On November 26^th, 72 years ago, Ivan Patzaichin, one of the most successful athletes of all time and a multiple Olympic and world champion, was born. It has been written and will be written about this God of sports, but today I would like to pay a small tribute to the one who was a different champion: of ecotourism and of friendship.

You may have a hard time thinking about a friend you would like to wish Happy Birthday to, but he is no longer with you…. But his spirit, the wave of friendship and kindness he left behind will live on. The champion Ivan Patzaichin, multiple medalists, would speak to you like an old friend even when he met you for the first time. More than 30 years ago, we met in a family context and I asked him to write for me a thought on a note. Since then, we have remained friends and we have met again on the professional coordinates, launching a partnership for ecotourism between AER and the Ivan Patzaichin Association. He was the ideal man who could promote the idea of ​​ecotourism: he believed in the Danube Delta and loved its people, he saw nature and man together and he spoke simply, beautifully and from the heart about them. He was really a friend of people and nature and made you feel good around him when he talked about these things.