Traveling

So I have been gathering my rosebuds, getting stuff together and packing for my trip to Peru which begins on Friday. This also means getting Jack’s traveling kit together. Who knew such a little fellow could fill up two suitcases with his spring wardrobe and collection of familiar toys? I suppose the ball machine does take up a fair amount of space. I’m really going to miss my little buddy. We have become quite the team, Jack and I. I just hope he isn’t scarred for life because I went away for a week. I suspect a few days of playing with his cousins will ameliorate any seperation issues. On the plus side, maybe grandma can teach him how to eat with a spoon and fork, a skill that has eluded both him and me recently.

A few years ago I can remember my idea of planning for a trip out of the country usually involved cramming a few days worth of clothes into a knapsack, remembering my ticket and passport and heading for the airport bar. It’s not as easy when you are leaving a part of you behind. This now responsible parent spent the better part of this past week drafting a healthcare proxy and a will, getting vaccinated against strange diseases, purchasing travel insurance with emergency medical evacuation coverage, registering my trip with the state department (I know, I know) and sending a detailed itinerary of where I’m going to be on any given day, including hotel phone and fax numbers, by e-mail to every responsible adult that I know. Adventure travel indeed. I can report, however, that for the first time in many trips I feel like I am fully prepared for anything from an outbreak of cholera to a minor insurrection. This sort of preparation would have been impossible without cell phones and the internet and indeed, the first time I went overseas in early 1993, I had neither. There was something more, I don’t know, adventurous, about picking a hostel out of a Lonely Planet guidebook and making a reservation over the telephone without having the benefit of being able to view a panoramic 360 degree slideshow of the place on the internet. The world really is flat.

Jack is going on his own carefully controlled vacation. I’m sure he will have as much fun scaling the sides of the chicken coop as I will climbing the last 1000 feet to Machu Picchu. If all goes well, in a week I’ll be back and we can swap stories.