A piece of me, a big one, is elated to see Peru, to walk the Inca Trail to the airy palace of Machu Picchu, to glimpse the Andean condor soaring above Colca Canyon, to explore the ancient city of Cuzco, to drink pisco sours and eat quinoa soup and chew coca leaves, to live in some other land for just a little while. To dwell fleetingly in novelty and to forget for a moment my mortal pettiness—that is, after all, why we travel.Most of all, I ache to see the Amazon rainforest, the shadowed locale that haunted my childhood dreams alongside dragons and giants.