Danny was an awesome travel companion. <Begin spiel on stranger’s life history> Grew up in NYC. Stanford. Ultimate Frisbee. Math and Econ. Wall Street. Financial Crisis. Year in Chile teaching English, becoming fluent in Spanish. Kennedy school. The Fed. On loan in Chicago for a year. World Traveler. Galapagos. Tanzania. (I forget the number of countries he’s been to but it’s a lot and I’m jealous).
Not that a person can be summed up in nouns.
Luck found us time and again. Extra beds and entire rooms magically appeared in towns that were completely booked. If we were hungry, we walked down the road until we found food. Well after dark (~8pm?) we booked a two-day trip that began the next morning at 6am. That is the way to travel.
While a surprising number of guide/restaurant/transportation staff were bilingual, there were clutch moments when Danny’s Spanish helped out a lot. Even when it wasn’t crucial, it was cool to watch him interact with the locals – like I somehow belonged by proxy.
I was so spoiled these first few days. Let’s see how I do without my translator.