Some pilgrims even met up again years later

Question

Hola Inma, In the 'Fill in the blanks" exercise for "El apóstol Santiago" the final blank of the exercise is: "Incluso había peregrinos que se encontraban años después....." I probably should have taken ore notice of the "met up" suggestion but I have never seen this usage before, and this lesson doesn't include the idea of "meeting up" as requiring the pronominal "encontrarse." As you know it focuses on the location of where people arrange to meet, and the idea of bumping into someone is not appropriate in this example. Would it be an idea to include this in the lesson? It fits with the pronominal notion of meeting "with one another" / "with each other" which is true for the expression "nos vemos entonces" for example, though I am not sure that you would use those words to translate the expression. Saludos. John

Silvia Píriz · Accepted Answer

Hola John O.
First of all, sorry for our late reply. 
This use of encontrarse is actually covered in the lesson in the section “Spanish verb encontrarse: to express meeting someone.”
For example, the lesson gives:
Se encontraron de nuevo diez años después. They met again ten years later.
and
Se encontraban cada verano para ponerse al día. They met up every summer to catch up.
So se encontraban años después in the exercise is using encontrarse in this same sense of “to meet / meet up”.
I hope this helps clarify it!
Saludos
Silvia