Memories

Now that I've had a few days to de-compress, here are some thoughts about what I will remember most about this trip:

• First and foremost, the sense of accomplishment I feel for completing the hike. It challenged me to the core, physically and mentally. I'm proud of myself for completing that hike and am glad I was able to take this trip while I was still "young" enough to conquer it. I bought this t-shirt at the airport on the way home, it kind of summarizes it all for me...
  

• My travelmates. It was a great group to travel with and we all got along the whole time. We shared with each other, we supported one another. It was a fun group to travel with. I was the slowest one in the group, but nobody made me feel embarrassed about it, instead they were all very supportive.
  
• The people. We met a lot of great people on the hike, Kate and Peter from Australia, Boris, Yvette, our tour guides, etc. Even during the hike you would pass/follow a core group of hikers who were at your same pace, everyone was so nice and supportive throughout the way.


• The scenery. Of course, Machu Picchu was my favorite, it was awesome and I think a lot more meaningful to me because of the hard work that it took to get there. The ruins we saw were great and I loved learning about the history of the Incas. Its always wonderful to see historic places and old buildings and all the ancient architecture that we just don't have here in the US since we are so relatively young compared to the rest of the world.


• How fortunate we are. Seeing how other people have to live makes you realize that we do have it a lot better here than many people, although they do make the best of their own situation.


• The excitement of finding a geocache in a foreign country.

• The Music. I love the Peruvian music we heard; it was so festive and upbeat. My favorite instruments were the flutes.


• The shopping. As soon as you even looked or touched anything in the market, you heard, "Hey lady..." followed by "I have all these colors, what size do you need," etc. I wasn't very good at this bartering stuff, but when you are only spending about $6-7 for a pair of cotton pants, who cares? I was very happy to come home with a cool blanket that I paid only about $15 dollars that matches my couch. It will be a good lay-on-the-couch-watch-TV kind of blanket! I wanted a nice remembrance of my trip and this was perfect as it looks like its from Peru with the llamas on it (although I guess it won't be very good for the black dog hair!).

Would I repeat this trip again?

• ABSOLUTELY NOT! Once is enough, thank you very much. The thought of all those steps we climbed up and we climbed down, the altitude, my lungs feeling like they were going to explode? No thank you!


• If I ever go back to Machu Picchu, I will go the way that most normal people go...I will take the train and bus! :-)