A trip designed on my own terms

by NOEMI SOLEDAD RABBIA (Argentina)

Making a local connection Peru

I had been in Perú two times in less than a year. Despite the fact only 300 days separated both journeys they turned to be completely different experiences. What had changed, which one I preferred, were among the many questions I was not looking to answer but popped in my mind. I could say travelling changes people. It may happen, it happens all the time. However, that occasion it was not my case but the opposite. I had been in Perú two times in less than a year. The first time I arrived in the country still going through a rehab from a not too rare disease that I call “I can’t help listening to everything other travellers say about how my travels should be”. If I am not mistaken, I got the disease after my first trip to Bolivia. I recall my happiness vanished as soon as I talked to many others who had visited the country and kept saying things to me such us: “I can’t believe you went to Bolivia and didn’t go to Santa Cruz”. Sometimes, they made me feel lazy and at some point my experiences seemed to be incomplete or, even worse, superficial. But I kept travelling and once life took my feet to the land of the Incas. After my returned it happened again. Meeting people around and listening to their complaints about my trip. “What the hell!” I said to myself. Until one day, when without hesitation and from my inner feelings I replied: “Have you ever bought groceries in a local market?” Have you ever learnt a housekeeper’s recipe to prepare the best fish in town? Do you know how many types of potatoes can be found in Peru?” The answer to my inquiries were often “no”. So, in the end I realized that the problem was not them but me. I needed to embrace my own way of discovering the world. I had certainly already found it, only I wasn’t conscious. So the next time I took my way to Perú my eyes and heart felt to be more wide opened. As usual, before departure, I wrote some kind of bucket list but this time I already knew it would be open for changes and unplanned activities. Because you can sit in front of your computer and spend a whole year trying to control everything that could happen or you will do in your trips, but life may hack all your plans without blinking. Once I was in Lima and I went to a supermarket. Supermarkets are an excellent option to discover what the locals consume, get to know their cuisine secrets AND buy cheaper gifts like coffee, sweets or spices. So I was in Lima, I was in the supermarket and I ended up in the sea food section. I started to talk with a lady – knowing the language makes it really easy, of course- and pointing at something I asked her: “what is that”. I was pointing to the tollo, a type of small shark which is cooked in Perú. Quite expensive, I must confess, and out of my budget, I decided I deserved it after climbing the Wayna Picchu without crying, complaining of having a heart attack. And there I was, in this market, talking with this woman and then also a man who joined us in the conversation. They gave me some valuable advices about how to prepare the tollo and which were some of the most common side dishes. Then I went to the hostel and while everyone was cooking pasta or rice I submerged myself into the tremendous task of preparing a delicious homemade Peruvian shark. That night I met a guy from Germany and another one from Switzerland, who joined me for dinner. Two lucky guys, don’t you think?! So, the second time I went to Perú I didn’t go to Coroico, the Amazonas and many other delightful corners of the country but I like thinking is just a matter of time. Nonetheless, I confirmed my guess that there is a roadmap for every single traveller, designed and focused on his own terms. Defined by his own limits and beyond anyone else opinion. It is not better or it is not worse than any other plan… it simply is.