I am at the Lima airport waiting for my flight back to NYC. It’s been a fabulous 11 days in Peru. I don’t think I got to see a whole lot of places but I did have a fantastic time and I made a bunch of friends. It’s amazing and unexpected how great this trip has been.
It seems weird when I say I spent 11 days but didn’t see much. No, I wasn’t working! I did the Salkantay trail to Machu Picchu which was 4 days and I spent a couple of days preparing and resting. So most of my time was in Cusco but I did spend a couple of days in Lima. It was great. Everything was great. I loved Cusco from the start. Lima sort of grew on me. The best part was eating at Al Toke Pez. If you’re in Lima, don’t miss this one.
There are zillions of posts, videos and photos about Peru but I wanna talk about what it meant to me. Peru was not on my radar. I didn’t wanna come here and now, sitting at the airport, I wish I had more time here. I decided to visit this place on a whim. But why Peru? Because this was one of the places that I can visit without a visa and that has interesting landscapes. Mountains attract me and Peru has many of them. I saw a video about the Salkantay Trek and tbh, I wasn’t impressed. I have seen better mountains. There are so many amazing mountains in the U.S. but I wanted to experience a new country and see the impressive Machu Picchu. I am a history buff and Peru is awe-inspiring when it comes to ancient civilizations and historical places.
I came in with no plans and almost no prep (thank gods, old and new, that I brought a bug spray. The mosquitoes here can kill a giant). I spent half a day in Lima and a day in Cusco before the hike. I think I am gonna write about the hike in a separate post so I am gonna glance over it now. The hike was challenging. It wasn’t “oh this is the hardest thing ever” challenging but it was arduous. I was gonna do the entire trail solo but I found two Arab dudes to join me. I wanted a solo trip so that I can have time to think and discover what I want but honestly, I really like company and I am glad I got some. It was great. We became amigos quickly and things looked up after that. I remember, two hours in, one of them commented about the similarities between Arabs and Desis.
Actually, they weren’t the only company I had. I made other friends as well. So when the Arabs weren’t around, I had other folks to hang out with. It was great. It didn’t feel like I was on an entirely different continent. It felt like my city where I can text friends when I wanna see them. Coming back to the hike, it was challenging mainly due to the altitude. 4000 meters is no joke. I spent 2 days at that altitude and boy, that was hard. I had constant headaches and nausea, and it didn’t help that I read about all the worst parts of altitude sickness and started evaluating if I am having fluid build up. You know the mind, it wonders. I thought about the extreme altitude sickness and how people on Everest have to get an air ambulance to evacuate. It’s embarrassing but yes, I did contemplate the possibility of my sickness getting that bad. It was rather elementary. Not only I didn’t puke, I ate a large, delicious meal for dinner.
The hike for me was less about the views or the destination, it was about the challenge. I wanted to see if I take on a big challenge, something that I have never done and nail it to the ground. This hike was 4 days and 55 miles. The maximum I have done is 2 days and 25 miles, and I did that with lots of training. Now, I have none. I run 6 miles a week but that’s all I do when it comes to fitness. The trail didn’t disappoint in any aspect, it was challenging with good views. I hiked all the way, even took the trail from Augas Calientes to Machu Picchu. I wouldn’t recommend that. I know we want to be completionists but that thing is brutal. It’s steep stairs that don’t end. Then you have to hike up in Machu Picchu as well.
Machu Picchu is worth visiting though. It’s amazing to see how the Incas built a spectacular city on top of a mountain. It has so many trails and I can’t imagine how they made it happen at such an altitude. They carved a mountain and laid out millions of stones. The place leaves you in awe of human grit and ingenuity. It was home to nobles made by commoners. One tour guide in Cusco mentioned, all the structures were made by commoners as their tax payments. No surprises here!
On this trip, I met people from all over, Qatar, Iraq, Germany, Australia, Spain to name a few. Some were there for a couple of weeks, some for a month and one decided to stay indefinitely, because he had “tapped into the magic and there’s nothing like it”. I can’t imagine this world view. There was this German woman traveling across South America alone. She was already a few months in. I don’t know why people do it? What is the draw? It sounds amazing because society tells me that to travel is to be free. But I don’t want that. I’m not seeing anything that travelers see. I wish I could understand that world view. It’s not that I haven’t asked, I have but no bueno when it comes to understanding the answer.
Although I did learn something from them. I work in tech so I only see the bubble that’s tech. I see people making money and trying to make more money. I see people chasing status and power and whatever the peers in silicon valley are chasing. On the other hand, these travelers are doing the opposite. Umm, maybe not that different, I don’t know about all but some are chasing status among their peers by traveling X months or X countries. The ones chasing status, I get but the true ones, I don’t. Why would you leave everything and travel for a year?
It sparked the thought about happiness. It made me question things that I am chasing and why? It’s pretty clear to me that I am chasing things not because I truly want them but for status. Okay, I actually am chasing money because it usually leads to more freedom. But I don’t even know if I need a lot. The things I like don’t cost much anyway. I have been thinking about this for a while now. The biggest challenge is to define happiness for yourself so that you chase the right things.
Money brings comfort but it doesn’t give you happiness. I have more money now compared to ten years ago but I was happier back then. I would define happiness as a combination of four major things
- Relationships: friends and a partner.
- Purpose driven work
- Financial stability
- Freedom
These four things would complete all aspects of life that I am looking for. I have a sense of the first three but I just couldn’t imagine what freedom could mean. In my bubble, it means that I can choose to work on anything tech but that’s only a sliver of freedom. On the trip to Peru, I realized freedom is the confidence to sell your home and spend a year in South America. It’s not what I want but it’s truly freeing to see people do it. They break the shackles that society has thrust upon them.
I see that freedom also means to not be scared of losing. Deep down I am scared of losing the little life that I have built in the U.S. I am temporary and I can’t shake that insecurity. I have to be in the game. I have to win the game to keep my temp life. The more I think about it, the more I feel shackled. Is this game really worth it? Is money worth the shackles?
In Peru, I saw what freedom meant to people and it did help but also harm. I saw people choose things beyond money but I also saw the passport privilege that let them free. That’s the harm, it reinforced the insecurity. Here, passport privilege is not about visa free access but about a home that they can return to no matter what and build again. I don’t have the sense of home at the place I wanna call home. But again, what would change if I get it? We always crave what we don’t have.
I truly believe in carving your life with whatever you have. It’s always enough and it will never be enough. More money, more freedom, more opportunities! If you want it, you make it happen. If you want to feel free, you do it. There’s nothing stopping you from doing that. It’s all in the head.