s witty Inca-Kola: A Traveller’s Tale of Peru, read at times like a Boy’s Own adventure. Hugh Thomson’s The White Rock is a genuinely engaging tale, which indeed is so exciting that Disney Productions apparently bought the film rights. Written with youthful enthusiasm, it tells how Thomson was working in a London pub when asked to join a team of archaeologists near Macchu Pichu. Thomson, knowledgeable in Spanish but new to South America and to archaeology, wittily relates his deepening investigations into Peru’s ancient past, and his own involvement in the world of exploration, leading to his discovery of an unknown Inca site. Refreshingly down-to-earth in his interpretations of Inca monuments, the book is also full of memorable characterisations of such earlier Andean personalities as Hiram Bingham and the Cuzco photographer Martin Chambi. Truly unforgettable is his account of the controversial American explorer and evangelical preacher Gene Savoy, with whom Thomson rashly teams up. Fortunately, Thomson has the humour to survive his collaboration with this Indiana Jones-like figure. The resulting book is probably the most enjoyable and intelligent travel book to be written on South America in the last 20 years. Apart from mine, of course!"