don't leave your backpack under your seat

the trip is almost over, we crossed four countries in seven days... 6 buses and a flight with the last bus ride ending with a community strike blocking the only road north, delaying hundreds of people for more than 8 hours and leaving us with a boulder thrown through our window. we're tired, thats for sure, irritable, broke and hot.

in peru scott left his bag (securely and safely he thought) under his feet for a night long bus ride (as he had done many times in four other countries). in it was our camera with two memory cards. when we woke up at three am (still on the bus) after hardly sleeping anyway, we were less than 5 hours away from starting a 5 day hike to machu picchu but without the camera, memory cards, scott's trekking shoes and headlamp. the ladies on the bus demanded the bus company take responsibility and also demanded searches of the individuals who remained on the bus. after an impassioned plea to at least return our pictures failed, we knew the guys who had stolen the items had already gotten off the bus at the very first stop of the night. we felt broken, violated and desperately in need of the distraction that machu picchu provided. while incredible, impressive and everything else in that vein, MP and the treks to go out of our way to get to cusco drained us economically and emotionally. we met fantastic people, stephanie and jeremy, who took photos of us and for us along the way (with their fantastic camera) and helped us enjoy a rather (spiritual)? experience at Machu and Wayna Picchu.... so there are ups and there are downs...

feeling dejected, paranoid, wary, isolated and leery we boarded the bus for the border with ecuador. largely because of the mindset we were in, we got robbed again by some stupid scam that still to this day we can't believe we had a part in. the $70 would have been very useful to us at this point and the fact we had lost it so easily to their greedy, scamming hands really showed us how down in the dumps and vulnerable we were. (also probably confirms that gringos really afford pretty much anything- were all rich you know, or if we're not, we know where to get money pretty damn quick.)

so we got out, got to colombia with pretty much no money. this was very sad for me because bogota and santa marta (as well as other places) are cities i have been wanting to see for more than a year now. we pressed on, leaving colombia after only 4 days, me seeing only cartagena (a place that holds little interest for me- people were unfriendly VERY unlike what we had seen in other parts of colombia and it was dirty-yuck-also unlike the colombia that hinted at us from the bus window). we were fearful we would have to take another series of bus rides, boats and planes (close to guerillas and paramilitaries possibly) just to leave south america and head to panama because the COPA flights were too expensive and the tourist option (sailing for 5 days) was even more than that.

on a whim we packed up our bags and headed to the cartagena airport. after trying a sob story at COPA and finding no option with them (someone explain airplane economics to me please), they told us to try another economy airline. i walked up to the window and said something like, look i have x amount of money for two of us to get to panama, do you have...? YESS they had two tickets for less than the price i offered!!!! we were gonna to panama, the EASY way!! totally excited and re-energized.... we were quickly hooked up by a friend to stay in panama city with a wonderful lady who had a bed for us to sleep in! i was honestly only hoping for a place to throw the tent.

so here we are, excited to come home, grateful for the experiences we've had and what we've seen. i still think i'm going through the 7 stages of grief on the camera thing. it feels like such an incredible loss. i told myself that i only needed to get the pictures home safely and download them there (after a download in buenos aires led to the loss of more than 200 pictures on two memory cards we were dowloading from- they just started to show up as black spaces). but, i shall never travel again with the same logic, you just can't control when someone makes an evil decision to invade your personal space and belongings to take something they want (good luck, asshole, on the resale, you won't get a quarter of the original price). see the anger? anyway, i'm still healing, still trying to see the beauty around me and take mental pictures with my mind. there is so much that is different in this part of the world, the fruits, the music, the language, the people. i really don't feel like i'm in south america anymore.

oh and colombia, i'll be back.