I have a bad habit of spending too much time in the loo. This wasn’t usually a problem, as we had two bathrooms at home and if I was enthroned in one of them, then people could simply use the other one. But when I went to university and had to share one bathroom with three other guys, it became a bit of a crisis. My room-mates made me swear that I would go about my business only late at night. But once I was done with my studies and started working, I had relapsed into my old ways.

So, the next morning, back in Hostel La Luna, I had set up camp in one of the bathrooms. At some point, someone started banging on the door like crazy and pleading with me to hurry up. I thought that was weird, because a hostel is supposed to have several bathrooms, so why couldn’t they just go to another one?! For whatever reason, this person wanted to use the one I was in, but for me, wrapping up quickly and getting out was easier said than done. So the banging and begging continued for several more minutes until I managed to finally finish up and come out.

As I stepped out, I locked eyes with the person who’d been behind the door. Even with the mix of anger and frustration and the pure need to go on that face, I knew I had seen it before. And I knew that guy’s brain was also trying to place where we had met in the past. For a few seconds, we only stared at each other, before his bowels reminded him once again of the urgency of the situation, and he dashed inside the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

I sat myself on the bed racking my brains to solve the mystery. I still hadn’t figured it out by the time he got out, but then it came to both of us at almost exactly the same time. We had met in Popayan and had dinner together - four solo travellers going their own ways the next day, never to meet again - or so we thought!