Early, in 1997, on my first trip across Europe with Jeremy, both young, ignorant and naive, I realized that friendships forge fast on the road. You meet new people everyday, some only spending a day and a few pints with, some will stay with you for weeks and months. Nonetheless, in that short span of time, you seem to know that person better than you´ve known people back home that´ve been around you for years. Surprisingly, over the last 13 years, thanks to the internet, I managed to keep in contact with most people, some I even visited, and revisited in their home country, others coming to visit me in Canada, continuing where we left last time we saw each other. Although not seeing them every week, the friendship seems not to fade after years without seeing each other.

I met Violeta in 2000, or was it 1999, can´t remember, on a ferry between Italy and Greece. It was low season, the boat was empty, I was travelling with Ben, one of the best travel buddy I ever had the chance to backpack with. I spotted Violeta (seriously I think it was only the 3 of us on that massive ferry), small, Mexican, and bubbling with energy. We talked all night, played cards, and exchange lif stories. We then spent 3 days together in Athens, bit of flirting, holding hands, might have been a few kisses, but even that I can´t seem to be sure off. I remember Kinder Surprise Chocolate and toys, she loved them. I remember that I thought she was beautiful, and full of energy. I remember a French guy at the Hostel that played guitar on the street, visiting sights with a dog that we nicknamed Jeremy, cause Jeremy was meeting us there that week from Canada. I remember a night out in a pub, drinking and dancing. She left after 3 days, we parted ways, that´s how travelling goes. I have a few pictures back home I´m sure... but after 10 years, I do remember but it´s a bit blury.

And a lot of you must remember the following story. A few years later, 1, maybe 2, again not sure, Violeta tracked me down on Messenger, she invited me to spend 2 weeks at her house in Manzanillo. Not knowing what to expect, I convinced a friend of mine, Simon, to tag along for the ride. Pland was, if it was good we´d stay there over Christmas, if it was bad, we would just travel around Mexico for 2 weeks. Nothing could have prepared us to what followed. We stayed in a gorgeous houe, Ada, the maid cooked us food for 2 weeks, her mother and sister adopted me and Simon. We partied, visited, went to a wedding, went fishing, scuba dived, partied some more, acted foolish and raced sitting on top of cars, ended up in a really dodgy situation in Colima, waken up by a police bust in an apartement, not knowing really what was happening, we escaped... we were young, stupid and invincible, and enjoying every moment of it. It was one of the wildest 2 weeks of my life, and it set the bar high for my following years in Korea... I still flirted with her, and discovered a wild, crazy over the top girl who hanged out with posh models, headbangers, living the highlife in Manzanillo.

Me and Violeta kept in touch after that for a while, writing every 2, 3, 6 months, catching up on stories. I knew she didn´t finish architecture school, she told me that she fell for an american, they had a boy together, he vanished, she worked in leasing vacation houses to rich americans, we were half joking about visiting eachother again, for fun. She volunteered to translate my website to Spanish, told her I would come and visit while crossing Mexico last December... That was in January 2009, i was still 10 months from leaving on the Trek, but it was in my plans to revisit my old friend in Manzanillo...

Wrote an email 2 weeks before arriving near Manzanillo last December, Manzanillo was on my route, would have been great to see her family and friends again... but I received no response. Thought it weird, but figured there must be a logical reason: busy with work, moved, new boyfriend,... I got so busy with the Trek and excited to meet Nicky in Playa Del Carmen, that it slipped my mind. Yesterday I thought about her, why, I don´t know, realised that i´d been a while since I had news... so I checked her facebook account... last activity was January 2009, the last time I chatted with her... and I read the messages on her wall... and I froze...

They were messages of sadness, friends missing her, others still wondering what happened to her. The details were sketchy, so I googled her name. My friend Violeta, 29, was murdererd on February 2009, they found her in front of a house she was renting, sitting in her car, 5 bullets in her body, marks of torture on her legs and arms. I tried making sense of the newspaper article, it mentioned her house, guns, grenades, money, a boyfriend found decapitated a week before... My spanish isn´t good enough for me to make sense of it... but the fact remained, my friend is dead, been dead for more than a year...

I didn´t know yesterday, on how I should feel about this. I knew Violeta, in person, for a grand total of 20 days. Yes we chatted and exchanged emails over the last years... but the fact remains that I didn´t really knew her, who she really was. I remember a friendly girl, very generous, loved to have a good time and party. I remember the Violeta I met on my travels, not knowing the Violeta associated with guns, grenades and money, of whta happened in her life in the last years... So last night I mourned that travelling girl I met years ago, whom I nicknamed Kiddo when we first met on that boat in Greece, nickname that she still signed her emails with when she was writing to me.

And then I thought about all of you that I met on the road over the last 10 years, with whom I lived many crazy adventures in Europe, Asia, Australia, Central America, and realized that these adventures and friendship have, over the years, shapped the person that I am, and that I feel greatful and honored to have had you in my life! Know that I do think often of all of you, and reminense with great pleasure the times we had together, and planning the next time that we will meet!