TRAVEL : QUIXO PERU : learning about peru
Top Three Peru Book Recommendations for Travelers
Your Guide: Catherine Criolla
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Footprint Peru 2007 (Footprint Travel Guides) — Traditionally the most complete, most up-to-date source of travel information on Peru, and just updated early this year. Get the latest edition available, and use it or it's larger relative Footprint South American Handbook to plan your trip. If you are traveling on your own, you want to have this book.
If you are going on a tour the you won’t need the range of practical information found here (and as a second book if you enjoy more in depth essays with great photographs), opt instead for the most recent edition of the Peru Insight Guide (Insight Guides), which has wonderful background and information on a range of special topics as well as fabulous photographs.
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John Hemming The Conquest of the Incas— an exciting and very readable account of the Spanish conquest of Peru, with a lot of information on cities and sites often visited by travelers.
- Craig Morris and Adriana Von Hagen The Inca Empire and Its Andean Origins is a beautiful coffee table book with just enough information (and wonderful photographs) on the archaeology of Peru to get you excited. Unfortunately, this book is out of print, but it is available through Amazon.
Some alternatives are:
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Von Hagen and Morris’s The Cities of the Ancient Andes which summarizes the research on major archaeological ruins that can be visited.
- Michael Moseley’s The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru This is actually a college textbook and is recommended only for those wanting more in depth information
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Nigel Davies The Ancient Kingdoms of Peru
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For those interested in a broad sampling of writings on everything from the conquest to modern sociological and cultural topics, a great choice is the well edited The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics