No trip is more memorable than our first adventure to South America in 2007, when we spent a month exploring Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Perhaps the part that stands out the most is the first part of the trip: trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and then heading to a remote lodge in the Amazon Rainforest. Our eleven days in Peru provided some amazing variety of experiences and sights, but more so than the incredible experience visiting these beautiful places, the part of this trip that impacted us the most were the people we met while traveling.
We pretty quickly clicked with many members of our small group with G Adventures: people from England, Wales and Australia. Ages ranged from 19 to 60+: some were on a gap year before starting university, some were retired, and there were others like us…somewhere in between. It’s amazing how quickly you bond with people when you trek for hours a day with them, eat every meal with them, and don’t have access to distracting technology. We shared travel stories and stories from our own countries, played coca poker, and shared laughter over the circumstances that the trip presented. When we went our separate ways in Lima, we exchanged information and promised to keep in touch.
Thanks to the advent of Facebook, it was much easier to keep track of each other and stay true to our word. Since then, we have continued to not only communicate with some of our fellow travelers from this trip, but we have reunited with several of them. When our Welch friend was in San Francisco, we met up in the Mission and invited her to discover quality Mexican food. When one of our English friends got married, he came to California for his honeymoon and we met up in Monterey. We enjoyed a mad night in Liverpool with several of the crew, dressed up as Spaniards. We had one of the best meals of our lives at a small pub in Wales when we visited our friends there… nothing beats Welch lamb! And, a visit to London always calls for getting together with our dear friends there – most recently it was to attend a professional American football match of the Seahawks vs. Raiders. When we see each other, practically everyone now with spouses and children, we always have new things to talk about but we also love recalling the magical trip that was our trip to Peru.
Travel is so much more than the places you go; often it is the people you meet while traveling that really make an experience. Whether it’s on a small group tour like this one or making your way independently, getting to know fellow travelers from around the world as well as locals is an essential part of travel.
Travels With Kristin 