In which I meet fellow travellers, and a friendship ensues
Being a shy fellow, I received the last-minute news that there were two additional guests on my walking tour of Barranco with a bit of trepidation. Three or four hours not only with a tour guide I was unfamiliar with but also with two other guests?
I need not have worried. After an hour or so, the tour guide (Mau) left the three of us alone briefly. The more extraverted of the two other guests turned to me and said, “You seem like a nice person!” which she immediately followed with “Is that a weird thing to say?”
Well, erm, yes, it is a bit weird. But not unwelcome! Who would not want to be told that they’re a nice person?
By the end of our tour, I felt as if Naiomi and Will were dear old friends. Mau left us, promising to be our friend and contact in Barranco if we had any questions. And Will, Naomi, and I decided to have drinks and a late lunch together.
Fast-forward a couple of hours, and we knew much about each others’ lives and travels. I visited the loo, and they paid the bill while I was gone. And we walked slowly along Barranco’s malecón (bluff walk with along the coast) together, promising we’d be in touch and visit whenever I was next in England or they were in the northeast U.S.
But they also said they’d return briefly to Lima after their visits to Machu Pichu and Vinicunca, and that we’d get together then.…