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Posts from the ‘Peru’ Category

Peru, mi amor

“Regular maps have few surprises: their contour lines reveal where the Andes are, and are reasonably clear. More precious, though, are the unpublished maps we make ourselves, of our city, our place, our daily world, our life; those maps of our private world we use every day; here I was happy, in that place I left my coat behind after a party, that is where I met my love; I cried there once, I was heartsore; but felt better round the corner once I saw the hills of Fife across the Forth, things of that sort, our personal memories, that make the private tapestry of our lives.”
― Alexander McCall Smith

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Pato, pato….

We circled the group up in the main plaza in Aguas Calientes. We had already eaten dinner, following a long day visiting Machu Picchu. The kids were tired, as we had gotten up at about 4 in the morning, catching the early morning bus up to the ruins. But we still had several hours until our 10:00 train. The idea is that we would have our evening meeting in the plaza, take advantage of the time and space and then move on to the train station to wait to board.

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April 31

One year.

It's been a year since I flew out of Lima, back to NYC.

So many transitions and new starts this year, my head swirls as I think about all the new-ness.

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8 months in review….

8 months in review.....

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Always say yes….

I was feeling a little stuck on what to do with my time — not enough time to really go anywhere else, too rainy to go trekking. I did many of the local day hikes. What next? I read guidebooks, I looked through newspapers, asked people — but I felt a little stuck.

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I hate quitting

It rained all through the night. But at least it stopped for a bit when I got out of the tent in the morning. The mountains were not as fully obscured by clouds as they have been the day before. I quickly packed my sopping wet tent and had breakfast, which I finished just in time for everything to change.

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No…. I don’t wanna leave….

Quick update on my plans in my remaining 12 days..... (EEK! how did this happen? why did this happen?! no......)

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Doing the tourist thing…

I woke up to the bus shuddering as the engine was killed. Everything was totally dark, except for a blinking yellow light outside from, what I would discover, was a construction truck. I overheard bus stewardess (not sure what else to call her) tell another passenger that there was a landslide. I closed my eyes figuring we would be moving on again soon.

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Solo trip

Though I have been traveling solo all year, I have never done a solo trip. And by that I mean, a solo backpacking trip. I have done lots of day hikes by myself and I have thought about doing some solo overnights, but I never got up the courage to actual go do it.

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Ausangate Circuit

In the book description of this trek, it reads that you get pretty much everything on this trek - from seeing indigenous villages, alpaca herds, snowy mountain ranges, vicuňas (wild alpaca-llama ancestors), hot springs, and hiking 80km at 3500m or higher. They did not lie. This was one of the better treks that I have been on (and, as my faithful readers know, I have been on some good treks this year).

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