I walked into the Miami airport and bumped into a circle of teenagers with huge duffle bags who were dressed funny. I figured – well, this is probably the group of people I’m going to be spending 24/7 with for the next 2 weeks. I observed them for a second and they were playing cards, but were mostly concentrated on the conversations being held interrupted by the occasional breaking out of laughter. As I saw the already tight-knit group dynamic that I wasn’t yet a part of, I shyly asked, “Is this the Student Shoulder-to-Shoulder thingy?” trying to act as nonchalant as possible. Soon enough though, this feeling of uneasiness would dissolve into sharing stories about our lives at home, participating in icebreakers that got us to share our differences and similarities, and expressing our hopes and fears for the trip. Oh, and this was all while sitting on the cold airport floor for 7 hours while waiting for our flight. I instantly felt like I was part of a community, we all had the same goals and dreams and aspirations for the trip. We had also met our instructors, who right off the bat gave me a genuine smile and comforting feeling of security which helped wipe all anxiety from my mind.
As we waited for our flight at the gate, we listened to music while sharing our strong opinions about which rapper or pop star is the real GOAT. Later, we boarded the plane and took our first official group photo with our arms around each other and huge smiles. Not much after, we landed in Lima, took a short flight to Cuzco, and took a bus to Urubamba, which is where I am writing this journal from right now. We were all so excited to see the unique Peruvian scenery, and looked out the window of the bus while exclaiming, “Look! That stray dog is so cute!” or “OMG the view is beautiful let me take a photo!” which was of course followed by “You NEED to send that to me!”. We made a couple of stops on our bus ride to Urubamba. The first stop was a quick stop to take a photo of the view of mountains with snow on their peaks. I was in awe at the beauty of the nature surrounding me. This is the moment I realized it was going to be a very special trip. Our second stop was to see how they took alpaca fur and dyed it with natural dyes, made it into string, and later knitted it using an animal bone. After the demonstration got to look around at the finished products and purchase goods to take home as souvenirs.
Finally, we arrived to the lodge where we’re staying at for the first few nights. We got settled into our rooms, had a delicious lunch, and immediately wanted to start exploring. The group walked around town in Urubamba, walking into local markets and speaking to people on the street. It was very fun. Later, we returned to our lodge, got to learn a bit more about the Llama Pack Project, and went back to our rooms. However, we were so bored without our phones that 20 minutes later we get a knock on our door and its the guys begging us to hang out with them. So we do. We sit outside on the chairs of the patio surrounded by the most magical mountain terrain, play relaxing music, and start talking. The talk quickly evolved from us describing our schools to each other into why we even signed up for this trip in the first place, and it was not only a great bonding experience but a display of how much our trust for each other had grown in only the first day.
