Are we destined to travel to a certain place or run into a certain person? Well according to a fellow traveller, the stars have destiny laid out for us. Let me explain.

Back in 2013 when I was travelling around Peru I met a German girl named Claudia. She started telling me of this thing she calls ‘travel destiny’, a concept explaining that things happen for a reason, fate in other words. Travel itineraries might not go as planned, you might get lost, have your purse stolen, find out the trains aren’t running, find the route you wanted is blocked, and so on. Quite often travel plans, well, don’t always go to plan! But apparently there is a reason why… it’s destiny! Now this may all seem a bit airy fairy but I like the idea behind it and think its a quirky and fun concept. So how did Claudia and I end up meeting?

My Travel Destiny…

Well, I was in a small town called Huaraz in Peru. It was coming to the end of my trip and I was supposed to stay in Huaraz before heading back to the airport. However this was a hiking town and after a beautiful but strenuous hike to Laguna 69 I was finished. It really took it out of me and I just wanted to take it easy for my last few days. A woman at the information centre suggested I go to Huanchaco, a surfer beach town. This had not been on my itinerary but I looked it up and after deciding it looked nice, booked a bus for the next day.

At the bus stop I got chatting to a couple of French guys, and once we arrived at Huanchaco they introduced me to Claudia, a girl they had also met on the bus. So the 4 of us grabbed a cab together and got a 4 bed hostel room for £1.50 each! It wasn’t the best room in the world but it was cheap and we were getting on so well. The next couple of days were spent eating, surfing, and drinking beers on the beach whilst watching the sun go down. It was a perfect way to end a great trip and I felt so relaxed and at peace. Was this destiny?

According the Claudia, it was. She was also meant to go to a different town but last minute had decided to change her plans. Had these ‘coincidences’ not fallen into place, we would never had met, so yes, maybe it was fate. Or maybe we would have had a good time either way, who knows. It got me thinking though, when plans change whilst travelling, or if something goes wrong, lets say you get lost, well you might just find yourself in a random town you knew nothing about and meet some cool locals. Or you might be wandering and accidentally stumble across a hidden waterfall?! Who knows! I wouldn’t have met certain people or seen particular places if these random blocks in the road wouldn’t have happened.

I do believe that everything happens for a reason and that’s what keeps travel interesting. Maybe its destiny or maybe its coincidence? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

More Reading: Making Friends: You Don’t Always Have to Travel Solo