Forty years ago

Machu Picchu 1981

While I was looking at old pictures during my quest to "uncover" much of my forgotten past, I found this one of me sitting in a sacred place in Machu Picchu in Peru. If I didn't know that was me, I would never have recognized myself. Forty years ago! How much has happened to me since then.

I had been working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research since 1979, and I always had wanted to travel, especially to see this magnificent place. Circumstances and a bit of luck gave me an opportunity to visit Peru. I had decided to travel by myself and take enough gear so that I could go on some days-long hikes, hoping to find others in Lima who would accompany me. However, I was willing to do whatever it took to be able to hike the Inca Trail. As it turned out, a friend hooked me up with another woman who would travel with me. Marla knew not one word of Spanish and needed someone to help her with the language. Although certainly not fluent, I knew enough Spanish to get by. And so, in October 1981, we flew to Lima and stayed at a hostel, before deciding to travel to Cusco, where we would be able to take a train to the beginning of the trail. Most people took three or four days to travel through the minor Incan ruins before coming to the main attraction, Machu Picchu. 

I have learned since then that traveling to Machu Picchu is entirely different today. Now there is a luxury hotel near the site, and a cable car takes tourists from there to the main ruins. A friend went there a few years ago, and the pictures he showed me looked nothing like the place I visited so long ago. You even have to queue in long lines to get in. Totally different from my experience.

Marla and I took a local train to Kilometer 88, where we began the 26-mile-long trip. We got off the train with about a dozen other hikers from all over the world. I think we were the only Americans and nobody else spoke any English. Everybody strapped on their backpacks and took off at a fast pace. We waited until the last, and then when we were on the trail itself, we saw very few other hikers during the next days. I found this site that tells about the trip:

The trip begins in the town of Qorihuayrachina, at kilometer 88 of the Quillabamba railway - Cusco and takes 3 to 4 days of strenuous hiking, it is the road that takes tourists to Machu Picchu. The route consists of an impressive variety of altitudes, climates and ecosystems ranging from the Andean plain to the cloud forest.

Now, you are expected to stay in the campgrounds that exist along the trail, but in those days you just had to find a place to camp on your own. There were no porta-potties or even water sources that seemed safe. We used iodine drops in our water to keep from picking up bacteria. It was a very memorable adventure, and it reminds me that I have been making long and difficult hikes for much longer than I remembered. I made this trip a full decade before I discovered skydiving and stopped everything else, including backpacking and strenuous hikes. 

During the two months I spent in Peru, I made four different trips into the mountains, two with Marla, and two with other solo hikers I met while staying in hostels that catered to tourists like me. These days, I am actually a bit surprised and impressed with the adventurous spirit that I seemed to have back then. And so much has transpired in my life since that time. Looking back, I am so glad that I was able to have such exciting events and still have a few memories that recall such a distant adventure.

Yesterday was a glorious day to be out and about, here in the Pacific Northwest, many decades later. Although I am much older now and my hair is white and my body much used and abused, I can still walk several miles at a time and enjoy being outdoors, breathing fresh air and taking in the sunshine. I will continue to do all this until the day comes when I must stop. Fortunately, it is not happening today or tomorrow, I hope. I will give it all I have until that day comes.

If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. —Jim Rohn

Forty years later, I am pretty much done with traveling for adventure. I am now looking forward to what comes next, whatever it might be. As I explore my past decades, I'm finding that I have truly lived a good life and have much to be grateful for. Not the least of which is my ability to recall times and places that are still bright spots in my memories. 

Forty years ago, I could not have imagined the life I live today. I could never have imagined knowing so many people around the world through the magic of the internet, through the words and pictures of wonderful friends that I will never meet, but who mean everything to me. I am filled with gratitude for it all. And for my dear partner, who sleeps beside me as I write. For my life as it was, as it is today, and for what it will yet become. 

Until we meet again next week, dear friends, I wish you all good things. Be well.