Coincidences

Some years ago I went on a group walking trip to an island down south. It was a lovely isolated place accessible only by a two-hour boat ride and with no cars or electricity. There we had a local guide who led us on some excellent walks. At some point she told me that there had been an English woman in a previous group who also came from São Paulo, and she wondered if I knew her. São Paulo has over twelve million inhabitants...I also didn´t know anybody called K but I gave the guide my phone number anyway and promptly forgot all about it.

A few weeks later I had a phone call from K who had been contacted by the guide. After some chat we managed to establish that we had known each other as young teenagers, about sixty years ago! Our parents were friends so we had frequented the same social events for a while until life moved on. We have since been on several walking trips together, including a couple back to the island, and she was also on the Machu Picchu trip. Small world.