A travel backpack found a little over three years ago in an old mill in Biure, in l'Alt Empordà, has reopened the search for its owner's family almost three decades after he left it hidden. Members of the hiking organization Gas Mountain located the luggage and were able to identify it as belonging to Víctor Eugenio Villa Alvarado, a 36-year-old Ecuadorian.
The story carries an unresolved paradox. Villa Alvarado left a handwritten note dated October 18, 1996, in which he explained that he had traveled to Spain to search for his roots and that he was temporarily hiding the backpack with the intention of picking it up again, but the consulate of his country later confirmed that he died fifteen years later and no one has yet been able to return his personal belongings to the family.
The case has circulated again now on the internet after a new publication on Salines Bassegoda's social media reactivated interest in the finding.
Joan Cos resumed the search after seeing the backpack on social media
From Figueres, the retired engineer Joan Cos Joan decided to get involved when he saw the discovery disseminated through the channels of the hiking association.
"When I saw the finding published on the association's social media, I thought there was some pending story behind it. And I started searching" - Joan Cos Joan, retired engineer, Figueres
The efforts allowed confirming the owner's identity and reconstructing part of his journey. Among the belongings, a map appeared with destinations marked by hand that included Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Vallès, after an itinerary through Saint-Malo, Buddhist centers near Paris, and the Nice area.
Cos contacted the consulate of the traveler's country of origin and received confirmation that Villa Alvarado had passed away fifteen years after leaving the note. From there, he sent letters to possible relatives in the United States, France, and other countries, but received no response.
"We just wanted to get his things to the family. Close the story" - Joan Cos Joan, retired engineer, Figueres
A teacher from Terrades is now looking for the family from Ecuador
The search has entered a new phase with the collaboration of a woman originally from Terrades who currently resides in Ecuador. She works as a university professor and archaeologist and is trying to locate the traveler's relatives from there.
The movement responds to a blockade of the investigations carried out so far from Catalonia. Joan Cos maintains that the path opened in Ecuador can broaden the options for finding the family after the inquiries made from here yielded no results.
"Perhaps there are more possibilities there. Here we had already reached the limit of what we could do" - Joan Cos Joan, retired engineer, Figueres
The backpack thus remains linked to an unfinished story that connects Biure, Figueres, Terrades, and Ecuador. The detail that still marks the case is the handwritten note that Víctor Eugenio Villa Alvarado left with his belongings, dated October 18, 1996, in which he wrote that he intended to pick them up again.