Since I don’t have any upcoming trips planned at the moment, I thought I’d share some musings about past travels.
Many years ago I visited South America by myself and had the most amazing time. I was there for a few months and traveled most of the country with a backpack. One of my favorite experiences of the trip even though it’s cliché and almost everyone has done it now, was trekking to Machu Pichu outside of Cusco, Peru. It’s a truly other worldly place that is hard to describe. Setting foot in an ancient civilization and walking the paths forged thousands of years ago is so humbling. Not to mention how difficult it was to get there – I honestly thought I was going to die at one point hiking a steep incline for many hours. Of course that was all in my head but it felt so hard nonetheless.
The three day trek it took including a dark climb to Machu Pichu at 3 in the morning was all completely worth it when I got to top in the light of the day and saw this beautiful ancient city. It was built in the 1500s and I’m amazed so much of it still stands today. I don’t think many of our modern North American cities would survive that well at all.
One strange thing when you arrive at Machu Pichu is most tourists take the easy way and get there by train and bus. I actually saw one woman wearing Juicy Couture jeans and stilettos! Meanwhile most of us that had hiked there were wearing dirty athletic wear and hadn’t showered in a couple days. Talk about a contrast!
Anyways, this is one of my most treasured adventures. From treking though knee deep mud, to waking up at 2am to beat all the tourists to the top, to collapsing in total exhaust and wonder once I reached the top, this will not be a trip I ever forget. If you’ve ever been you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.