friends on the fly

one of the great things about traveling is the opportunity to meet people you wouldn’t otherwise cross paths with. who live far away, or come from different backgrounds, who’re older or younger or speak a different language.

and one of the difficult things about traveling is meeting people you wouldn’t otherwise cross paths with, and knowing there is a good chance you won’t see these people again. when you meet, share experiences, develop a rapport… and then part ways. where if circumstances were different, you’d hope to become good friends, but because they live far away, have other plans, etc., the chance for relationships is over even before it begins.

that’s life, i know. but it still sucks.

we’ve spent the past week with a group of people we met through random chance. we were all on the same trip to uyuni, all happened to have similar post-uyuni itineraries, all shared in witnessing the same horrible accident and comforting each other after. in a word, we bonded. and it’s felt really good to be in good company. to talk, to laugh. you miss the companionship of friends when you’re on the road.

and now they go their way and we go ours. they left this morning while we stay behind. there are tentative plans to meet up in la paz or cuzco… but even well intentioned plans have a way of changing when you travel. i’d be lying if i said i wasn’t a little sad today because of that.

but that’s the nature of the adventure we’re all a part of. so you tuck the memories into the photo album, exchange email addresses, and hope for the best.

i guess what i’m trying to say is that if we don’t see you again, it’s been really good to share this small corner of the world with you. wishing you safe travels, adventures big and small, and “bon voyage” – good seeing good. whenever we think of bolivia, we’ll think of you.

con abrazos,
jen and jonno

This entry was posted on Wednesday, 6 September, 2006 at 4:04 pm and is filed under bolivia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.