We met at a hostel in Salento, Colombia, back in 2014. Annabel was just starting a 3-month holiday in South America. Alvaro had quit his job in London and was halfway through his journey from Canada to Argentina.

The next day, Annabel was supposed to leave for Cali, but she got lost hiking in the Cocora Valley. After being rescued at 2 am by some locals, a tired Annabel decided to stay in Salento a bit longer. (This was Alvaro’s chance!)

To this day it is not clear if Alvaro managed to charm Annabel into travelling south with him, or if she just fancied having a Spanish translator. Either way, over the next three months, we hitchhiked through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. That little spark of “what if?” led to amazing adventures and memories together. Love was blooming, but Annabel had to go back to Australia.

Alvaro finished his trip in Ushuaia, and four months after saying goodbye in Brazil, he had a one-way ticket to Sydney. As they say, the rest is history.

Over the past ten years, we’ve had lots of good times, some tough moments, and even spent some time apart. Now, we can’t really imagine our lives without each other. We’re living in our new home with Chispa and Romeo, our two-year-old rescue cats, and we’re thrilled about this new chapter in our adventure together.