Peru Archives - Maggie InkMaggie Ink

How to make a dream come true

May 11, 2020

First: Make a list of things to do before you die. Realize that you are always inching toward death and still haven’t done a single thing on that list. This is the same thing your mom did; she put things off until it was too late.

Decide to do something about it.

Quit your job. Leave home. Book some flights.

Tell yourself, “If I make it to Ha Long Bay, this trip will be a success.”

Go to Peru. Go to Bolivia. Go to Argentina. Check some things off the list.

Meet a couple of Americans and drive around South Africa with them. Live in a village. Learn to carry buckets of water on your head. Go to Uganda. Ride across the country in a minibus with 24 people and a pregnant goat. Find work as a country-western DJ for the local radio station. Learn to harvest rice.

Go to Rwanda. Spend your days teaching English to genocide survivors. Cry. Teach them to play bingo. Laugh.

Fly to Egypt and immerse yourself in ruins. Find out your grandmother died. Find out your mom is dying, really dying. Fall down a tunnel of darkness. Hole up in a yoga camp on the Red Sea.

Go to your mother’s funeral. Wrap yourself in grief. Return to Egypt on the day a revolution begins. Feel yourself unraveling.

Take a boat to Jordan. Leave when protests begin. Go to Bahrain. Leave when protests begin. Get the nagging feeling that you are creating a trail of destruction around the world.

Go to Ethiopia, an extraordinary country, and plod your way through it. Feel like you’re something less than human.

Go to India, where something in your soul clicks. Love it. Embrace it. Drink in every hot day, every fragrant spice, every bit of eye-popping color. Move into an ashram. Pray.

Go to Thailand. Work with elephants. Meet a friend from home in Bangkok. Travel with her to Cambodia. Stay with more friends. Say goodbye.

Take a bus to Vietnam. Battle Saigon’s scooter-clogged streets and get a feel for the city. Slurp down bowls of noodles. Take a bus north. When the bus breaks down for 12 hours, sleep at a bus station. When the bus works again, it’s the hottest part of the day and the air-conditioning is now broken. Sweat. Make an unplanned stop in a beach town just because you desperately need a shower.

Take more buses. Take a train. Sleep in a dirty train car on soiled sheets. Arrive in Hanoi. Ride on the back of a motorcycle with a man even sweatier than you.

Schedule a boat tour. Pack up. Get picked up at 7 a.m.

Go to Ha Long Bay.

Wake up on a boat in a bay where everything is still. Everything is perfect.

Write that story.

Go to grad school to really dig into it.

Write that story again and again, edit it, excavate it. Work on it in scraps of time between your day job, when you stay up late, when you rise at 4 a.m. to have 20 quiet minutes before the baby wakes.

Sell it.

Have the perfect editor push you where you need it. He makes you laugh, he makes you cry, but most importantly, he makes you better. He reminds you to slow down where it hurts.

And then one day, poof. You have a book.

Your story, between two covers.

It comes out tomorrow.

Enjoy.

Patent pending

July 28, 2011

Here’s my high-tech, 100-percent guaranteed method of keeping creepy crawlies out of my clothes and shoes while in the jungle.

A ginormous Ziplock — Amazon-sized for freakishly huge Amazonian bugs.

Peru wrap-up

August 13, 2010

Some call Peru “the catalog of the world,” and for good reason — the country boasts a little bit of everything.

I started this trip with some knowledge of that diversity, but I was still in awe of what I found. From deserts to thick rainforest canopies, Peru really does have it all. It’s a downright magical place.

I think I’ll always have a special place in my heart for this country. Not only is it the place where I leapt out of my old life and into my new career as round-the-world adventurer, but it’s also where I spent my honeymoon.

Together, The Husband and I tackled the Inca Trail, and he cheered me on when things got rough.

Together we explored the Amazon and saw things we never could have imagined. He also nursed all my bug bites with “dragon’s blood” from a shaman, including a few welts from a spider who was determined to know me intimately.

And together, we just spent a lot of time enjoying each other.

I know there’s value in solo travel and in traveling with your friends — both of which I’ll get to know better as this trip progresses.

But there was something particularly special about starting this journey with my new husband — and learning how love can grow even bigger in places we never expected.

Kids in the Amazon

August 9, 2010

The best travel moments happen when you least expect them.

That’s what I learned when my husband and I made an excursion to the village of Manco Capac, situated on an island in the Amazon River.

Our intention was to spend the morning strolling through the tiny town, getting a brief glimpse of village life. We had no expectations and no plans.

Then we stumbled on to a school just as the children were getting ready for their Independence Day parade.

The kids immediately crowded around us, tugging at our clothes, smiling shyly, pulling us into their classrooms. They all wanted their photos taken and loved seeing the digital image displayed right back at them.

When the parade started, someone grabbed a couple of chairs, setting them up where we’d have the best vantage point for viewing the festivities. The teacher told the kids to sing extra loud for their special guests, and he motioned to us.

The kids acted out the story of the liberation of Peru, then marched all over the schoolyard, waving tissue paper flags.

It was one of those things that could never be replicated for any tour, and you’d never read about it in a guidebook. But that brief morning with the kids — laughing and singing and hugging — was one of the happiest, most genuine travel experiences I’ve ever had.

Monkeying around

August 1, 2010

As our boat approached the dock, a monkey launched himself off the shore and into my arms. Quite a warm welcome to La Isla de Los Manos, aka Monkey Island!

My greeter’s name was Mayo, an orphaned spider monkey and full-time resident at the primate sanctuary. He clung to me for an hour or so, nuzzling me, hugging me, even falling asleep against my shoulder.

Located on the Amazon River, Monkey Island is a haven for monkeys who would otherwise be sold in the exotic pet market. Most of them have been orphaned — their mothers killed by hunters — which explains why they look to others for affection.

The sanctuary is home to eight different species of monkeys. They don’t live in cages — they run around the island freely and independently — but they are still comfortable and curious around humans.

I’m always a little skeptical about wildlife sanctuaries, because I’ve seen too many that don’t act in the best interest of the animals. They exist simply for show or to suck money from real animal lovers.

But Monkey Island definitely appeared to be a place that does it right. Owner Gilberto Guerra clearly is passionate about monkeys and has created a place where they are treated with respect.