It’s been a year since backpacking through Europe. Now Ben and I are on another backpacking adventure, but this time it’s around Peru. A lot has changed in the last year since coming back from Europe. I graduated from Temple University with my bachelor’s in English and Creative Writing, I started working in real estate, and have become more comfortable with online writing. Not only have I advanced academically and career-wise, but have also come to know myself a little more over this past year.
But now it’s time to embark on another adventure, this time, on a new continent with a very different history and culture than Europe. It all started with a 2 am phone call over winter break. Half asleep, I answered a call from Ben, whose excitement took me by surprise. Eyes still closed I heard, “I have an idea, but I need like a month or two of your time over the summer.” I already knew this wasn’t going to be a conversation I wanted to have in the early hours of the morning. “For a graduation gift, I want to buy you a plane ticket to Peru.” It was a sweet and romantic gesture that I couldn’t possibly appreciate as much as I should have because of my drowsiness.
“That sounds great, but can we talk about it in the morning?” were my answering words. His excitement didn’t suppress as he talked about all the things we could do and how great it would be. Eventually, he agreed to talk about it in the morning and back to sleep I went.
It only took a day to figure out if Peru was the right place to go and when to do it. After a few more phone conversations, the decision was made. The next step: telling my parents. They hadn’t been too thrilled about our backpacking in Europe at first, so I was nervous to tell them that we had decided to go on another international trip. We bit the bullet and told them over Christmas Eve after a couple glasses of wine. Once again, they weren’t thrilled, but knew that they couldn’t do anything to stop us. And so the tickets were bought and we only had to wait six months until our trip.
Which brings us to today. We leave for Peru and will be there for three weeks. Just two days before leaving, we uprooted our original plan of spending most of our time in Lima (Peru’s capital) and traveling to Cusco and Machu Picchu for a few days. After talking to some people who have traveled around Peru, they recommended to spend most of our time in Cusco and not to plan anything. So, I’m sorry Mom and Dad, after June 19th, we are completely winging the rest of our trip and I don’t have an itinerary to send you.
At first, the upheaval of our plan to relax and stay in one city made me nervous. I also was really looking forward to not backpacking again and being able to have a suitcase with more than four outfits. If you ask Ben about that night and conversation, he would tell you I was acting like a crazy person, which admittedly, I was. Now that we are packed (with just five outfits and two pairs of shoes) I’m ready to be a backpacker again! I have mentally prepared myself for wearing unwashed clothing multiple times and carrying all of our stuff. I’m ready! Unlike Europe, this trip has no concrete plan, so I’ll just let the wind take hold of us.
From Peru With Love
xoxo
From Peru With Love 