Peru has been on my bucket list for at least 30 years. I can’t explain exactly why, but it’s probably rooted in my teenage reading of primitive and far away places I dreamt about one day visiting. It also reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie. If someone asked me to explain why Peru was on my bucket list, I would answer with two words: Machu Picchu. The famous photo of sprawling Inca ruins framed by a stunning backdrop of precipitous, jungle-covered mountains, has been synonymous with Peru, and I had to see it.
I attempted to visit Peru two different times, but the trips had to be canceled due to circumstances beyond my control. The first attempt was in my 20s with my first serious boyfriend. That trip ended up not working out due to the inconvenience of him shacking up with another boyfriend 3 weeks before our departure. Then, with another boyfriend, I made attempt number two. This guy reluctantly agreed (with a lot of kicking, screaming and name calling), but that trip also had to be canceled due to severe flooding of Peru’s Urubamba River near the base of Machu Picchu. So Peru went on the back burner again.
Nearly 30 years later, with a husband and three kids in tow, I decided to go for a third try.
Fortuitously, Joe (my husband) had studied in Peru for several years; ironically around the same time I was canceling my aforementioned first and second attempts to visit. This time I contacted a well-known Peruvian tour company and decided to go all out. Since I now had more free time and completely zero interest in planning this myself, we decided to go for 2 weeks. Joe came up with the itinerary. My contribution was demanding 5 star hotels.
He recounted stories of his time in Peru, most of which included sleeping in tents during torrential downpours, bombing attacks by the Sendero Luminoso (a far-left guerrilla group/political party, and of course intestinal distress mixed with high altitude sickness. Drinking the water meant instant death, petty thieves were everywhere, snakes were the size of a Greyhound bus, and there were 3000 different types of potatoes.
In fairness to Joe, he is not a drama queen - that’s my job - but Peru sounded like it was going to be an adventure experience vacation, which is short for “vacation in hell.“. So if I was going to be wet, sick, attacked by Communist terrorists and suffer brain damaged due to oxygen deprivation, I was gonna do that in style. His itinerary, my cushy accommodations. That’s how we’ve stayed married for almost 25 years.
The morning of our departure, we asked our boys which part of our vacation they were most excited about. Crickets. I chalked this up to them being tired, but I later learned that they were kind of terrified. Despite all of our travels, Peru somehow seemed scary to them. I’m sure Joe’s stories had nothing to do with this, by the way. I had the benefit of traveling to over 55 countries in my life, so I was pretty confident that whatever happened, I’d be able to handle it. I had a stockpile of Advil, Benadryl, Imodium, Pepto Bismol, credit cards, cash so I felt prepared. Joe is fluent in Spanish, I speak enough to get by (with dogs and newborn babies,) but the boys were intimidated by the potential language barrier.
Our “boys” are technically men. They are confident, strong and able to take care of themselves. Our oldest is almost 21 and will be a junior in college. Our middle son is 18 and will be a senior in high school and our youngest is 17 and soon to be a high school junior. I wondered if this trip to Peru would be nearing a capstone of our vacations together. I know there will come a time when they decide to go on vacation with their friends, girlfriends or solo. I hope we can always travel together, but I know how I yearned for independence when I was their age.
Our flight from Cleveland to Houston went quickly. We then boarded a huge United 767 for our 6 hour flight to Lima.
I worked on my novel during the flight (thanks United Polaris!) and read a bit about Peru. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I learned about how the Inca had built a massive and sprawling civilization, interconnected by a vast network of roads called the Inca Trail. They were largely agrarian, cultivated potatoes, quinoa and other crops that did well in mountainous terrain. At the height of their empire, the Inca civilization spread across modern-day Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Colombia. They spoke a language called Quechua and they were master craftsmen, architects, artisans and builders. They worshiped the sun and the earth as their primary deities. They worshiped the sea, rivers, the moon, trees, rain, lightning, rainbows and other natural phenomena.
Pachamama was their goddess of the earth. She was also known as Earth Mother, and was loved by the Inca and even modern-day Peruvians. She’s endured through centuries. Even the Conquistadors integrated her into Christianity, once they successfully decimated the Inca and brought them to their knees. (Wasn’t that nice of them?)
For the next two weeks, our family would visit with Pachamama from the Amazon to the top of the Andes. We would get to witness the Inca Earth Mother in all her splendor.
Great!
Peru sounds amazing!!