Pre-Trip Jitters Before Peru

Are group dynamics going to make or break our Peruvian adventure? Today I unravel my top three anxieties about our upcoming group trip to Peru.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, it's Rebecca. Welcome back to the pod. Right now I'm recording this podcast before I head to Peru. So it's the end of September, I'm headed to Peru here in just a couple days and I have a little bit of fear going into this trip. So today I'm going to talk about the fears that I have going into Peru and this, this show, is going to go live on October 8, then I'll actually be in Peru October 8th. So today I'm going to talk about the fears that I have going into Peru and then, when I get back from Peru, um, in the future, uh, next week, so on October 15th I have an episode scheduled where I'm going to talk about what I learned, um, this year and and we'll talk about what I learned during our trip to Peru too. So, anyway, peru fears After we climbed Kilimanjaro and we talk about Kilimanjaro a ton here on the pod and on our YouTube channel and in our newsletter.

Speaker 1: 0:55

And it makes sense because Kilimanjaro was probably the biggest, most significant thing that I've done with my life in a long, long time. So after Kilimanjaro, I was sick for a whole month. I was looking at the Sulcante Trail, thinking I need to put a lot of time on my tired legs, but I trained for about a month before this trip, like seriously trained before the trip, so not feeling super ready physically for Peru. So that is my first fear. My first fear is that I might be a little bit out of shape headed into the climb and headed into the hike. My second fear is about the dynamics of the group. Our Kilimanjaro group was fantastic but it was such a big group it was hard for me to touch base with everyone in the group every single day. Our Alaska trip was amazing. Our group was amazing. Our Yellowstone group was amazing.

Speaker 1: 1:52

But before every single trip I go on and before every single trip that I lead, I'm always a little concerned about the group dynamics and I'm always thinking is everybody going to get along? What if people argue? What if people fight? What if everybody going to get along? What if people argue? What if people fight? What if roommates don't get along? There's so there's so much uncertainty and there's so much at play when you take women who don't know each other and then you put them in a different environment and and and anyway there's there's a lot that could go wrong with group dynamics, but I would say that 99% of the time. The groups that we lead here at Hike Like a Woman are amazing and I don't have any problems, but it's always something that's in the back of my mind. So, first fear that I'm too out of shape. Second, fear that the group might not bond and mesh. And then my third fear is the food. And this is me going back in time to I don't probably 2000 and I don't know, 2001, 2002.

Speaker 1: 3:00

I used to do biathlon competitively. So biathlon is the sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship. So you ski and you shoot, and I skied for the army. The army has a biathlon team. So if you're a biathlete out there and you're like, oh gee, I'd really like to get paid to do my sport, you can get paid if you join the army.

Speaker 1: 3:22

So anyway, we were training in Chile and Argentina and on the flight home we were headed home from Santiago, chile, and my teammate got really, really sick, super super duper sick, on the plane on the way home and she when we landed, on the plane on the way home and she when we landed, we had there were three of us on our team on the flight and when we landed she was too sick to get off the plane and go through customs, so they had to let everybody else off the plane and then they brought a wheelchair onto the plane for her and there was an ambulance waiting and we didn't even go through customs and we just went right immediately to the hospital. So she that's how sick she was. She got really, really sick, and so I might have a little bit of fear about going to South America, and even though I didn't get sick on that trip or any of the trips that I have taken to South America, I still that memory of her being so sick and riding in the ambulance with her kind of came back to me when I scheduled this trip to Peru. The food and getting sick is probably my third biggest fear when it comes to Peru. But here's the deal I'm not the only one that has fear. That is, dealing with uncertainty and anxiety before group trips. I think everyone who joins me for a group trip, there's always, there's always this element of we don't know what the future holds. There's always this element of am I going to fit in? That is, that is perfectly normal. But the important thing when it comes to fear is to remember that we can't let fear stop us from doing things that are really cool and having experiences that are going to be really epic.

Speaker 1: 5:11

So I'm headed to Peru a little bit out of shape. I'm headed to Peru hoping that everyone in the group gets along. I'm headed to Peru and I'm going to be very careful about what I eat and what I drink and I'm going to come back next week and I'm going to give you a report. And next week, next Tuesday morning, I'm going to talk about all the things that I have learned on recent trips. So we're going to talk about Alaska, yellowstone, peru and our Yellowstone National Park reunion. I'm going to do a quick Yellowstone, peru and our Yellowstone National Park reunion. I'm going to do a quick recap on all four of those events because that wraps up the guiding season for me. So come back next week and hear all about Peru.