Before his first step. He's off again.

Sent from my BlackBerry®

standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams, telling myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems

I helped Homer climb the MurderHorn, and we made it cause as long as you’ve got Powersauce bars (that are full of Chinese Newspapers) you can do anything.

 

The year is 94. School. Im “doing a research project” at the town library in Wollongong before school. The subject doesn’t matter – my mates and i are just there goofing off and killing time before we go to school. Im in the geography section of the library and i see a book on South America with the most amazing picture ive ever seen on the cover. I open it up. I need to know where this magical place is. WHERE IS THIS MAGICAL PLACE HIGH ON A HILL AMONGST THE CLOUDS??? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN??? I MUST GO THERE!!! And even WHERE IS SOUTH AMERICA????????????? Cause i was/am stupid.

 

And i open the book and find the info on the place. And its called Machu Picchu. Hidden high on a mountain. And it looks magical. Magical. Where is it? Peru? Where the fcuk is Peru? How do i get there? What does it all mean? I looked at the pictures and read a little on it but then probably read a Rolling Stone magazine and forgot about it

 

So that was mid 94. I mostly forgot about that magical place over the next few years. Then i get the internets and separate to all its goodness i actually occasionally researched things that weren’t chicks or movies or music. Machu Picchu featured heavily on my Webcrawler search (this is the pre Google days, kiddies). And i remember thinking that i have to see it. In person. For reals.

 

Then one day while i was pretending to work when i pretended to have a career at a workplace i pretended to give a fcuk about, a favourite music photographer of mine - Rob Sheridan – went there to Machu Picchu and put some photos up on that internets thing and they really made me want to go there. But i didn’t have South America on my travel forecast cause i didn’t have a travel forecast. Then.

 

Stuff happened and i got bored and i decided to get me a travel forecast. And i recall the day i first sat down with my most awesome of the awesomeristly awesome travel agents, Andrea. From memory the conversation went like this (but remember there’s been a few cocktails in between dreams so i gets a little hazy at times kids):

 

Andrea: so, where do you want to go? (she points to the 6ft high by 10ft wide world map on the wall behind me)

 

Adam: everywhere i can

 

Andrea: ok, so that’s not gonna happen in one hit but what’s the priority?

 

Adam: (i walk over to the South America bit and point to Peru) I NEED TO GO THERE

 

You see the thing is right, i just had to go there. Sure there was stuff i visited on the previous parts of the trip that i wanted to see and check out, but there was something about Machu Picchu that was pulling me to it. Something weird in me that was telling me to do all i could to see it in person for reals. I couldn’t work it out to be honest. I just didn’t know what it was. I just knew i had to go there.

 

And go there i did.

 

But i nearly didn’t make it there. Its a long story (they all are) but it involves me chasing an Indiana Jones boyhood fantasy in Jordan, to me seeing a orthopaedic surgeon in Chicago who told me there’s no way am i hiking through the Peruvian Andes for 3 days with the way my knee was at that point.

 

Screw it. I made it.

 

Up at 4am. In line for the bus to the entry gate to see the sun rise over the site. I ran like hell – even with the screwed knee – faster than i had since that Spanish incident last July. Tour guide Paola, Tour compadre Dawn and I were the first few on the site. We sat there and marvelled at what we were seeing. I ate a cookie too. The sun rose over the mountains over the next 30mins. It was intense. Notoriously bad weather there, but our tour guide told us it was some of the best weather she had ever seen on the mountain. The previous few days had been very bad weather. So too was the days following us being there. “It was meant to be” i was told. I agree.

 

We then wandered the site and i went alone higher up the mountain to sit down and take it all in. Listening to the one album that seems to help me make sense of this crazy warped happy sad love hate world we live in, i figured it all out. I now know why i had to see Machu Picchu.

 

every word I said was true
and that you'll see

 

 

So anyhoo I've been back a while. Not doing much but travelling around heaps. The bag still isn't unpacked. Its been fun opening up the boxes of worthless cr.p that I sent back too. Seeing the people and things I missed has been awesome. But I've also seen things I didn't miss and that sucks.

Its weird being back here. The people and things I give a sh.t about aren't weird, but outside of those is. I don't know, maybe its me? I've changed?

I'm reminded of the writings of the great poet - David Lee Roth - who wrote the following, amongst such masterpieces as Panama, Jump, Top Jimmy, Ain't Talkin Bout Love and the fitting Hot For Teacher:

"Travelling around, you can learn a lot about people and places, and through that you can learn a lot about yourself, too, just by the way you react on the spot to new and different situations. And you can land yourself in some funny sh.t, too. And that's good for you! You shouldn't be afraid to try and put yourself some place you've never been before"

Word.

You'll be happy to know I've dried out too. There's a lady in Perth who will fall out of her government issued chair when she reads I went 5 weeks no percentage beverage. I've had a couple over the last week. But not in excess but I have been listening to them. Not the new lame stuff, just the Hutchence era.

Sorting photos at the request of peeps. They want to know stuff too. NASA, Disneyland, LA, South America, Coachella, SXSW, San Fran, week 4 of March, etc - seems that people need to be in the know. Nice that I've inspired a couple of you. Ill get some photos to you all shortly. One of my top 10 fav photos from my planetary happy place is attached for memories. 97000 photos is a lot to take in. Don't worry, I aint sendin ya 97000 photos. Its been good to go back and look over some. I'd forgotten about a lot of stuff I did, stuff I saw, people I met, etc. It all seems a blur to be honest. It still is.

But I needed to clear the photo hard drive. Cause I'm about to cross the pond to take more photos.

Rtfo,

adam
Sent from my BlackBerry®