Peru started for me with a conversation between two people, who have met before, hanging out and getting to know each other at a microbrewery over three-ounce beer samplers of nine brews with a meal. It was cool as we related life tales and at the end it went to…

 “Wow, I’ve never met a brother who likes to travel so much.”

Then it was, “You should come on this trip to Peru.”       

“Really,” thinking about it, “sounds cool.”

“No you should go.”

“Uh huh.”

“No really, you should go.”

Another “Uh huh.”

“No,” pause, “You should go.”

I pause this time on the she-is-really-serious and should-I-really-go tip.

Aw what the hell, “Okay, I’ll go.”

“For real you should really go.”

That’s right, she didn’t know me. I meant it when I said I would go.

“No, I’m seriously down. What’s the plan?”

“I’ll show you online. You got to get your ticket soon though.”

A trip back to the hotel room and a website perusing later, I found there was one spot left for the package hike to Machu Picchu.  

Ol’ girl broke down total trip numbers and I did my mental math on it.  I could make it but it was going to hurt my pockets.  C’est la vie!

Having gone and returned I can really tell you it hurt but the experience is priceless.  It was just that great and great is not the right word to describe it.  The hike was part wonder, part pilgrimage, part test of will, part test of elements, part silence, part reflection, part awe and major part humility.  It was respect and reverence wrapped up in the sheer massiveness of nature via the Andes mountain range.  From the green hillsides to the snow capped peaks, to the valleys, waterfalls, and rivers and winding throughout it all are the Inca Trail and the Incan ruins we experienced along the way.  I say experienced because you did not simply see them, they interacted with you.  I’m serious.  The structures of the Incans are shrouded in energies all their own.

The way I did it was with a group of friends. You can do it solo, with a significant other or a spouse.  All of the above were represented in our group of Canadians, Australians, an Austrian-Mexican, a Guyanese, and a few African-Americans hailing from New York City.

You start at a bridge, cross it, and hike for four days up and down mountains.  Eventually you make it to the actual site.  It is not just the site
itself that makes it what it is.  It is the hike to

But how can you translate that in words or even pictures?  You can try.  You can say this that or the other.  Rarely is brevity as lean as this writing because of the entirety of things I wish to say none are simpler, graver, or more profound than my silence.  So I end this like I started it, with ol’ girl’s statement.

You should go.