Peru and Chile

Two countries, six cities, and a fortnight plus one of design, Peru and Chile were first woven together in my mind sometime before I came to be. Imagined from afar, the days disappeared in another season before we could digest their beauty. Memories change perception of moments, but feelings last forever.

I wanted to travel with you before I knew who you were. Our trajectories were nearing, but we still needed time. We first met straddling two seasons, but we couldn’t slip between them as we did when we went south.

Brushing territory we could not enter, we spent a few days in Lima before ascending onward toward Cusco. Merely a point of passage on the way to Machu Picchu, we later spent a couple of days there. Slowly winding our way by train through the most beautiful country I have seen, I never could have imagined a more magnificent landscape.

At an altitude lower than that of Cusco, we soon found ourselves at the top of the world. A llama showed us the way. It wasn’t familiar but it wasn’t foreign, either. I wondered what it would have been like to live there.

It was my pot of gold.

We followed the rainbow back to the center, stopping to spend a night in Ollantaytambo. It was there that we had the best meal of our culinary adventure at a place called El Albergue. Later we looked at the stars. They never have been clearer.

On a sunny morning three days later, we flew to the land of make-believe memories. Anchored in Santiago, we took a day trip the port city of Valparaiso. As reflected in the pictures, sometimes imagery can be deceptive, and sometimes make-believe memories are best kept fiction. But sometimes things should be seen for what they are.

At times it was hard to see Santiago for what it was since it was covered in smog. A vibrant city nevertheless, the only gray day was the day we visited the Museo de la Memoria, or the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, dedicated to the victims of the Pinochet regime. Thousands of silent voices can become deafening if you listen closely enough. Please listen closely enough.

Crossing the Andes on our way back, we spent part of the night in El Dorado. Sleeping for most of the final flight, I only awoke shortly before landing. I didn’t dream of anything.