A red notification attached itself to the Facebook App on my phone. A new post to the group for my upcoming tour of Peru. 22 Strangers who were getting ready to be thrown together in a strange country.
"Only three tickets left to buy for Machu Picchu," the tour liaison wrote with several exclamation points and emojis. "Those of you who haven't, be sure to send in your passport details so you don't miss this amazing opportunity! We're at the 40 day mark? What are you most excited for?"
40 DAYS!
I already knew that. I'd had a running countdown since I booked the trip in mid-March, the same time that I had gone through the whole checklist and put in my passport details and everything else they would need. The same time I had started compiling my lists of everything I would need... in December. What I didn't know was how we had gotten to the 40 day mark and some people still hadn't done something so simple as putting in their passport details so that flights and Machu Picchu tickets could be purchased.
I'll be honest, I'm not the sort of person who usually books a trip through a tour but my mom had insisted that I couldn't go to South America alone, it wasn't like when I went to London and at least spoke the same language, and even at 29 I try to listen to my mom. I prefer to do things my own was and take trips at my pace. Planning, making check lists, that's how I anticipate the adventures I want to go on. It is how I get ready and prepared. I guess most people who book tours don't want to think about it that much. They are just excited about going and experiencing, not all of the research that goes along with it. I am not saying that that is a bad thing, it is actually probably good to think about things significantly less than I do but this is how my brain works and this is how I like to get ready.
I reached across my desk to the running "Peru To-Do" list I had been keeping for the last 300 days, just to be sure there was nothing I had forgotten. Hiking boots poncho, what to pack in my carry on, information on customs. It was all ready to go. I scrawled "research Machu Picchu photography rules" at the bottom of the list.
40 days. I was ready and I couldn't wait.
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