That Which May be Conquered

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -William Shakespeare

I have a theory.  Granted, it isn’t very well flushed out, but it is something that strikes me from time to time, primarily when I’m judging my compatibility with another person.  I believe there are beach (loving) people and there are mountain (loving) people, and while their differences may not be irreconcilable, there is something profoundly telling about your character based on which category you fall into.  That’s probably unfair.  So sue me.

I would expound upon what I believe the differences are, but I don’t want to offend everyone who prefers beaches, and the list I’m compiling would definitely do that.  So instead, let me focus on what I appreciate about mountains.  And to be clear, I am making a differentiation between mountains and beaches themselves, not the people that love them.  Ok, let’s go.  On the subject of mountains:

1)  They are daunting…but surmountable.  When I see mountains I am momentarily incapacitated, awestruck by their ginormous magnificence.  Upon recovery, my first thought is always, could I climb that?  9 times out of 10 the answer is yes, if I wanted to.  I look at the ocean and think to myself, that’s nice, but if I swam out further than 500 yards or deeper than 4 meters without proper equipment, I would likely die.

2)  They are more honest than the sea.  Ok, this one sounds weird.  But come on.  Doesn’t the ocean ever seem like it’s hiding something?  Rip tides?  Impossible, dark, cold depths?  Sharks?  The sea is so moody.  I believe people who prefer mountains have less tolerance for mystery.

3)  Mountains are inhabitable with the proper skill set.  You cannot make your home in the sea.  Unless you are Kevin Costner.

In a nutshell, I find mountains to be more participatory, welcoming, and overall a better way to spend my day, if the option is forced upon me.  Not that I would fight you to avoid a beach day.  Fickle.  I know.

If, for some reason, you are my mom and have been following my posts for the last year, you’ll remember that last time I was in Pisaq, I went off climbing beyond the ruins just for kicks and inadvertently picked up a local who took me to the famed and FAR mysterious lagoon in the mountains.  I liked the spot so much I thought I might make it the focus of my hike this go-round, sans the guide.  Or I might climb that bigger mountain over there I hadn’t been up yet.  Shiny.  Honestly, even as I was setting out, I had no idea what the goal for the day was.  One stipulation: I wanted to find a way to bypass the entry booth to the ruins.  I had no intention of seeing the ruins.  I did not want to pay for them.  We have covered this charming aspect of my personality.

This was the day after the bus ride and before the ceremony, so I set no alarm and fussed around in town for a little while before taking off, eating a scattered breakfast of empanadas I found from different street vendors along the way.  I walked along the edge of town and around the first mountain I intended to ascend, hoping I could gain enough altitude by the time I came to the proper side that the ticket booth would be below me.  I found a small goat trail headed upwards and whistling nonchalantly, took my beacon-like supawhite gringa (with a very tribal Northface backpack) self upon it.  Eventually, I came to a small aqueduct type structure and followed that back around.  Success!  I was above the booth.  But still fearful, I decided to continue over the mountain I was on as opposed to crossing the bridge to the more familiar one- I was still not satisfied that no one had seen me.  Of course, once I got to the other side of that mountain I was very lost.  Still following goat trails, I soon regretted sincerely the choice of shorts as my legs took a battery of thorns, insect bites, and very itchy plants.  Still, I pressed upwards, certain that if I could just get to the top of the current mountain, I could get my bearings.  At some point in this time period, I decided my goal was to reach the lagoon.  Goals are helpful.

I enjoy rock climbing, and would have put my mediocre rock climbing skills to use as the geographic future turned less and less path-y and more just up.  Unfortunately, there were no rocks to climb.  Only dried mud that looked sort of like rocks.  So places where I thought I’d found a foothold I soon found out would crumble beneath the weight I placed on them.  Metaphor!  At one such moment of falling, I had nothing to grab onto to catch myself save a really mean thorn bush next to me. So, that was awesome.  By some great miracle, I did make it to the zenith and saw that at the top of the next mountain over was a familiar looking village.

I continued on through fields of crops and flowers and small villages which all started to look very similar indeed to a girl who’d only been there once before, a year ago.  I had several offers from children shepherding flocks of things to act as guides and at least one offer to join a family for dinner.  Eventually, I caught up to three very amused farmers who spoke enough Spanish to tell me I would fail if I desired to get to the lagoon and back to Pisaq before sunset.  Considering the language barrier (they spoke mainly Quechua) they were kind enough to give me directions back to town by way of throwing handfuls of dirt in the direction I should walk.

So, I turned back towards Pisaq.  I was of course disappointed that I hadn’t met my recent and arbitrarily set goal, but at the same time, it had been one hell of a hike, so I didn’t give myself too much crap over it.  And in terms of loose objectives for the day, I had wanted from myself a good physical activity hopefully accompanied by some deep thought.  I think I had one, so that’s great.  Beyond that, here are a few things I should keep in mind in the future, if I ever decide this failure thing isn’t for me:

1. Set concrete goals beforeyou start trying to achieve them. (And I was so thrilled just to decide upon a target at all…)
2. Wake up early enough to achieve said goals. (In other words, put the proper amount of energy into the project.  Do not merely expect that time will conform to your bidding.)
3. Do not be afraid or too cheap to ask for a guide.  (If it is really worth it to you to get there, it is worth it to sacrifice the remittence of cash, energy, or pride to consult a willing human with proven experience in the matter.)
4. Make more lists.  Man, I am loving these today, right?

And one more thing before I go, before you get too cranky that I’m tossing around a word like ‘failure’.  This was my one thought on the mountain, fighting brambles and navigation and reason:

Just because you don’t know what you’re doing doesn’t mean you can’t know it’s the right thing to do.