Sarah and I spent three weeks in Peru in [DETAIL: the actual travel window? late June into July?]. We worked the Australian vintage together in 2016, and cellar work is a thorough audit of a person: you already know what they're like at hour eleven, hungry, and behind schedule. That kind of friend travels well. Three days can stand for the rest.
The first was our first afternoon at altitude. We came up to [DETAIL: which highland city did the mountain leg start in? Cusco?] from [DETAIL: where, and by plane or bus?], and the elevation did what everyone promises it will. Coca tea appeared at the front desk of [DETAIL: the hostel or hotel, and which one?] before we asked, the headache arrived on schedule by evening, and we walked every uphill block at half speed while locals twice our age went past without breathing hard. It was the dry season: sun that bites at midday, cold that lands the minute it sets. We took the standard advice and skipped beer the first night, which may be the only standard advice we followed all trip.
Colectivos, the shared vans that link the towns, run on a simple rule: the van leaves when it's full and not one minute before. A few soles a seat, no timetable, just a driver calling the destination until the last seat fills. Our second day went to them. We waited our van out on the street, watched the town start its morning around us, and learned to treat the wait as part of the ride. [DETAIL: which towns that day, and one food line if one exists — the cuy question? chicha morada?]
The third started in the dark, at [DETAIL: what time? 4 a.m.? 5:30?], for the day the rest of the trip was arranged around: [DETAIL: which site or hike? Machu Picchu? Rainbow Mountain? both, on different days?]. At that altitude a modest grade is honest work, and the layers you needed at dawn are tied around your waist by mid-morning. The image that stuck from the top, or from the first sight of the place, was [DETAIL: the one specific picture you'd put here — what was it?]. We stood there longer than the schedule allowed and let the schedule lose.
We split up at [DETAIL: where did you part ways? Lima airport?] at the end. Three weeks was long enough to stop converting soles in my head, and not nearly long enough to get tired of the company.
— Lo