Inca Kola : A Traveller's Tale of Peru

by Matthew Parris

Inca-Kola is the funny, absorbing account of Matthew Parris’s fourth trip to Peru, on a bizarre holiday which takes him among bandits, prostitutes, peasants and riots. He and his three companions seem to head into trouble, not away from it, and he describes the troubles, curiosities and wonders they meet with the spell-binding fascination of a traveller relating adventures over the campfire. ‘A backpacker’s atmospheric, touching, instructive and compulsively readable’ The Times

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Latin American

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1990, with the travel therefore assumed to happen in the year or so prior, this book describes the author's fourth trip to Peru, and the first of his three accompanying friends. Whether Matthew Parris' previous experiences were a help to his friends is hard to say, but they experienced a lot in their time in Peru.

Matthew Parris is a bit of an enigma, have read this book. I really struggled to gauge his age, and that of his friends - although is is clear Ian is significantly younger that the other three. In an internet search, it shows he was born in 1949, making him some 20 years older than I might have thought. It is not so much that he comes across as juvenile in this book, but travelling the way he does, I would have expected him to be in his 20s, perhaps 30s, not around 40. The body shattering truck trip near the end of the book alone would have been bad enough for me at any age, but near impossible by 40!
It is mentioned in the book, but my google search provided more accuracy around Parris' time as a member of parliament (1979-1986), then left politics to pursue a career in journalism and television, largely politically orientated.

The form of this book is relatively short chapters, each covering an event, or a journey. They are linear, and for the most part Parris travels with his friends, although as they depart for Bolivia one becomes ill, and another stays behind to assist him; he doesn't visit Machu Picchu with his friends, but carries on up the train line (have already visited on an earlier trip); and towards the end Parris takes a solo truck journey rather than a trip into the jungle.

While there is nothing in the book that suggests more danger than your average backpacker encounters in Peru, there is a slightly dark and ominous undertone to the writing. I would hesitate to suggest and exaggeration, and the writing style is actually good, but it does tend to err on the pessimistic view rather than the optimistic view. Perhaps where others pick out a sunset view, Parris picks out dead dogs and piles of rubbish on the streets. To be fair, I visited Lima and the description was very fair - the parts I saw were decidedly grim, and maybe Parris is just calling it as he sees it. There are also some short interludes into his previous trips in Peru, and elsewhere, but these are typically paragraphs long, and are topical in context.

There is plenty of humour in this book - albeit fairly dry British humour, so it may not appeal to all. The places visited are for the most part common tourist fodder, but they do make an effort to get to a few out of the way places.

P33

There must be a shortage in rubber or of the foreign exchange to but it, for tread on tyres was something you almost never saw, and few journeys were completed without at least one puncture. Nobody seemed to travel with out spare wheels and the means to change them. Extra wheels were available at places like this - a tin shack by the road. The problem was that there seemed very little to distinguish the tyres put on from the tyres taken off.
Mich came out of the soup-shack and was surprised to see a detached wheel lying against Divine Light's side with great chunks of rubber missing from the tyre-walls and shafts from its steel ribbing sticking out sideways like spikes on Boadicea's chariot. He was even more surprised to see them putting the wheel on.

P51

There was only water to drink. All our resolutions about boiling water, or putting Mick's little chlorine tablets into it, crumbled. After all, had we not already eaten the potatoes, drunk the soup out of chipped metal bowls, and used knives which must have been washed under the alley stand-pipe?
Besides, it felt healthy here (well, it felt cold, anyway). Ian, still untroubled by diarrhoea, gulped his water thirstily. The others followed suit.
We exchanged glances, though. And this was the last time that any of us seriously considered the possibility of insulating ourselves from Peruvian bacteria. Like many decisions, it did not seem very important at the time: only later. But, really, we had no choice.

One of the things which surprised with this book, was my surprise that a book published in 1990 is now 30 years old, and can't be considered contemporary by any stretch of the imagination! Having said that, I thought this book has aged well.

4 stars.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A travelogue of Peru in the late 1980s, the book is occasionally engaging but mostly tedious. Parris's narration is carried by his dry British wit, which is infrequently funny and mostly condescending. Parris seems especially dismissive of his fellow travel companions, both Europeans and Peruvians: their human needs and wants are portrayed as annoyances that intrude on his journey into the jungle. He romanticizes the indigenous Peruvians' poverty and ingenuity so long as they are noble; the ones who are not noble, who are venal or not clever, and who are unable to improve their lot for a host of structural reasons, receive his sniffs of indifference bordering on scorn. All the while, Parris retains an unshakable sense of superiority. He ignores politics in favor of vignettes that paint a sense of nature completely divorced from nation or country. Parris isn't interested in Peru as much as he is interested in landscapes, and his sense of privilege infuses the book.

[Bertie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant book on Peru. Mathew and his 3 friends travel around the country visiting cities, far flung villages in the Andes, Machu Picchu and the Amazon basin. Although this book is more about the journey; as such is travelling - and the people they meet.

I like how the author makes a point of travelling by road rather than flying (even though he takes an odd plane here and there). All the characters throughout the book is what makes it stand out. Mathew doesn't have to do anything risk taking to make this into an thrilling travelogue; he achieves that by telling the story of Peru exactly as it is.

For me this is a South American travel literature classic, and makes me want to visit the continent right away.

[David Galvani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takes you to laces in Peru you may never want to go. Filled with adventure and wit. A good read.

[Prayash Giria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should’ve been an anecdote to be told over drinks, but because it’s a white man at the helm, this got turned into a published book instead. Sure, it’s got some entertaining passages, but on the whole it’s a very middling, condescending, and obliviously self-aggrandising narrative of a first world frat boy backpacking through a third world country while complaining about stinks, illnesses, and scams and simultaneously indulging in ‘there is so much beauty in poverty’, ‘I discovered myself on the roof of a truck that I hitch hiked on for six days from the Andes into the Amazon’, and ‘I met another white male traveller and I will write about him for nearly a quarter of the book’. The best thing I can say about this book is that it is genuinely funny in parts, some of the places visited are worth checking out in your own time, and that there are worse travel writers out there.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading some "ho hum" travelogues through South America, it was a nice change of pace to find one I really enjoyed.  Inca Kola has Parris and three of his travel buddies making their way through Peru during the late 1980's.  The travelling is rustic, Parris' anecdotes are hilarious, and there's a real sense of place, along with the fascination of being introduced to different cultural experiences.  An excellent travel memoir!

[Wilma Venema · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really really liked this book. I could see myself in the Peruvian mountains experiencing the same as the writer. The only thing that disturbed me was how critical he was of other people, especially women. Every woman that he met on this trip had to be put down as less, spoke English worse than her husband, nagging, whining, screaming and "horrified" and " terrified" while the men in the same description were just cool...

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading, now I know I don't want to go to Peru. I enjoyed his writing and especially the realism of his descriptions, whether of places, people or illnesses!

[Patrick Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes very funny, but often a little too mean-spirited, and I'm not sure I got a strong sense of Peru itself, rather than Parris' own journey.

[Katherine Sayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in Peru - nice to read if you visit

[Barno · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to be interesting here's some phrases to your daily gatherings to shine you bright.

[Thomas Cornish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written: witty, truthful, raw. despite showing its age a little, the perfect pre peru trip book. Describes everything I hope peru will be

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colourful (in many ways) and very funny

[Mellius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grappig reisverslag van Engelsman die zich snel laat verwonderen en het avontuur zoekt.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthew Parris wrote a great travel book about Peru in the late 1980s. It was super fun reading a book about the place I live during a time when the Inti was still used as currency instead of the nuevo sol, the train was used to get around everywhere instead of double decker buses and Inka Cola was stil a Peruvian owned business.

Parris recounts his 4th visit to Peru in which he and 3 buddies take a trip up north and then down Cusco and finish in Puerto Maldonado. On is way he meets really interesting people and extremely dangerous situations such as being chased up a mountain in the middle of the night because the villagers set fire to the campsite.

There were a few things that I really related to on a personal level. One of them is what he thought of Peruvian campesino work practices. "Their methods do not work. Their failure produces a life in which backbreaking labour - horrifyingly inefficient - alternates with mindless indolence. Often the indolence falls to the men, the labour to the women." What struck me about this is that it is still true today. There really hasn't been much improvement and the campesinos continue to break their backs literally and don't give importance (or don't have access) to education so as to make their lives a bit better.

The other thing he talked about when he was in Cusco he ran into a person who knew a mutual friend. It's really crazy how things like that happen. I love how he puts it. "It's as if at certain key points the faceless millions who make up the census figures, cause the traffic jams and constitute crowd scenes stand momentarily aside so that just a few of us can bump into each other." The world is a small place in other words.

This book is a good read and well written. Parris takes you into the moment of every experience he had.

[Maren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don't like travel memoirs, or whatever they're called, which is weird since I like to travel. But I made an exception with this one since my husband is from Peru. I liked the author's little observations about people that he met or just watched from afar in his travels. The only thing I don't get is how he and his friends weren't concerned for their safety since they were traveling at the time of the Shining Path's reign of terror (they're a Communist terrorist group that caused a lot of violence in Peru in the 80's and 90's. This guy is traveling there in the late 80's).

Overall it made me want to travel more around Peru to some of the smaller indigenous villages in the Andes. I have been to a few of the places that he saw, which was fun. But I don't know if I would recommend this to anyone unless they had a real interest in Peru and/or were planning on traveling there in the near future.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

On some lists, this is considered a "classic" travelogue of South America. Specifically, it focuses on the author's travel in Peru, from the northern mountains to the southern coast, back to the central mountains and Lake Titicaca, and finally on to the Peruvian Amazon. All told, an impressive transect of Peru from the early 90s.

I would have liked this book more if it didn't give off a strong vibe of paternalistic colonialism.

[James Denny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book I'm happy to read over and over. Parris' account of a trip through Peru is both hilarious and sympathetic. As someone who knows a little about the country, the experiences and locations he finds himself in are familiar and yet seen through new eyes. I just love this book.

[Rebecca Kendall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A favourite view of peru

[Marianna Salvini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting ready for the Christmas adventure :D
it's good to know what I'll be going against!!!

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting perspective and journey through Peru in the late 1980's.

[Ktolsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining as well as informative

[K_Are_N · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books has what I want from a travel memoir. I have never been to Peru but would like to, and this book was in some way part of my travel preparations. It's not a travel guide, neither is it intended to be. But it gives me a feel of the country and people, or at least of how it was back in the day.
At the same time, I don't feel like I have gotten to know Parris, which I see as an advantage in a travel memoir, nothing against Parris himself, of course. Much too often, travel memoirs become about the person: the traveller and and write, rather than the travels. Instead, Parris delivers a balance of humanity and anecdotes, some humorous, some not so much. Perhaps they weren't always intended to be. Through it all, an appreciation the natural wonders of the Andes and the Amazon.
All in all, and easy and enjoyable read.