The Curious Case of Traveller Joe

We don’t know Joe… But we’ve seen him 6 times in 2 months in 4 different countries…. Is this merely coincidence? Is he perhaps secretly following us? Are we meant to learn something from him?

Allow me to elaborate….

The first time we remember meeting the Irish traveller, Joe, was when we were cramped in a local mini-bus taxi going to Coroico after the Death Road in Bolivia. Then a week or so later we saw him in Uyuni, Bolivia, in Ripley Tours’s office. (Luckily for Joe he didn’t end up going with Ripley’s Nightmare Tours like we did!)

Then, a week later, in a random street in San Pedro de Atacama, in Chile, we walked into him for the 3rd time. It’s already quite odd meeting a particular someone for the third time… With a polite greeting and minimal chit-chat we yet again went our separate ways.

A month later, in the big capital city of Argentina, Buenos Aires, in a very random street, we bumped into the familiar stranger once again! We probably should have chatted longer this time but he was on his way to the famous graveyard and we were really hungry, so off we went in different directions.

Another month later, after going for a swim, we were walking on Ipanema Beach in Rio, one of Brazil’s most beautiful beaches, and who did we happen to see there amongst the other thousand beach-goers? Good ol’ Joe!!! By now it felt like we had some sort of special bond…

This time we organized to meet him for happy hour drinks at the hostel he was staying at. After a few rounds Joe excused himself to go shower and we went out with other folks to an awesome, local restaurant.

Anyway, that’s the story of Traveller Joe… Coincidence? Stalker? Miracle? I’m not sure, but it’s amazingly random enough for me to ponder a bit about it!