Cloud Road: A Journey through the Inca Heartland

by John Harrison

An intense and deeply personal account of five months spent high in the Andes Mountains, this travelogue combines historical and anthropological details with the thrill of extreme adventure. Hiking at more than 10,000 feet for almost the entire trip, the author follows the great road of the Incas, the Camino Real. Hand-built more than 500 years ago, this road crosses the most difficult and dangerous mountains in all the Americas, and life continues as if Columbus had never sailed. Finding and studying remote villages is central to the quest, and—despite dog attacks, sweltering canyons, floods, and stubborn donkeys—the author makes his way from the equator to Cuzco and on to the most magical city of all: Machu Picchu.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

350 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. This is John^^^Harrison, who writes about gardening.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great travel book that manages to inspire and enthral at the same time.

Harrison follows the great Inca trail along the roof of the Andes, mostly on foot with the occasional bus. Along the way he meets and engages with the local people and reveals the history of the area from 500 b.c. to within living memory.

The walk is all at altitude, in excess of 10,00 feet most of the way, and the first days are tough, and relentless. He settles in to a steady rhythm on his journey, and you feel for the struggle of finding drinkable water and the perils of camping in the mountains. Part of the journey he is joined by his partner, and even buys a donkey to assist with carrying the baggage over a particularly long section. The people he meets are mostly warm and generous, though there are the smattering of aggressive drunks, and he suffers the loss of his clothes by either theft or accident, you are never sure.

Really enjoyed it. His writing style and the way he deals with the people he meets reminds me of Colin Thubron, another fine travel writer.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read on several levels: the author's tenacity and trials in completing the route, the people he met and their social history, circumstances and lifestyles, the environment through which he travelled and the great attention to the history of the region. All deftly woven and related. A great read

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good book about the author's journey along the Camino Real of the Incas. I really enjoyed how historical details were peppered through the story of the walk.

Very enjoyable.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I looked forward to this one. No preconceptions based on random comments in other books for John Harrison. Actually, that’s a lie, I did have preconceptions, but good ones. John Harrison seemed to visit the places I wanted to visit, he seemed to be interested in the things I’m interested in, he has written the books I wanted to write (I mean one day, definitely), so in a sense he has stolen my dreams and made my life pointless. But it did mean that I wanted to read his books.

Cloud Road sees Harrison walking the Inca Road, from Quito to Pisco. Well mostly walking, sometime there were buses, if the Inca Road happened to be under a highway for example, fair enough, it would be rubbish to walk and just as rubbish to read about. It is among the freezing peaks and humid valleys that Cloud Road is at it’s most fascinating, meeting people barely scraping by on subsistence living who never the less offer help and shelter to a weary stranger who was sometimes shouting at a donkey.

While pounding the Andes, Harrison intermingles local and Inca history, in ‘proper’ travel book style, which is one of the reasons I was so looking forward to reading it. If Isherwood was a jaunt through the countries, Cloud Road is a trek through the history. Half way through his partner, Elaine, joins him for a period, including for the hiring of the aforementioned donkey and a more personal side is revealed, normally hidden from the reader.

Like a trek, Cloud Road had points I enjoyed and points that I didn’t. Some of Harrison’s simile’s were incredibly random, now, don’t misunderstand me, I like a random simile as much as anyone, but some of these were so random they just jarred. This wasn’t too bad in itself, but everything was drowning in adjectives, so at times it became an onslaught of words that didn’t quite go together. That said, when it did work, it was beautiful.
While reading, I shoved my bookmark in the back of the book, and on one occasion, on the last page. While taking it out I happened to read the last few lines. I don’t know if this firmed the opinion I already had, or gave me the opinion in the first place, but it felt like the reader was being set up for something. Harrison’s numerous references to Elaine, his feelings, the way he portrayed their behaviour meant that you felt that something was going to happen. When it does, and it does on the last page, it sort of made me feel that this was what the book was about, and in fact, maybe it was, a catharsis that Harrison wrapped up part and parcel with the journey and the book, everything was certainly intertwined. There is no reason why Harrison should not have put it in, it is a human that is travelling and writing, I can’t say why it shaped my perception of the book, it’s just that after finishing, it felt like that was what the book was actually about, and everything else was just filler. I suspect the problem is with me, it normally is.

But my moaning aside, I enjoyed Cloud Road. Harrison is genuinely funny. His description of how travellers with animals normally work things out and then stating how much he hates his donkey was laugh out loud hilarious. His interest in the Inca’s, is pitched at just the right level throughout the book to not intimidate/bore the tears off a casual reader, and, total respect to the man, he walked the Inca Highway, something I would love to do myself. Next up I quite fancy 1519: A journey to the End of Time. Hopefully Dapple will turn up.
(blog review here)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of insight, some damn good prose, and a winning self-deprecation that comes off as honest rather than posed. Harrison's midlife trek doesn't follow the remnants of the entire Inca Road, for most of it is under the Pan American Highway, lost to the pummel of rain, or too inaccessible for today's walkers however fit. I thought there'd be explanations of how the way of the Sun, the Info Ňan, was built, and who ran across its vast span, but these details aren't what the author offers. Instead, Harrison's observations attend to the landscape, the people, and his donkey. He tells of his midnight-to-dawn climb up the volcano Cotopaxi vividly. This adventure benefits from GPS, and shows the Andean backcountry probably just before electricity, smartphones, and the global media made their massive intrusions. However, Harrison's careful not to romanticize poverty, nor does he soften the brutality that's been exacted upon the indigenous people, by the Inca or Spanish empires, or of course by more recent influxes of governments, mining, tourism...

[Chris Steeden · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘There was an ancient road running along the spine of this secret country. It was the first great road of the Incas: the Camino Real, or Royal Road. It was hand-built over five hundred years ago, to cross the most difficult and dangerous mountains in all the Americas’.

John Harrison would travel 1,500 miles starting from Quito, Ecuador and finishing in Cuzco, Peru. 700 miles of it would be walking. It is some journey but it did not make me want to jump up, leave my family and head off tho the Andes.

The book contains some nice travel observations mixed with history from the Inca times and the invasion by the Spanish.

This is not an adrenaline rush book of battling bandits and extreme situations. Best just to sit back, get comfortable and take a trek through the Ecuadorian volcanoes and the Peruvian Andes.

I read the Kindle version so I kept up with the route taken by following Google maps and checking out the photos of the ancient sites that Harrison visited.

[Elen Boore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author walks the Camino Real from Quito, Ecuador to Cusco, Peru. Easy read which includes detailed historical references followed by trivial passages of the author’s travels. Descriptions of interactions with local people always brief but capture realities of life for Ecuadorian and Peruvian communities. Some parts underdeveloped in the author’s efforts to ensure a fast paced book. Both entertaining and informative.

[S.E. Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great account of what seemed a terrifying and uplifting journey through Peru. I wished I'd read it before I went to Peru last year, as although extreme travel and not for a softie like me, the book still setting a real sense of the land and its history. I will re-read Don Quixote now.

[Bharat Rao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, charming, and languorous read about the author's travels in the Andes, complete with a donkey named Dapple.

[Calum Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 50p charity find that changed my life! I loved this novel and it spurred all kinds of diverse research and interests in its wake. Not many books have inspired quite like this one did.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Travel writing is a favourite genre and this is one of the best travel books I've read for a while. Admittedly, this is partly because I'm fascinated by the subject and by the part of the world which Harrison traverses, largely on foot. But also by walking so much of the Inca's Royal Road he really is able to capture the atmosphere while also commenting on the history and archaeology, not just of the Incas but of previous cultures whose remains can still be found. He also weaves in the story of the conquest and savagery of the Conquistadors. The Incas were ruthless rulers too, of course, but had a functioning agricultural economy which the Spaniards simply destroyed.

Harrison conveys all this admirably by reference to the various sites - many barely visited - that he passes. At the same time he captures the characters of the small towns and highland indians that he encounters, while involving the reader in his journey and his precarious relationship with his female partner and - not least - with the donkey they buy, supposedly to make the journey easier. A very satisfying book.

[Stephen Cunningsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

After initial misgivings about the writing style (I found some comments about his encounters a little crass) I found John Harrison's account enjoyable and his accounts of historical events well researched and eloquently intertwined with his personal narrative. Anyone interested in South America will take a lot from this book and it has given me a nagging feeling that I need to revisit Peru. I read the Kindle for Mac edition and there was no map included, which would seem like a no-brainer. I found myself flicking between the eBook and Google Maps frequently. Otherwise this was probably a four-star book with a dramatic finale awaiting back home in Wales.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great travelogue, laced with dreams and nightmares experienced whilst floating somewhere above the magic lands of South America. Provided both a picture of 'now', a brief historical education and a glimpse of a journey most of us will never experience. Felt entertained, educated and vividly aware of how lucky I am. Marginally let down by brief interludes of Harrison's personal life, the presence of which I understand, but which ultimately added little. Perhaps kind of the point, come the closing chapter.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this an enjoyable and engaging travelogue about a fascinating region, in parts beautifully written and including many interesting details on the history of the area.

A couple of things interrupted the rhythm of the book for me - some jarring metaphors (e.g. "Her mouth opened like a mouse-hole sewn into the parchment of her face") and various references to the author's girlfriend which felt odd and let me to correctly conclude well before I reached the end that (Spoiler Alert!) they must have split up before he finished the book.

[John Furniss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The writing is very descriptive and you are carried along with him through this most interesting of countries. I would have given it five stars had I not thought that it desperately needed a map of the journey ( there is none for the Kindle version) and some photos would have increased the pleasure. Some are promised on the author's website but there is only one of him on his characterful donkey! I increased the pleasure of the book by using Google Earth to visualise the sites and terrain.

[Louise Witts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as part of the 2015 Reading Challenge - A book you own but have never read

According to Amazon I bought this in December 2013, presumably after having read a review in a walking magazine. The parts of this which dealt with the walking and the modern day I really enjoyed. And the Inca context was interesting - although I think he went into too much detail. Particularly at the end after reaching Cuzco.

I would also have liked a map - although I read it on kindle so there may be one in the paperback

Of course Dapple the donkey was a star!

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-crafted and lyrical telling of a journey along Peru's Inca Road. Harrison excels in drawing together many threads: pre- and post- colonial life, the searing poverty which runs through Andean life like letters through a stick of rock; and the cultural clashes which have marked this "undeclared republic" forever. A beguiling and sobering read.

[Koit · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story started out very slow but got progressively better, and the author's intermittent comments on history were very interesting to read. Nevertheless, in some cases, his comments were, I believe, factually incorrect which is a pity.

[Matt Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and informative travelogue of the highlands of South America. Evocative and written by someone with a real love for the place.

[Selena · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice travelogue with a touch of Spanish/Incan history thrown in for interest.

[Nancy Dardarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. He is a fabulous person and writer. I learned a ton about history and enjoyed every minute of this book. I'll read anything he writes.