Eight Feet in the Andes: Travels with a Mule in Unknown Peru Book

In 1979 Dervla Murphy and her 9 year old daughter walked with their mule Juana from Cajamarca (northern Peru) to Cusco (far to the south) following as much as possible the Camino Real (the Inca Royal road) along the spine of the second highest mountain range in the world. It took them just over 3 months.

Eight Feet in the Andes is a day by day journal of that incredible journey with all its splendour, risks and adventures. The Murphys travel light, most often camping in their small tent and not always sure where their next meal will come from. They endure blizzards, precipitous paths, bogs, heat, theft and find help when most needed and generous (if often taciturn) hospitality.

I will admit that at my first attempt to read Eight Feet in the Andes, I only got about 60 pages in, but taking it up again over a year later, I've raced through the book, enjoying Murphy's deprecating sense of humour, her laconic but stirring descriptions of landscape and people, her musing and reflections. Most of all, I got the best sense of the Andes as a colossal landform and of the people living on its steep slopes and fertile valleys, often (at least at that time) little changed since the arrival of the Spanish some 400 years before. At times Murphy is a bit despairing of the Peruvians but the real concern and respect also shines through as she accepts their often laconic help and advice along the journey. I can't help wondering about taking such risks with her daughter's safety (they were often far from help, one disaster away from tragedy) yet it was another era & a fabulous adventure for a stoical, level-headed girl.

While this is a travel story, there is plenty of drama (especially towards the end) and I loved learning about little travelled paths in an amazing part of the world.