Well, a couple of crappy things have happened to me in the last couple of weeks. First of all, I fell into a lake. Specifically, the high-altitude Quilotoa crater lake. I rented a kayak and the folks who rented it to me gave me bad instructions about where to sit and I believed them, so when I leaned over when my hat blew off in the crazy wind, in I went. I actually thought the whole situation was pretty funny and even though I felt a little embarrassed about it it wasn't something that would scar me for life. I was laughing away to myself in the freezing cold lake while someone came to rescue me until I remembered that my camera was in my pocket. Shit.
The second crappy thing that happened which far outshines the first is that my backpack got stolen. Almost everything I was traveling with. It was my fault and I keep replaying the event over and over again in my mind. Basically I left my backpack in a restaurant for two minutes while I went to the bathroom. I usually always bring everything into the bathroom but for some reason I was feeling lazy or something, and the place was full of tourists so I thought it would be okay. Nope. I lost a lot of things of value, but the things that kill me most are the sentimental things: my still-not-functioning camera which had every single photo from my trip on the memory card, the gifts I had painstakingly and lovingly selected for my parents and grandparents, the journal in which I had recorded every day of my trip, the polaroid photo of me and Florent from when we were in Paris together last year...the list goes on. It's amazing how attached I had become to my things; that first day when it happened I thought about it and realized that my belongings had become a part of me, in some way.
Luckily I had my passport and wallet on me so I wasn't going to be stranded in Ecuador, thank god. I was able to delay my trip to the jungle lodge for one day so that I could file a police report and buy new clothes and other essentials like soap. Some folks from the agency were really kind to me and accompanied me throughout the whole day, and even let me stay at their house for the night. My host assured me that the neighbourhood was safe from robbers because once some young guys had robbed and cut a taxi driver there and the neighbourhood folks caught them and were so angry that they poured gasoline on them and burned them alive. So no robbers there. I kid you not. I have to say that spending that day with my hosts was probably the most authentic experience I've had in South America - seeing a real residential neighbourhood, hanging out with the kids, and buying crappy Ecuadorean fake brand-name clothing.
I just got back from the jungle trip and it was okay, but compared to the Galapagos it was kind of mediocre. It was more of a budget place and they weren't super organized and my guide wasn't so great as spotting animals. That said, I did see (parts of/mostly from far away) pink river dolphins, various species of monkeys, caimans, piranhas, sloths, big blue butterflies and lots of birds. The last day was nice in that we got to paddle through the waterways in kayaks (my favourite! no capsizing this time otherwise something would have eaten me!) and then when we were out at night the sky was clear and we could see tons of stars and the Milky Way. That was nice. But if I could trade my trip back for my backpack I would.
Now I'm back in the town where my bag got stolen and I'm feeling bitter again. My Panama hat, which is the only thing that I bought for myself here that I still have in my possession, has been deformed by the humidity and I may have to dump it. I mean COME ON!
Tonight I'm starting the long journey back to Peru, 24 hours of travel followed by a couple of days at the beach (sans swimsuit, hurrah for crappy Ecuadorean underwear), followed by another long journey to Lima for my flight back to Canada. I'll be arriving in Toronto on Thursday morning.
This is my last post so thanks for reading everyone, and I hope to see you all soon.
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Oh no, Annika! What a crappy ending to such an amazing trip! I hope you were able to upload some photos other than the ones you posted to the blog.
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you'd like to have lunch after you've adjusted back to Toronto life. I'd love to hear all about your trip. :)
This just sucks!!!! You will be home soon though, so just try not to let it tarnish your overall memory of the trip. After all, in a year or so it will be part of the experience and not necessarily negative!
ReplyDeleteHave a good trip home.