Our executive vice-president Daniel Arias and his family, with Victor Emanuel and our Canopy Family president and founder Raúl Arias de Para and his wife Denise Barakat in October 2021 at Canopy Tower
Text by Raúl Arias de Para
As I write these words, I see a pair of Black-chested Jays flying overhead, and in the distance, I hear the croaking sounds of a Keel-billed Toucan. I’m in El Valle de Antón, and Victor would have loved this moment. In fact, this was the site of his last trip overseas, in August of last year.
I first met Victor in January of 2001 when he led a tour to the Canopy Tower with Barry Zimmer. Over the intervening 23 years, his company became our best customer, and he became one of my closest friends. Our friendship went far beyond birds and was more than a commercial relationship.
As I was new to the lodging business, Victor advised me on the menus I should serve (no soups at lunchtime), on the conversations I should have with guests (no politics or religion), and on the characteristics of the people I should hire (attitude above all). In short, he was my most valuable mentor.
After dinner, when the guests had retired to their rooms, we would talk about politics, current affairs, and the latest books we had read. At the end of each of his visits, I had a list of three or four books to read in the coming months—the biographies of Martin Luther King Jr., Mandela, Gandhi, the writings of John Muir, among others.
In his later years, he was also fond of listening to classical music; his favorite was Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, which we listened to several times together with my wife Denise in our house in El Valle. Poetry was also a subject we shared—particularly Chinese poetry. He carried a well-used book titled The Mountain Poems by Hsieh Ling-Yün and during his last visit, he brought me a copy, which I treasure immensely.
I will remember him when I see a bird, when I read a book, when I listen to classical music. Victor is part of my life and I will never forget him.
Thank God our paths crossed.
