The frigid air seeped through our North Face monkey fleece jackets as we navigated our way through one of the narrow stone trails toward the edge of the mountain, careful not to trip on the jagged, ancient pathway. A golden light began to appear over the mountains across the way, so we pushed forward in the dark, not wanting to miss the sunrise we had waited months to experience. After patting the ground for a dry patch of land, I swung my legs over the edge, leaning back on Phil. We unwrapped our brown paper bagged breakfast and ate amidst the spellbinding Andes mountains in the heart of Machu Picchu. Whew.
We. Made. It.
By this point, Phil and I had be dating for over a year and knew that this could be it. We had survived traveling back-and-forth on I-95 every weekend (trust me, this is no small feat), and were ready for a summer filled with adventure and time together. This long-awaited, meticulously planned (maybe too planned?) trip to Peru unexpectedly tested our relationship. We were deeply in love, and although we spent every weekend together, we had never spent days without end alone with only one another, handling the twists and turns that traveling inevitably thrusts upon its voyagers.
I am a planner. It’s just my nature, and I feel more relaxed existing within a plan. Phil is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of guy; he feels most at peace when he has no schedule or plan whatsoever. After the first day when we were both simply giddy to finally be in Peru, these conflicting types of being began to clash. Big. Time. Although other calamities ensued, like flights being delayed and Phil almost dying from food poisoning (seriously – it’s quite the story), our greatest challenge was finding our rhythm as one. Exploring Lima, Cuzco, the Sacred Valley, and Aguas Calientes challenged us by exposing both of our rough, dark, not so polished or polite sides. It was brutal and challenging to the extent that one night, we honestly did not know if we – us- were going to make it. Can we do this if we by nature are so different?
As we ate our bananas, granola bars, and trail mix, Phil and I sighed deeply and grinned widely. We made it. We had climbed the mountain. Yes, there would be more to climb both literally (we had a 9:00a.m. slot to hike Huayna Picchu – yet another story for the books) and metaphorically, but we knew now that we could and would do it together. This was the rockiest of experiences yet, but I would not trade it for the world. I know now that whatever mountains may come, we will climb it one step at a time – together.
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