July 14, 2025: After months of keeping it secret only to myself, three close calls that almost blew it, international ring acquisition logistics, and climbing the tallest mountain in Africa, I now officially have a future wifey. Here’s the whole story.

​About: Every week I write about living a great story: mostly personal stories, adventure recaps, links to coolness and my analog photos that might or might not be relevant.

Quote for the Week: "What are you doing the rest of your life? North and south and east and west of your life. I have only one request of your life. That you spend it all with me.” - featured song on a random 1969 movie but more importantly, the song my grandfather sang to my grandmother at their wedding and also on her deathbed. Also, the question I asked before proposing.

Read time: 11 min and so worth it

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Kilimanjaro, 2023

In a flash, I emerged from near complete blackout. Only a few glimpses of memories endured the six-hour, midnight, full moon ascent from base camp. Now, at the first peak of Kilimanjaro, as the rising sun sliced an orange beam across the infinite monochrome horizon, I regained full fluid awareness. Turning away from Stella Point to look down and out from the tallest peak of my life, immediate tears streamed down my cheeks. Tears of accomplishment, humility to Mother Nature, connection to the eternal and definitely pain from my hardest, most intense adventure, so far. I broke open. And this wasn’t even the final summit.

My collapse started at the moment of this photo. The following hour trek from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak unleashed the punishment of altitude. First, my mind stopped thinking straight, acting completely out of character, but thinking it was normal, only realizing in hindsight the discrepancy. Shortly after taking the summit photo, the physical effects kicked in. I struggled to make it down the mountain, needing a helping hand to carry my bag and support my descent. Not unusual, as it turns out. People don’t tell you that going down is equally as hard as going up.

Despite of, or maybe because of, the intense physical and mental challenge of the “hardest and most humbling experience of my life”, as soon as I crossed the finish line, a deep thought/feeling emerged:

“I want everyone I love to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.”

A year later, I stood on the summit celebrating with a group of ATX friends, hugging and crying, and a follow-up thought emerged:

“I need to climb Kili with Lucia.”

Simultaneous to that thought, or maybe immediatly after, came an even bigger vision:

“I want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with my Lucia and our future kids.”

A prolific journaler, my diary is the most trusted timeline of life’s sequences of thoughts, feelings and experiences. So let’s go straight to the source, copy and pasted:

Decemeber 27, 2024

“It’s going to be a huge three week trip with safari, Kili and Zanzibar but how epic… andddddd I want to propose eeeeeek. She asked me the other day if I was going to propose on the top of Kili and I think I did a good job of shrugging it off and saying we haven’t even moved in yet and that’s still too early and now the stress of trying to figure it out and I think I did a good job of convincing her it wouldn’t happen but I want to but shit, that’s scary, because 1) proposing!!!! 2) Kili summit is intense af and who knows what’s going to happen on the way up and it’s a big thing to lean on summit at the end of the hike because what if it doesn’t work but it will :) anddddd the cool thing is the other day we were talking about rings and she said “I saw something cool the other day that people did their monthly birthstone instead of diamonds and I asked Google on the spot what was her stone and turns out there’s a few for December but one of them is TANZANITE!!! So I’m going to work ahead of time with Abdul to secure a Tanzanite engagement ring!! Ahhhhhhhh haha so exciting this is crazy to be even typing this out but damn, it’s happening.”

April 14, 2025

“Dad asked about us getting married, to which Lucia very directly said, “We are planning to get married in Colombia next year” and that was so cute. It was very matter of fact. I kind of backpedaled a bit on it, saying “We’re going to go with the flow and not plan too far ahead” which is really my way of continuing to slow roll and try to dampen the anticipation or her awareness of the possibility that we’re going to get engaged at Kili!!!! In three months wow. I really feel like when we talk about Africa she looks deeply into my soul to see if she can see if I have any nervousness or awareness of me proposing. I really feel like she’s searching for any sign and I feel like I’ve been doing a good job of hiding it and downplaying it. I want it to be a surprise and I don’t want to tell anyone so you, journal, are the only one that knows shhhh.”

May 8, 2025

“I still haven’t told a soul about proposing on top of Kili. Emma asked, Grace asked but I haven’t told anyone. Even when Lucia and I are talking about Kili, I try to not think about it because I feel like she could see it in my eyes, or maybe that she is looking for it. So I wipe my mind when staring into her eyes and talking about the trip. I talk about Kili, safari, Zanzibar but try not to think about proposing when with her. Try. But I’m so excited. I am starting to think about it on top, at summit, under the sign, what that will be like, how to share my full feelings at 50% oxygen, after one of the craziest experiences of our lives, together, on top of Africa, with a Tanzanite ring that I somehow have to get in the small window of time between safari and Kili and be discreet about it. Ahhh!! Crazy. It’s risky because summit is crazy and who knows what happens and I want it to be special and for us to have some time together to talk about it all as it happens but also it’s crazy up there and there’s a line and it’s crazy up there haha but I think it would be such an epic place to do it and the memories and literal climax of the trip and so that’s the plan.”

“I don’t want a diamond ring.”

In 1967, at the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a Maasai villager discovered a cluster of highly transparent, intense violet-to-blue crystals. News spread through the mineral industry and soon these mystery stones were identified as a completely new type of gem, only found in this specific part of the globe. Classified as a pleochroic or trichroic gem, this unique stone shows different colors when viewed from different angles, mainly blue or violet, but can also show reddish-brown hues. Originally called blue zoisite, the stone was renamed one year after its discovery: Tanzanite.

“Did you ever consider that maybe I wouldn’t like the ring?” my fiancée Lucia asked yesterday.

(She loves it. She can’t stop looking at it. I love it. I can’t stop looking at it.)

Not one for flash, fancy or showing off, the only creative direction Lucia gave me was that she didn’t want a diamond. But beyond this request, she shared nothing else. Not even her ring size. It was up to me to figure out all of the ring details. Secretly. From halfway across the world.

I just knew the stone had to be Tanzanite. A unique gem, specific to the adventure, true to the story, local to the trip, with deep symbolism that would forever encapsulate our memorable moment of achievement and por siempre commitment. For the Maasai people of Tanzania, tanzanite holds cultural significance, with the color blue considered sacred. They also believe the stone can bring health and long life.

“Really, the thought never even crossed my mind. I knew you would love it.”

So much could have gone wrong

My 2023 summit felt like death. Memories from the top are fuzzy and, honestly, just incorrect. What I thought was happening, didn’t, a cognitive disconnect between thoughts and reality due to lack of oxygen. Not an ideal environment for a marriage proposal. On the second expedition, one of our crew had a disastrous accident and was forced to emergency evacuate. Can’t propose at the summit if you don’t make it up. During the five-day trek up a National Park volcano, with a 17,000 ft elevation gain, up to 19,341 ft high and an estimated 70% completion rate, there’s plenty of opportunity for a plan to completely unravel.

For months ahead of time, and more frequently as the trip neared, my thoughts cycled all of the proposal planning details, and everything that could go wrong. I weighed the decision to pop the question at the summit. What if we didn’t make it? Would either of us be in the right mind state for this monumental life moment? If not at the summit, then when? Maybe the morning at Barranco Camp? Maybe after Karanga Camp with Kili right there? Do I want to have the moment to ourselves with no one else? That would not be the case at the summit. We’d be the center of attention, maybe in front of 40+ people. Does it make sense to even do it on the mountain? If all goes wrong, maybe afterwards at Zanzibar? For months, weeks, days and hours, as the date neared, my mind swirled with all of these scenarios.

After six and a half hours of gruelling ascent, through bone-chilling wind in the complete darkness of a new moon, we reached Stella Point. "If you reach Stella Point, you’ll reach the summit,” our guides told us during the pre-summit briefing the day before. Our crew of seven all arrived, but seemingly many other groups didn’t. Now, with the sun lighting the mountain, the trail seemed a bit empty. Whereas years before there were crowds, now there weren’t. No doubt the intense wind cut people’s ascent short.

Tears erupt upon arriving at Stella. It’s the first real peace from the struggle, the first feelings of accomplishment, the beginning of the home stretch, which is actually only the halfway point home. Lucia and I hug, deeply crying. A huge moment for us. But honestly, I hardly remember it. For her, it was significant. For me, maybe because I was still planning the proposal, maybe because of the altitude, this moment is a quick flash that lives in my body but not my mind.

After a break for hot water, we set off for the final push to Uhuru Peak. Lucia claims that one of our guides told us, “It’s only 10 more minutes, pretty flat”. Though the guides fudge the truth for our benefit, this statement seems unreasonably false because the hike is another 45 minutes, and it’s definitely not flat. Not steep steep like what we just endured, but also not flat. Though the sun is shining, the temps are still low and the wind is still crushing. The painful ascent continues, and it takes longer than I remembered.

Eventually, we circle a long bend in the path, passing a small group of hikers descending from the summit. “Congratulations” are uttered exhaustedly, and looking past this group, I see the iconic sign in the distance. Not a single person in sight. The summit is completely empty. It’s just our group of seven and five slowly making our way towards a vacant finish line. (Sadly, I didn’t take a film photo of the rarely empty summit, one of my three main content regrets from the entire trip).

I start to cry. Walking side by side with Lucia, mental scenes and deep emotions from the past two climbs intertwine with the wholehearted feeling of the monumental life unity moment that’s about to happen. My boots crackle on the frozen white that stretches in all directions, eventually blending with a forever horizon of more white, one foot slowly in front of the other, holding Lucia’s hand, overwhelmed with emotion, staring out to our finale point.

Memories, and the mind and body, work differently at nearly 20,000 ft. The lack of oxygen, paired with extreme emotional overwhelm, fragments the mind’s movie scenes. Instead of a continuous, uninterrupted sequence, memories are clipped into fast-paced flashes of clarity followed by gaps in the timeline.

I remember the view of the sign from 100 meters out. Then all of a sudden, we’re walking right up to it, Lucia and I deeply embracing to celebrate our accomplishment. Probably tears, though I don’t specifically remember them. Cheers and congrats all around. A few hugs I remember, a few I don’t. One especially emotional, teary hug with one of our team who fought the hardest to make it up, accomplishing a 20-year dream. A hug with another person and thinking, “Why aren’t you crying?” High fives with our guides and porters who were instrumental to our success. Probably people are taking photos with the sign. But I only had one goal for the summit: propose… and get it on film.

Turns out the only other trusted photographer was #2 on the Most Messed Up list. Within 30 minutes of departure from base camp, the guides took his backpack, the first indicator that someone needed help. Makes sense given his 65% blood oxygen reading the night before. 48 hours after this moment, he was at the hospital getting diagnosed with pneumonia.

“I’m about to propose and I need your help with the photos.” I explain the sequence of my idea, line him up in what I think is the best spot, and hand him my camera, trusting that his years of photography will instinctively kick in to override his current depleted state. “Take as many as you need.”

“What are you doing the rest of your life?”

A month and a half ago, my grandfather lay with my grandmother in the final moments of her life. At their home of more than three decades, after just celebrating their 44th anniversary, my role models for a lifelong, loving marriage held each other listening to their wedding song.

After a vibrant, full life of being a shining light for our family and so many others, my grandmother took her last breath in her life partner’s arms. For the rest of her life, she spent it all with him.

A month and a half after the funeral, on the top of the tallest mountain in Africa, after a brutal eight-hour ascent, I held my girlfriend’s face and, deeply looking into her beautiful brown eyes and asked a generational question, “What are you doing the rest of your life?”

So many things could have gone wrong, but everything went just right for the perfect Mt. Kilimanjaro wedding proposal. Well, except for the ring size. 24 hours after summit, we landed at the white sand beaches of Zanzibar for the next leg of our trip, just the two of us.

It’s been so fun telling people about the proposal, back in Austin and virtually to Colombia. Just a slice of the three-week Tanzania adventure, there are so many more stories from the adventure from the other side of the world.

More to come next week, and finally, the film photos are roll by roll getting developed.

-z