Traveling, Time Zones and Memories of Plenty from Peru by Jamie Lee Evans

It's day two after my trip and I've got jet drag or travel whiplash, or something like that.  I spent over 30 hours in transit back from Peru.  I practiced a lot of mind over matter about the tiny ass seats and unchosen closeness with strangers.  As I age, I become more and more sound sensitive and so enduring lots of unsettling noise and too little quiet was tough.  Also, what's up with the fact that I have perfected the art of sleeping on a one hour flight but can barely get an hour in when I have a 13 hour flight?  Traveling long distances is not an easy thing for me to do, despite the fact that I keep doing it.

It actually seems a bit morally corrupt to complain about the challenges of travel when I have, well, the privilege, to travel.  So perhaps I can just report a bit and stop whining about it.  I sat next to some Aussies on my 13 hour flight and they shared with me that they had gone on a 9 hour hike in Peru that was amazing. I asked them if they had yet come to their neighboring country New Zealand (because the beautiful nature and hiking options in New Zealand are unprecedented in my mind)...they said they hadn't.  They were both in the range of 60 and said that they had decided that for as long as they were able to tolerate traveling long flights they would continue to do that and when they could no longer do that, they would take the five hour flight to NZ.  I observed them while they slept and I watched countless movies and tv programs trying to manage the torturous feelings of being constricted in a tiny seat for so many hours - and I knew they had something I needed... the ability to chill out my mind and body and accept the close quarter circumstances and relax and sleep. Yeah, I will need to keep working on that or decide to stop these long distance trips...

I sang a song last night when my very even keeled and travel savvy partner let me know it was an acceptable time to go to bed.  I sang really loud, danced my way to the bed and felt euphoric as I put my head down and was out before he reached the bed.  I was energized in a different way when I woke up at 5:30 am, my body screaming at me, hey hey hey - wake up, it's time to be awake, get up get up get up!  My partner has suggested I stop saying things like, "In my time zone it is 2 pm and not 7 am."  He reasonably suggests that I should indeed accept the time zone I am currently living in, as my time zone.  He is so rational.  Me?  Not so much.  It may be that I can't believe that I get to travel and still want to think of myself over there to feel like I was really over there!

I only started traveling in my mid 40's.  And though I feel very privileged to have traveled so many places, many with FYCE, I still can't believe it entirely.

Here are some of my top memorable moments from the trip...

1. The many delicious meals of Peruvian quinoa, ceviche, lomo saltado, etc.
2. Seeing the Inca laboratories, which were gigantic, multi-layered steps where they experimented with what climate in which to grow potatoes, kale, etc.
3. Drinking fresh squeezed orange juice made before my eyes by a senior vendor, with my other ailing (with a cold) co-travelers, on the side of an ancient ruin
4. Hiking down five miles from MachuPicchu with Patterson and Miguel - who were hella supportive.
5. Touring multiple museums w Kate and being in awe at how she read every single card and considered every single installment...for hours.
6. Finding Paddington Bear!
7. Stumbling upon a community photo exhibit by kids with Down's Syndrome and beholding their perspectives, and catching the uniqueness of how each of them had their own eye.
8. Drinking pisco sours all over the country, and especially enjoying maracuya piscos whenever I could (maracuya is Peruvian Passion Fruit!)
9. Seeing a for real sand dune AND an oasis.  Whoa.  That was cool.
10. Being part of a dream come true when Kate got to fly over the Nazca Lines.
11. Feeling cool breezes on me while walking alone through Ollantaytamba.
12. Happening upon amazing restaurants when in Urabamba.
13. Knowing that we were all safe and making it place to place, because we were together and fierce as a group.  Also knowing the profundity of what it means to travel in a group and be safe when so many of us in this group have endured an overwhelmingly intense amount of unsafety in our lives.
14. Feeling the joy of a hot shower when we could get it.
15. Seeing the stars and the snow topped Andes on an unexpected shuttle drive over night to a town we were not scheduled to be in...feeling the cold of the air like I have never known - when peeing outdoors on same trip in the darkness of night.
16. Feeling proud with our organizers and youth travelers as we experienced new things, met new people, saw ancient structures together.  What a miracle.
17. Overcoming challenges together at airports.  That wasn't fun but it was powerful.
18. Laughing.  So many smiles and so much laughter and joy together.  
19. Accepting support with my backpack straps, my need for a shoulder down some stairs, help with my suitcase.
20. The moments alone with individual travelers, grabbing a conversation on the way to a salt mine, eating choclos for the first time, haggling for a deal from a street vendor.