Dork Reports

I don’t tend to lose things, but when you’re backpacking around, shit happens. To borrow from Brianne’s blog, these are the things I lost during my trip, in almost sequential order.

1) My watch – The ugly Timex Triathlon watch I got in elementary school that I now travel with because I can read the time in the dark (thanks Indiglo!). Realized it was missing from my wrist when I was on the subway in Rio de Janeiro and was convinced some jerk stole my uglyass watch because it was Rio, after all. Shannon thought I might have left it in the hostel when I took it off to apply sunscreen. My inspection of my bed later in the day led me to conclude I had indeed been jacked.

Conclusion: Found the watch velcroed (yes, it’s a velcro watch) to my sleep sheet when I got in it for bed.

2) $1033 – Couldn’t get cash out of my savings account from different ATMs so I figured something was wrong with it and transfered money into my checking account. When I went to withdraw the money, I realized I only had about $58 left. So i finally got on wifi and checked my account online and realized someone had stolen $1033 in two minute-apart withdrawals from some random bank in Rio. I still had my debit card, so clearly it was cloned. Talked to Citibank for an hour, and they opened a fraud investigation.

Conclusion: Got locked out of my ATM for five days and my online banking account. When I finally got my new debit card I checked and found that Citibank had reimbursed me the money that had been stolen. So all was good. Thanks, thieves, for making life difficult for a week!

3) Toothpaste: After using trial sized toothpastes for about two weeks and getting dangerously close to exhausting my supply, I finally got around to walking in the hot Buenos Aires sun to buy a new tube. It was small, but big enough to last my entire trip, and cost $4, which is way more than it would have cost back home. After taking it out of the box and fiddling with it while watching TV, I thought I put it in my locker at the hostel. When it came time to brush my teeth, it was nowhere to be found, despite me retracing my steps. I figured I would find it eventually in my stuff.

Conclusion: Someone clearly wanted my teeth to rot. The toothpaste never resurfaced.

4) 11.000 Chilean Pesos: When packing up my room in Bariloche I realized some cash was missing, and asked the hostel guy to let me back in my room to double check. He asked how much I was looking for and when I said 11.000 Pesos his eyes popped out. “Chilean!” I had to clarify. Because 11.000 Chilean pesos is about $22 whereas 11,000 Argentine pesos is almost $2900.

Conclusion: Money was considered lost until I unzipped a pouch a week or so later and discovered I must have crammed my money in there during the pack rush job.

5) My hat: I velcroed my hat to my backpack in Puerto Natales when the winds proved too strong for me to wear it. After checking in to the ferry along the waterfront, where it was super windy, I realized the hat was no longer on my backpack. I went back to the places I had been to see if maybe I had left it behind on accident.

Conclusion: Hat was never to be seen again, and a replacement hat was purchased in Santiago for $4. Chances are the wind blew it off my backpack, or, someone sneakily removed it and I neither saw nor felt it.

6) 4.000 Chilean Pesos: On my first day in Santiago I went to pay for dinner and realized my 4.000 pesos were missing. After being warned about the dodgy places in town, I assumed I had already been the victim of pickpocketing on the subway.

Conclusion: Found the money in another pair of pants that I had changed into when I went to the grocery store. I felt dumb.

7) Abe: Already feeling down about my trip was made worse when I got the axe from Abe. I shortened my trip, went crazy in the desert, and hoped for the best when I returned home.

Conclusion: Relationship not recovered, heartache ensues.

Throughout the trip I backed up my pictures often, kept my backups separate, and always tried to keep my important stuff in separate bags in order of what can be stolen/lost first. In the end, either that system worked, or I was lucky because I managed to keep my camera, my iPhone, my passport, and my life. Really, the only things I ended up losing were my hat, toothpaste, and Abe. Man, the toothpaste really hurt.