“Send Love” Mary Chapin Carpenter

When all you've got is not enough to get you through the day

(send love) Your candles burnt down to the wick, no fuel for a flame

(send love) And every moment showing you that nothing ever stays the same (send love)

Send love

Dreams that never had a chance, they finally let you go

(send love)

Failures chalked up to happenstance, we'll never really know

(send love)

Why the scars that we keep hidden are worse than what we show (send love)

Send love

Send love without conditions, all transmissions

From messengers and servants Love by air and wire

Through storms and fire, postmarked urgent And maybe to yourself this once

To show you are deserving of Love

All my life I've never felt like I belonged (send love)

Every fix I came up with turned out wrong (send love)

And every moment called a gift suddenly was gone (send love)

Send love We move so fast we don't know where we've even been

(send love)

Some lives don't so much as start before they end

(send love)

And I'd give anything to have it back again (send love)

Send love

Send love

Send love

Love

Sending you love.

“End of the Road” Eddie Veeder Cusco

I've been listening to the soundtrack to Into the Wild (Eddie Veeder) on the long train and bus rides while taking in the amazing Andes Mountains. It is the perfect companion to the Peruvian landscapes-- and I can relate to the character in the book about being free of the societal chains that bind us to what it means to be truly alive. Work for the man until you die? No.

I'm on the last leg of the journey here in the center of Cusco, a beautiful old city. The Peruvian people are so beautiful and kind it's no wonder people from other places come here and never leave. My Great Aunt married a handsome Peruvian, but he was Catholic and after getting his green card, got the marriage annulled, leaving my aunt heartbroken. Georgous and Alone.

She never dated or remarried and died a spinster.

Yesterday's workshop showed how the beautiful colors are made for textile work. I have a new appreciation for each piece and the hours it takes to dye the alpaca and sheep wool and use the loom to create the intricate patterns. Nothing is written down, the women use math and muscle memory to create the designs.

Our group has gelled and it has been interesting listening to each traveler's journey- many echo each other, loss of a spouse, loss of a grown child by suicide, beating cancer, or just this is what they chose to do with their remaining time here.

We have heard several times in different lectures how everything is connected and nothing really is by chance. On the train up to MP I heard several stories about travelers getting lost, and just when they thought it was the end, someone or something rescued them.

That gives me great comfort.

Here's to the last 2 days in Peru! Salud!

"The Old Mountain" Gorillaz

I am sitting in my room, window open, just at the feet of Machu Picchu. There is a light rain falling and it is a cool 65 degrees. Every 15 minutes, like clockwork, a train passes just below my window, shuttling travelers up the mountain to see the breathtaking site of Machu Picchu.

I witnessed its magestic beauty yesterday and am forever changed.

The past four days have been transformative for me, offering fresh perpective on what it means to live, what one can do without, and a new appreciation for the Peruvian people and their land and culture.

This time has also given me a chance to meet others who understand and value traveling to distant places in order to make more sense of the world.

l am by far the youngest in the group of solo travelers and the least traveled, some people here have done over 19 trips with RS and have seen the world twice over.

No doubt that will be me in ten years, as travel to me is as essential as nurishnent to our body; it is nurishnent to my soul.

El Nino has played a hand in this unusually wet period, and we will have to trapse to the bus station in the cold drizzle. To me, it is a beautiful blessing to commune here with other believers in lost civilizations and wonderous sites.

i wouldn't want it any other way.