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Then it dawns on me that we’d all given our email addresses when we registered at Planeta de Luz, and in fact we’ve all received the email, which I confirm after calling a few friends. It turns out that Chamalú is in Buenos Aires the following day to give a talk on “ancestral wisdom applied to contemporary times.” We get a few laughs sharing the anecdote, and forget about it just as quick.
Two days later while Asli and I are running errands, we cut across Avenida Florida, the massive pedestrian promenade that runs through downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina’s massive capital city.
It’s been said that over a million people walk up and down the crowded shopping strip on a daily basis, one of the reasons why I usually avoided it. Asli and I are just about to duck in to a store when something out of the corner of my eye makes me freeze in my tracks, and Asli does the same.
Up Avenida Florida a slight man with dark hair and long beard comes walking, dressed in a dark green tunic. He gives the eerie impression of almost floating along the street, being pulled along by gravity to some very important destination. I do a double take before looking look over to Asli, whose mouth gapes wide open in astonishment.
Time slows for a second as I think about the insane set of coincidences that have had to occur for us to run in to the man himself in the middle of the busiest pedestrian thoroughfare in South America. Without thinking, and with giddy grins on both of our faces, momentarily intoxicated by the ridiculous beauty of the moment and exorcised of even the slightest trace of sarcasm or cynicism we both belt out at the top of our lungs: “Chamaluuuuuu!!!”
Chamalú stops with a start, and walks over to greet us with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his dark eyes, almost as if he’s been expecting us all along. We give him a bear hug without thinking and breathlessly explain how we’d met his disciples in Bolivia, how charmed we were by Planeta de Luz and what an honor it is to meet him. He asks us if we’re able to make it to his talk that evening, but seeing as we’re so impossibly busy, our greatest apologies sir, but sadly we won’t be able to make it.
After we part ways and Chamalú disappears in to the crowd, we run back to the apartment as fast as our feet will carry us, log in to Facebook, and share our mystical moment with the world.
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