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In his role as a feature writer for an outdoor magazine, Mark Adams writes about great adventures.
Until a decade ago, however, he had never experienced one firsthand.
All that changed when Adams hired a mountain guide and decided he would retrace the steps of the celebrated explorer Hiram Bingham (the chief inspiration for Indiana Jones), who in 1911 happened upon the extraordinary “lost” city of Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful and head-scratching archeological sites in the world.
What historians know is that the Incas constructed this settlement about 600 years ago high in the Andes Mountains of Peru.
After a century of research and speculation, however, its intended function largely remains unknown.
Today it is a mecca for tourists; New Agers seeking harmonic resonance from the power of crystals; wilderness hikers who want to challenge themselves physically on the Inca Trail; and others who are endlessly fascinated by the mystery of its meaning.
Adams, for his part, simply wanted to survive. He was forced to admit that he had never once slept in a tent.
His book Turn Right at Machu Picchu became a bestseller – a combination adventure story, comedy, and historical tour de force.
At one point Adams and his guide paused in a primitive mountainous village so remote that it didn’t even appear on maps. He struck up a conversation, as best he could, with two young boys who came to peer at the strangers.
“Where do you live?” they asked. “I live in New York,” said Adams. “Have you ever heard of New York?”
“No,” said the boys. “New York,” said Adams, “is in the United States. Do you know the Estados Unidos?”
“No,” said the boys. They had never heard of the United States. “Do you know where Cuzco is?” he countered, citing one of Peru’s most ancient cities.
“Yes,” they said. Adams went on to explain that he lived north of Cuzco. With that the conversation seemed to pause, and Adams figured they might have reached the extent of their common ground.
Then the boys asked, “Is it true that Michael Jackson is dead?”
And just like that, the world suddenly became a lot smaller.
It’s said that Coca-Cola has always been driven by the goal to provide every person on earth the opportunity to drink a Coke. If global human culture is united by just a few things, they apparently include soda pop and the King of Pop.
What’s the one prayer you would offer for the whole world today? What’s the one thing you hope every man, woman, and child might have the opportunity to experience?
Perhaps this: that no one would ever have to go to bed at night crying for lack of the love of God. Or that people everywhere, even in the face of the most uncertain circumstances, would discover that the words of the medieval contemplative Julian of Norwich are in fact true:
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
And life’s greatest adventure?
That would be encountering the only One who is able to make that so.