June 30, 2022 by Cassandra Johnson
Did I say goodbye to William properly? Parting sometimes had its challenges with the way we were moving in out of our own schedules and the schedules of the buses, flights and hikes we needed to make it to our next cities.
I had booked an abbreviated tour of Colca Canyon to his full day hike. I have a misty memory of it seeming way too early to say an official goodbye and when you hope to see people again in the next leg of your continental travel, goodbye gets even murkier. Many of us were not returning home just yet so couldn’t our paths continue to coincide. Feeling a bit of resistance to old routines and responsibilities, doing the work of giving our time to organizations continued to be more appealing.
We were equally reluctant when “see you later” was so much easier. Still knowing this might be the last time for then or for a long while, sunglasses doubled as protectants and a means to hide the abundant red eyes. One of the hardest times was leaving my first Peruvian home when the one exiting made their official goodbye speech during the regular weekday morning briefing.
We did our best, not too bad, treating the person to a special time maybe in the form of their favorite part of the city or their favorite local cuisine. Sandboarding was one goodbye and fortunately I did get to reconnect with those friends but there was always a worry.
I think the rub was not particularly always knowing how the next partition of travel would turn out, what days would correspond, where we would unwittingly linger, and where we would be mesmerized by more friends to add to the social media rolodex.
I think a lot of us must have worried if this would be the last time. Once the volunteering and backpacking was done, how often and how far would we be able to return. Staying in touch and follow up visits have not escaped us as much as we might have thought and the last time I made it all the way back to the very beginning of this adventure was not too long ago. I think too long – but still a hopeful glimpse in how it can always be possible.