Walker, Florida Traveler

10-29
415PM

I couldn´t sleep last night, dreaming about the pending adventures. Visions of a bus full of young and adventurous travelers.

At 9 a.m., Beotcha (pronounced b. archer, of Cologne, Germany) was the only other person on the bus. She, like several other 40ish women I´d encountered was taking a year off to travel around the world. ¨We´re picking up one other person in Bellavista, that´s it until Puerto Montt¨ our guide Nicole informed us.

We pulled up to a hostal, both of us eager to meet our final compadre, when a man in his 60´s, wearing bright orange, sauntered onto the bus. He introduced himself as Walker, from St. Augustine FL.

While the german was a little harder to get to know, I learned a lot about Walker. He sold his hotels to Extended Stay America and retired somewhat unexpectedly at 45. ¨Everything happened at once. I sold the company,got divorced and my kids graduated from school.¨ I was going to sail around the world, but then I took a class and realized it was too damn difficult, too many unknowns to contend with. So I took up traveling around the world by bus, air and foot.¨

Walker lamented how he too was the only American in his hostal, ¨Americans don´t travel like they used to. They just want to make money.¨

Walker has been to Spain, Thailand, New Zealand, Egypt and now Chile, in the span one year. He says he never plans his trips, just books the ticket and goes. He leaned in toward me, his ivory necklace emerging from his neon orange shirt, ¨I saw your pack. You´will learn in about a week that you don´t need all that stuff.¨