The road less travelled

Salcantay Trek, Peru

In 2013 my husband and I travelled to Peru, for a long awaited, long saved-up-for trip to Machu Picchu, the ancient Incan citadel amid in the breathtaking landscape of the Andean Mountains.  

We had set out to walk the Inca Trail.

This was a 4-day challenging high-altitude hike through the Andes leading to Machu Picchu. The Inca Trail is a permit-only route and we booked our places 6 months before departing Cardiff to South America.  

When we finally got to Cusco, the city from which we were starting our adventure, we discovered that an error had been made in our booking: unbeknown to us, our permits were accidentally booked for June 2013 but we arrived (and thought we were setting out) in July 2013.  

We were a month late, and there was 0% chance of us being allowed onto the Inca Trail. Months of planning, years of saving, a lifetime dreaming of doing the Trail, and we couldn’t do it.  

We were pretty upset.

Sometimes that happens in life: we hope for something, we assume good things will happen to us, we think our lives might look favorably like others we know.  

And sometimes it doesn’t go the way we thought it would.

Since the Inca Trail experience, I have had similar moments in life where things have taken a different direction. Often it has surprised me. Sometimes it has caused grief and heart-ache as I’ve longed for the things I had assumed were coming my way. During these times, I’ve often thought of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, who talks of choosing to take the path less travelled. 

I’ve taken a few less travelled roads in my time: some by choice and some not by choice.

 A remarkable thing that I have often reflected on further down the line is how much unexpected joy, experience and learning I have found along these paths and, eventually, how glad I am that I walked them.  

We did still get to Macchu Piccu in July 2013. We had to go via a different route (the Salcantay Trek for any of you are interested).  

It was unexpected, it was longer (the Salcantay Trek is also known as the ‘Savage Mountain Trek’) but it was amazing: we still hiked through cloud forests, climbed snowcapped mountains and sat by turquois lakes.  

The journey we ended was not the one we started, but it was incredible.

I am glad to join with Robert Frost many times in my life and say: 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

From the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost 

About Me - Hi, I’m Cate - a trauma counsellor, supervisor and trainer in South Wales. I work with individuals, charities and organisations who want help and support to better understand trauma and the effects it has on our lives. If you’d like to chat about how we could work together, please email me - cate@waves-therapy.com