Aaron Bicknell, 30, and Zarahi Juarez Sanchez, 26, met on the VirtualTourist website in the fall ... Finding Love on the Web: O
Aaron Bicknell, 30, and Zarahi Juarez Sanchez, 26, met on the VirtualTourist website in the fall of 2002. As "Aaron7" and "Gatopardo" (their VirtualTourist screen names), they read each other's travel tips and got to know each other while socializing on the site. At the time he, a chemical engineer, was living in Williston, Vermont; she was living in Zacatecas, Mexico and working in tourism.
In April 2005, after two years of online and offline correspondence, throughout most of which "Aaron7" was stationed with the Army in Kuwait, Aaron and Zarahi finally met in person. They met as friends in Mexico, traveled the Yucatan together, and found themselves to be excellent travel companions. The romance was officially on.
Aaron proposed to Zarahi after a recent trip through Utah, Arizona and Colorado; the avid hikers toured sites including Bryce Canyon , Canyon de Chelly and Zion National Park . Aaron planned to propose on the trip; he was searching for the ideal spot, but every view was more spectacular then the last and he couldn't decide. He ended up proposing when they were back at Aaron's home in Arizona, in the backyard under a sea of stars.
The couple, each VirtualTourist members since summer 2002, will have a wedding ceremony followed by a reception on Sept. 23, in Williamstown, Vermont. A second celebration—a traditional Mexican callejoneada—is planned for Nov. 24 in Zacatecas, Mexcio. Fellow VirtualTourist members are expected to attend both celebrations.
"Whether it's online or offline, it's quite normal for people with shared interests to meet and fall in love. Shared interests bring people together. Dog lovers meet at the dog park. Opera lovers meet at the opera. And on VirtualTourist, we have travel lovers meeting and falling in love. It's quite natural," said Giampiero Ambrosi, General Manager of VirtualTourist. "VirtualTourist's members are passionate about travel. And when people share a common passion, it's a natural kicking off point for a relationship."
"If an individual posts what is essentially a personal ad for themselves in the VirtualTourist forums, or treats the site as an online dating site in any way, VirtualTourist's members are quick to squash that activity. Postings by the would-be Casanova are usually deleted, and their membership may even be revoked," Ambrosi said.
"The VirtualTourist community is focused on sharing real life travel experiences. And through this sharing, people get to know each other. VirtualTourist online friendships often evolve and members will meet in the real world for friendship, camaraderie, and to travel together. And when the members meet in real life, anything is possible," Ambrosi said. "There have been at least 25 VirtualTourist marriages, but with nearly 800,000 members interacting on the site, there may be countless others that have slipped under our radar."
Aaron and Zarahi are the most recent VirtualTourist members to wed, but they're certainly not the first. Last month, Dave Warner and Gabriela Ionescu celebrated their first wedding anniversary. They met on VirtualTourist as "CrtnShdofGrn" and "ciuchi" on December 4, 2004, after he stumbled upon her travel tips for Antalya, Turkey . "CrtnShdofGrn" had previously lived in Antalya, and after reading "ciuchi"'s travel tips about his former stomping grounds, he emailed her to learn more about her experiences. The pair hit it off, and less than three weeks later they met in person. Dave and Gabriela were married in Romania on August 16, 2005, and currently live in Kirrberg, Germany.
VirtualTourist is one of the largest online travel research sites / travel communities in the world, and a premier resource for traveler's seeking an insider perspective. On VirtualTourist, real people share real advice on places they've traveled as well as their hometowns; they research and plan trips and vacations, and they interact with other avid travelers via forums and email. By the numbers, VirtualTourist boasts 1.4 million travel reviews and 2.5 million photos on more than 25,000 destinations worldwide. Unbiased, user-generated content on Hotels, Attractions, Local Customs, Tourist Traps and much more is posted entirely by VirtualTourist's 770,000 registered members from over 220 countries and territories. Among VirtualTourist's awards and accolades: "Recommended Travel Forum," Time Magazine; "Most Popular Guide," Yahoo!
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