Technology brings human beings closer and closer every day, in many ways : instant communication, anywhere, anytime… every second millions billions of us exchange data, photos, videos, conversations, it seems anything is possible and the barriers of time and distance seem to have vanished….

Once you form part of the world of hospitality, frontiers tend to mingle and distances shrink, as if hoteliers were just part of a large network of never-ending travelers….

Here is a life changing story that about interconnections, coincidences, and… well, a bit of luck :), or is it that everything happens for a reason?… (the eternal debate about playing dice…)

Peru, for many reasons, is the most amazing slice of life I have been fortunate to experience… It all started with a phone call I received while I was working in Camino Real Cancun’s hotel, in 1999… from a “headhunting” company -very active in the hospitality world- based in London, asking me if I would be interested to look at a job opening in Cusco, with Orient Express Hotels -since then renamed Belmond-.

If you have read my previous posts -if you haven’t yet, I encourage you to !- you probably figured out already than my answer to the question was “yes, of course”, with a smile of excitement on my face.

As soon as I put the phone down, I jumped on the first world map I could get my hands on, locating the famous Inca city in the middle of the Peruvian Andes, daydreaming already…

A few days later, I was put in contact with the General Manager of Peru Orient Express Hotels, who kindly requested me to fly to Cusco as soon as I can so I could meet him in Lima and also visit the Monasterio Hotel. A few days later I managed to make my way there…

After two enchanting days of hotel visits and interviews, I felt as I almost got the job (I have learned the lesson since then… never assume!)

So, what about these pictures of Bora Bora? wrong post?? what do they have to do with Peru?

Well, it turns out that I had a strong competitor also interviewing in Cusco…. who was offered the Food & Beverage Manager’s position in Cusco’s Hotel Monasterio in 1999!! 3 years later, he was transferred to the Orient Express property in Bora Bora, on the motu facing the Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort where I was working at the time….

On of the typical hotelier’s favorite occupation is to visit other hoteliers, more so if you live in a remote country surrounded by the ocean… so we soon became friends, and spent many hours talking about Peru, while grilling a freshly caught mahi mahi or lobster, sipping Hinanos…and my memories of those 3 magical days in Cusco and Lima came back to me, so vividly…. I could not help writing an emailto the General Manager in Cusco, explaining that I had been just about two years in Bora Bora – I know, it sounds as though you’d never want to leave this paradise… but two years is a reasonable amount of time on a small remote island…-, and that I was ready for a change…. 

 

I had my second phone call from him, that same day… 3 years later.. no interview this time, all I needed to do was to find a flight and get to Lima as soon as possible!

I was to be the “Corporate Food and Beverage Director” for 3 hotels and a luxury train, in one of the most beautiful countries in the world….

Stay tuned for many adventures, from the heights of the Andes, the arid Pacific coast and the depth of the rainforest…