Every year, a central Texas father and son, Markus Hogue and Gabriel Hogue, venture out into the world looking for treasure.
This year, they actually found some. Sort of.
As the pair walked the beach at Padre Island National Seashore during the first weekend in June, searching for shells and other beach detritus, a corked bottle sticking out of a pile of debris caught their eye. While they had seen plenty of bottles and trash along the shoreline, this looked different. It was smaller and there appeared to be a sheet of paper tucked inside.
“I felt happy to see something we’d never seen before,” said 12-year-old Gabriel. “It felt mysterious. It was very hard to not open it right when we saw it.”
The writing on the paper inside the bottle appeared to be German, which made Markus wonder how it got all the way to the Gulf Coast. He decided to wait to open the bottle until he could get with his colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin who are experts on ocean currents and maps.
After finally breaking the bottle open, they found two rolled-up pieces of paper, one a map of ocean currents and the other a letter written in Spanish to the letter writer’s daughter, telling her to never forget they loved her. There also was a phone number, which Markus texted.
Ten minutes later, Keyla Collazo from Colorado Springs called back.
“It was a shocker,” Collazo said.
The message in a bottle was from Collazo’s parents, who tossed it into the drink off a cruise ship in Mexico last August. They had invited their daughter to travel with them, but with three kids it was too difficult.
“My mom just wanted to send something for the love she has for me,” Collazo said. “I’m her only child. They sent the letter to the whole family. It had all our names — me and my husband, our kids and dog.”
While the bottle didn’t contain a treasure map or gold coins, which Gabriel was hoping for, it was still a good reminder to keep up their annual adventures.
“I encourage others to keep your eyes open,” Markus said. “You never know what you’ll come across and find. The world is to explore.”