I’m sitting by a nice fire in the wood stove here in Maine. The temperature never climbed above 32 today, though we had some great sun to “feed” the solar panels and charge up the batteries. Its great to feel relaxed… and ready!
Tomorrow Raven and I head out and south, nearly due south from Maine actually. We will arrive in Peru on Friday for the beginning of two weeks in a country that has intrigued me since I was a little girl (if you thought I was a typical “little girl” you haven’t spent much time on this blog!).
You see, I’ve wanted to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu since I learned of this amazing city built so high in the Andes and with stones fitted so close together the blade of a knife couldn’t fit between them. And when I found out there was a trail there, used by the people who once lived in the city, well that was pretty much it. Went on my list and has remained there. And now its time to do it.
Add to that this is my first time in South America and first time south of the equator, and that I so rarely take two weeks off from my day job… this is a big deal in my little world! And there are so many things that as a little girl I never considered doing but hope to accomplish on this trip. One is getting to ride a motorbike around the area for a couple of days! Another is looking at the threats dreams like mine have on the fragile sites that are visited. Just because I’ve always wanted to go there means it is the best for the place I’ve loved from a distance. Article like this make me aware of the flip side of tourism – even eco-tourism.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m beyond excited… and maybe a little nervous. We haven’t had a big vacation since the Trip of Trials (the one on motorbikes that went wrong from the first 100 feet!). We haven’t left home, really left home, since we moved into the yurt and then built our little cottage. I’m out of the swing of letting serendipity guide my steps, knowing that things will go wrong because of course something always goes wrong. But that’s okay. It’ll work out.
And I’m certainly out of the habit of packing light and shedding all the comforts I’ve grown used to. And the most strange, to me, is this is my first trip since I became a serious author. I’ve never left my writing before. But I can’t leave my writing, because it is me and in my head. And I am a travel writer too! But what was once taking notes for a blog post is now so much more. And I haven’t quite figured out how to carry around all the thoughts in my head as easily as I can sort out gear for a trip. All things in time and with a few trials, I suppose!
If this were IT, the big break from my day job and daily life, I know exactly what I’d want to take. I don’t know why packing for a two week vacation is actually harder. Perceptions, I suppose. If I were leaving for a saga of a journey, I know I’d be leaving my comforts, but definitely taking a solid means of accomplishing writing. For two weeks… I want more comfort (this is a vacation) and could potentially leave the writing.
Perceptions shape our happiness and how we live more than the situation we find ourselves. What for one person would be a terrifying ordeal, for another is a great adventure. That is part of what I love about life – and even about writing since I get to jump into both views. Am I trapped because I have a day job and want to see the world, or am I lucky for the opportunities the income provides? The answer is both.
That is the perspective I have before my big trip while sitting by the fire. I feel lucky as much as I want this to be a much longer journey than two weeks. But that is perception too, because the journey is my life and I’ve got a long ways to go yet.
See you on the trek!