“Joe, are you mocking a llama?” Freddy asked.
“Yes.”
“Alright then.”
“You thought we couldn’t make it. Thought Shelly and Don couldn’t make it. You thought Freddy couldn’t make it,” I continued to mock.
“The llamas did look at us weirdly,” Freddy noted.
“Yeah! See, we showed them.”
“Stupid llamas.”
“Stupid llamas!” I exclaimed.
Perhaps because he was too tired to care, Freddy shared a high-five with me and said, “You thought we couldn’t make it in Peru. Well we did it! We got to the top of the mountain!”
“We climbed it. Oh yeah. Do the happy dance.”
“I don’t have a happy dance.”
“Make one up.”
“Is that your happy dance?”
“Yup.”
“It looks like you’re having a seizure.”
“A seizure of happiness. You dance.”
“What the heck,” Freddy said, as both he and I danced while singing, “We did it, we did it, we did it.”
“Americans are quite strange,” Don said. Despite this statement, he and Shelly joined us in a terrible happy dance and gave one last mocking laugh at the llamas.
The park was closing. And it was beginning to rain. It had taken us all day to climb Machu Picchu, and the rain was loudly escorting us off the mountain. The summit needed to rest, revive, cleanse itself for the next set of travelers.
As we boarded the bus through the pouring rain, I suggested that we all get dinner somewhere. Don and Shelly thought this a fantastic idea. And so we returned to Aguacaliente, walking proud, if stiff.
The rained had lightened by the time the bus dropped us off, so we were able to walk along the stone-paved streets in search of quality food. As we walked, we shared lessons learned in journeying to Cusco and back. Don and Shelly would be staying another day in Aguacaliente so they could not join us on the return trip to Lima.
As we expressed our sadness at this revelation I suddenly saw a sign at the door of a blue-painted restaurant. It said, “Special tonight: Llama tacos.”
“Huzzah!” I shouted and ran into the restaurant, double-checking the menu, “They have llama tacos here!”
“So I’m guessing you won’t be ordering the cheeseburger,” Freddy said as Shelly and Don joined us.
We ate two helpings of llama tacos at that little restaurant, along with several helpings of beer and pisco. As the sun went down on this day, Freddy and I thanked the Lord and all that was.
Pisco in hand, I stood above my empty plate that had formerly been full of llama tacos, offering my glass in toast to the companions around me. “To the journey we’ve made, and all the journeys left to come,” I said as we clinked glasses.
Freddy and I returned to Cusco later that night. Via Louis’s convoluted directions, we then made it back to Lima. There we spent the rest of the week exploring and relaxing with Grant and Amy as we took in all that Peru had to offer.
“So was it worth it?” I asked while we were relaxing in our hostel with Louis, Grant, Amy and the other friends we’d made.
“Was what worth it?” Freddy asked.
“Missing out on Egypt and going to Peru.”
“It would be hard to top.”
“Yeah, but I think we can beat it.”
“Oh yeah? Where do you want to go next?”
“Mars.”
Everyone laughed.
“Or I could accept China,” I said with a smile.
“China’s good,” Freddy said.
“But seriously. I want to go to Mars.”
“You gonna build a ship for that?”
“I’m gonna do something.”
“You still haven’t seen all of planet Earth, Joe. How about this. We see all there is to see on Earth, then you can go to Mars.”
“Deal.”
I intend to go to Mars by 2019. This may not be a realistic expectation.
The End
Joe Stevens Mocks a Llama Page 12
