Kandy makes about six trips a year
At 83 years old, Kandy makes an average of six trips a year. “Some last only 15 days, and others maybe a month”, explains to Traveler.es . She travels with a backpack and usually stays in hostels, so in the world of travel she began to be known as ** 'The backpacking granny **'.
“I was baptized by the backpackers she found in hostels when they saw an elderly person arrive with a backpack. They would start saying, 'Hey, have you seen that grandmother who travels alone ...? ’‘ Well -said another-, she is so small that she looks more like a grandmother ’. And so the time came when all the backpackers called me 'backpack granny', and that's where the nickname came from."
Although the affectionate name is relatively modern, Kandy, who was born in the town of Iscar (Valladolid), has spent his entire life here and there. “At the age of 22 she went to Saint Sebastian with my parents, where we opened a campsite that I ran. I traveled from a very young age, since we were only open for six months and the other six were free, and I took the opportunity to tour europe ”, she tells Traveler.es.
However, at 30, she abandoned all that, studied law and set up an office in Motril, near where her family had built a new campsite. She there she was working until her retirement , which was the moment when she became a pro traveler. “It was then that the dream of my life, which was to go around the world, came true. I traded the toga for a backpack, and me and her, and her and me, we went around the world alone.
It took me nine months, and it was something that marked my life in such a way that, once that long trip was over, I thought that the only thing I wanted to continue doing, until my health allowed me, was to continue 'flying'. I discovered that humans not only had feet, we also had wings, and I assure you that, once you unfold them, it is very difficult to fold them again…”
That great adventure has been followed by many others throughout the world, but without a doubt her favorite has been in the India , the country that has marked him the most. “The first time I visited her she overwhelmed me; the second, I tried to understand it, and in the end - I've already gone there 16 times - I managed to understand and comprehend it; Currently, I adore her.”
TRAVEL PAST 65
Traveling alone and being a woman It is an adventure that, in itself, many of us find difficult to undertake. But and past 65 ? What new fears does someone that age face? “The difficulties, the fears, the problems, etc., do not exist in my mind, and therefore, neither in my life”, reflects Kandy. "I always believe that everything will be fine, that people are good and that the world is waiting for me with open arms."
So much confidence does 'La granny backpacker' have in humanity -including her own- that she doesn't even consider stopping traveling. "Never. Moreover, I think that -copying the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta- when she cannot jog, I will walk; when she can't walk, I'll help myself with a cane, but i will never stop , because I am sure that it is better to get tired than to rust”, she affirms vehemently.
In fact, Kandy encourages all of her generation to embark on the same path, be it with a backpack or a “small suitcase”: “What I would say to those facing retirement is that life has not passed; life now begins in a new facet. We're at an age where we can't say, 'Well, I can not today , let's see next year', because we don't know if that year we are waiting for will come...
What's more, when they ask me how old I am, I answer something that was marked in my mind when one day I heard him say to I don't remember who: I'm only a few years old, maybe four, six or ten, because the 83 years that I already I lived I don't have them, they've already left. Therefore, I only have the years that I have left to live, so you have to take advantage of them, enjoy them and savor them”.