Peru Travel Preparations

Up to this point, I have plotted, planned, coordinated, exercised, visualized, organized, communicated, ordered, reserved, filed, written, typed, paid, packed, folded, purchased, charged, discussed and even lectured in preparation for our upcoming trip to Peru.

On March 19, 11 of us will congregate in front of the Continental departure desk at the Norfolk International Airport, where we will flash our passports, label and check our bags, wave good-by to our families and board our flight for the journey of a lifetime.

What is now going through the heads of the students who will join me on this trip? We pass each other in the hallways at school and our faces light up as we exchange phrases and share the anticipation of our future together. For 12 days we will merge our lives and share experiences as if we were a family.

While we are in Peru, my life back home will seem like a dream. I have done this before and I know that my mind will adopt a new, temporary reality. I will contemplate the dirt paths, cobbled roads and raw, billboard-free landscapes of Peru. My modern, safe and predictable life will become the dream and I will immerse myself into the conversations and lives of the people I meet. Perhaps I will catch a glimpse of their world-view, what they value and how they contemplate birth, death, wealth, or the descending stock market? Perhaps I will notice the mothers cradling their infants and toddler at their breasts while they go about their lives? Perhaps I'll see the men working to build everything with their strong, capable hands? I hope we come across a local soccer game in Aguas Calientes. Those guys play in the rain and the mud and they play for keeps.

Our relationships with each other will never be the same. As travelers, we will observe each others strengths and weaknesses as we endure the tests of traveling. We will know things about each other that would not be possible unless we were thrown together on an Island in Titicaca Lake at an altitude of 12,500 ft. above sea level. Our preferences for certain foods will be revealed and our abilities to function in the early mornings will be known by all. We will have the opportunity to show compassion and exercise forgiveness. Our shared journey will change each of us in different ways.

How do you prepare for that?