Keith's One Week of RTW

So I’m not lucky or brave enough to quit my job and travel around the world. But I am happy enough to blow off my job for a week and lucky to have a wife that didn’t mind me disappearing for a week and leaving the family at home. Since Rich and Ana seemed like they wanted some visitors, I didn’t mind crashing their trip because I knew Rich would have done the same! They really seem to enjoy the company and this point they’re professional travelers so if anyone is thinking about joining them at one of the upcoming exotic locations, I highly recommend it!

Being that these guys are travel pro’s at this point, I learned a lot about traveling with them. When I showed up, I think my bag was bigger than theirs – these guys are traveling lean!!! For example, Rich showed me that to travel, you really only need two sets of clothes. The one you’re wearing and the one that is drying after being washed. Rich has his own home made clothesline and a constant supply of laundry detergent stashed in numerous hotel shampoo bottles. But as light as they’re traveling at the end of the day it’s still our friends Rich and Ana that we know and love. They make room in their bags for the “essentials” – you know…. laptops, parkas, coolers, and the Makers. Who knew that a Makers bottle wrapped in cardboard travels so well? I don’t think this is Ana’s first tortilla.

It was really entertaining for me to watch Ana conversing with the locals. Ana likes to downplay her language skills but she’s way too modest. I’m not sure anyone in Peru has seen too many Chinese girls fluent in Spanish. Ana would walk up to someone on the street, a cabie, or someone at the hotel and start firing questions and bargaining as we know Ana loves to do but this time all in Spanish. After a few minutes of banter, almost always the person would take a step back, assess the situation, kind of chuckle a bit. Then they’d ask Ana if she was Japanese and how her Spanish got so good. I swear they were also asking what she was doing with the two incompetent mutes but Ana says this wasn’t true. In all seriousness, I would have been lost w/o Ana as a translator and she doubles as a great guide.

While some things have stayed the same with these two, other things have definitely changed. I think “Mosko-math” has gone through a transformation while on travel. I don’t think I would have ever described Rich and Ana as overly-frugal people. I’ve dropped way too much cash on dinners at Steamers and Birk’s with these guys to call them frugal. But man how things have changed – they pick and choose their battles now-a-days. I watched Rich bust out of a bar quicker than a Chili’s when someone tried to stick us with a 50 cent tax! I saw Rich and Ana walk away from a Happy Hour special of 4 beers for $5.60 because they thought it should only be a $5 tab! Whaaaa-aaaat?!?!?! Where is the “easy button”? Instead we grabbed some 40’s and sat in the plaza outside the bar that denied us and got eaten alive by bugs. I’ve thought about that 60 cents a bunch as I’m still clawing at my legs from whatever those bites were.

I kid, and give these guys a hard time just because I want them to know that nothing has changed and that we still love them. I had an amazing time with Rich and Ana and it was great to see friends in the middle of a journey that will surely change their lives. I thank them for having me along and allowing me to write about it. I think our best day was hiking pretty much all alone in Inca ruins around Pisac. Something about hiking though early civilizations in the remote Andes is invigorating and makes you feel like you’re really soaking up all that life has to offer. It’s an adrenaline rush and everything becomes clear that experiences like this is what life is about and so much of the stuff in your daily grind is not as important as you once thought. It reminded me of one of those killer powder days Rich and I use to have when blowing off work. I’m sure Rich and Ana have had dozens of moments like this in the three months before I arrived, I can’t imagine how many more opportunities await them in the remaining 9 months. Travel well our friends, and know that while we can’t wait for you to get home, we’re not rushing ya! So soak it all in, and thanks again for letting me tag along and experience it!