I am inspired to share with the world certain people who cross my path. As a writer, some people move me to written words, especially those I meet serendipitously on my travels. These are my odes to people who, in my opinion, deserve them.
For Gaby de Vega
I met Gaby when we landed in Punta Arenas, Chile as part of a group preparing to hike the famous W Circuit of the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia. As it turns out, Gaby and I had also booked the same hostel for the duration of our conference in Puerto Varas following our trek. On top of that, we were both scheduled on the same tour to the island of Chiloé after the conference.
There were 700 delegates attending the Adventure Travel World Summit in Chile, over 30 trips to choose from before the conference, countless hotels and hostels in Puerto Varas to stay in, and a handful of different tours afterwards, not to mention life plans taking people in different directions.
Against the odds, the two of us had serendipitously chosen the exact same two-week itinerary in Chile.
I love it when I meet someone and feel like I’ve know him or her forever. That was Gaby for me. Our friendship was immediate (or maybe that was just the beer on the first bus ride…)
Gaby is a badass. She is originally from El Salvador, where she lived through a war when she was young, owns a coffee plantation, and started her family and her travel company. She speaks both English and Spanish perfectly beautifully; she moved her family with two daughters to Florida to give them better opportunities; she recovered with hardly any complaints after being violently thrown off a horse on our trail ride, and somehow she still has energy to dance after hiking 72 KM on the trails of Patagonia. AND, (don’t tell anyone) she likes Enrique Iglesias (I may have had something to do with that). 😉
By Day 2 of our trek we were sharing personal stories of life and love, and by Day 4 we were sharing a room (and my toothpaste, too). We were next door neighbors in our hostel in Puerto Varas and ended up at all the same conference parties. We were also put together to share rooms each night on our post tour, where we happily (and much more responsibly than in Puerto Varas) had lights out at decent hours.
All of our being paired together was beyond our control, and I couldn’t help but wonder what role we may have been meant to play in each others’ lives. Perhaps just companionship, because it was so natural and easy to appreciate her simply as a new friend.
This, to me, is the serendipitous magic of travel.
When we said goodbye at the airport after two weeks of being together almost constantly, we both knew it wasn’t a matter of if, but of when we would see each other again. This is normal for travelers like us.
So thank you, Gaby, for being my first companion on this indefinite journey. I look forward to the day our paths cross again (and we will dance to some more Enrique).
