i was thinking about our trip to Peru and how we met Mark and Sheri while heading towards Machu Picchu. it's amazing how close you get to strangers when you share every minute of a grueling, beautiful journey. you wake up before sunrise together, you groggily and grouchily eat breakfast together, you shiver your ass off together, you chew coca leaves together, you laugh together, you commiserate together about not showering for five days, you get sick together, you get better together, you distract each other while others are going to the bathroom up ahead on the trail, you get lost together, you watch the big soccer games together on a jerryrigged TV in the middle of the mountains, you commiserate about crazy traveling companions together, you ride buses together, you sit down together, you get back up together, you walk through freezing water together (the Canadians took it better than the Texans), you dance together after your legs are so tired that you have to keep moving them or else you might never stand up again.

and when you reach your destination and you awkwardly stand around realizing you may never see each other again, it feels like you've grown these limbs that you have to say goodbye to. and you aren't really so used to them that it warrants too much sentiment at first, but that "together"' journey really changes everything.