See you in Machu Picchu

Just so you know, the ancient city in Peru has reopened to tourists after being closed due to heavy rains.

Machu Picchu, rediscovered by the outside world after U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham's 1911 visit, is one of South America's top tourism attractions.

I like the wording of that, and the ease with which it shucks off the Euro-centric, nothing-was-here-till-we-found it perspective. (As a sidenote, I know USA Today, where this article is from, is considered the McDonald's of news, but sheesh, it really does have the best articles.)

I want to go re-re-discover Machu Picchu. South America is tops on my list of places to visit. It has such a vibrant mix of things I would really love to see, and things I'm captivated by the horror of. I just finished an excellent book called The Lost City of Z, a nonfiction account of a journalist attempting to discover (no "re-" necessary) what happened to a famous English explorer who was lost in the Amazonian jungle in the 1930s while searching for the fabled city of El Dorado. The Amazon, aka the "green hell," full of poisonous plants and 30-foot snakes and hostile Indians and maggots that burrow under your skin, makes me think, "Oh my goodness, I wouldn't last a minute there," and then, "I want to go."

A lot of Brazil, about which I've been reading for a book I'm writing, is like that too: the herky-jerk of the awesome and the terrifying. For example, in Rio you've got the incredible beaches and the eye-popping vista of the hilltop Christ -- and down the street the drug cabals are taking down police helicopters with anti-aircraft missiles.

I guess you just have to know where to go.