This is an unusual post for me… It's not focused on any destination but rather on interactions between people. Another unique thing here is that there are no pictures! Hope you enjoy 🙂
Edit: I found one picture in an old album…
Walking a few days together
I was hiking in north Peru, on the 6th and last day of the Huaywash trail, which had me take all the backpacks by myself. Short background: The way it goes in Peru is that you can rent a local guide with donkeys that carry your stuff. So a group of us had the donkeys for 5 days but then the group split and the part I belonged to "lost" the donkeys.
Back to my story… This meant I was quite tired and my legs were weak… It was becoming dark and I could barely walk. So a younger friend of mine who just quit the army and was in really good shape, offered to take my 20+ kg backpack on himself, while he also carries his own…
Tuval: Let me take your backpack
Me: No way, I'm fine
Friend: No you can't, let me help you
Tuval: OK, if you insist…
We had a short discussion but eventually I gave up 🙂 . And so, he held me by the hand to keep me from falling (apart and from the cliff). In my eyes, in that moment, he saved my life!
2 in 1
Actually this story has 2 acts, see if you can spot them!
Still in Peru but this time on a different location, the outskirts of Cusco. We were a group of 8 traveling in 2 4*4 trucks in the Peruvian mountains when it started snowing. Not too long after that, one of the trucks gets stuck and we all chime in to get it going. The setting is that in each truck there are 4 of us sitting inside while the "mochillas" (big backpacks) are in the back covered with some tarpaulin. We climb the mountains, we're in the middle of nowhere, when suddenly we see a small group of local people wandering around… We didn't know where they were coming from cause we didn't see any village in the area, but anyway they wanted a ride up the mountains… So we stopped and they stood on the open part of our truck (we didn't have any room inside!) and we got them to where they wanted.
We spent the night at some place where the "seniora" doesn't understand English but that's for a different story… We got up the next morning and today were planning on getting down from the mountains. We were driving on curvy dirt roads sometimes with very low visibility. I was the driver when suddenly I see a car in front of me! I hit the brakes immediately but boom. An accident 🙁 . A small one, no one gets hurt but the car gets a little damaged. We exchange details bla bla bla and when we get to Cusco to return the car we need to see how to pay for this damage… At the beginning I thought to pay it by myself but then my friend said "no way, this could have happened to any one so we all share the cost". Frankly he kind of saved me, since it was expensive, for a budget traveler 🙂 .
Gifts from the skies
Me and some friends are hiking one of the grand routes in the Dolomites, north Italy. We reach a small "refugio" and plan to spend the night there. All goes well until we wake up the next morning and one of the friends is really sick. Sick in a way that there's no way he can walk a whole day. So we decide to spend another day there. The same story happened also the next day… so the rest of us were almost out of things to do. But then! we see a helicopter with a long basket tied to it. This refugio doesn't have any roads so the only way they to get their goods is via a helicopter once every X days. Then the helicopter just drops the basket without even landing! And now the work begins… The groceries need to be put in the warehouse.
All of us, the healthy people, who already became friends with the owners, join in and make a human chain to pass things (pasta, all sorts of cans, drinks and so on) from one spot to another. This was my (small) act of kindness.
What was yours? Did you witness any acts of kindness on your travels?
