Apr 23

Lost and Found

by in Latin America, Logistics, Peru

 

If you strategically omit patience and our tempers, our record on what we’ve lost so far is really not so bad.

With more than twenty countries and countless transfers by plane, train, bus, boat, and taxi, it’s a miracle we haven’t lost all our worldly possessions.  Fortunately, we haven’t lost anything irreplaceable, like say, the kids.   

 We have begun to catalogue our misplaced or overlooked items in an informal “hall of shame.”  Here are some of the highlights:

July— Delphi, Greece.  Not ten days into our journey and Piggy is left behind!  It’s a Code Red crisis situation.  Antony heroically u-turns on a hairpin cliff-side curve so we can go back to the hotel.  Lucky we did since Russ left his belt and Carter his camera.  The unfortunate incident resulted in a reprise of our packing protocols and our learning the word “kouklaki,” which is very fun to say and means “little doll” in Greek.

July—Olympia, Greece.  Katherine’s swimsuit is MIA.  A new one must be purchased, necessitating a shopping expedition.  No one is unhappy.

July—Stockholm, Sweden.  Katherine leaves her fabulous (and specially-purchased-for-the-trip) citrus lime green REI fleece on the airport bus.  In her defense, it was midnight when we arrived.  It is never seen again, and is no longer produced in that color.

July—Gotland, Sweden.  Russ and Carter lose two perfectly good pairs of Ecco hiking shoes to some spectacularly foul mud while fossil hunting.  There is no salvaging them, replacements are purchased.

August—London, England.  Cousin Eleanor leaves her backpack in our favorite hotel, the Athenaeum.  No fear.  The trusty concierge team easily locates and ships it so that it is waiting for us at our Paris flat.  One less thing to have to schlep through the airport.

August,—Paris, France.  Carter leaves his iTouch in the rental car.  After three weeks of trying to track it down in faltering French, recovery efforts are abandoned.  We swear never to tell grandma and grandpa what became of their gift.  Santa comes through with a replacement at Christmas so, hopefully, our tracks are covered.

January—Jaipur, India.  Carter can’t find his swim goggles.  Ordinarily, this would not be a big deal but his are prescription so we’re concerned about finding new ones.  As it turns out, the first store we check in Hong Kong (our next destination) has the perfect pair.  We’re good.

April— Port Douglas, Australia.  Unbelievably, Russ leaves his camera bag, fully stocked with camera and all lenses, on the counter in the rental apartment.  [IN HIS DEFENSE HE WAS BUSY CARRYING OUR BAGS UP AND DOWN FOUR FLIGHTS OF STAIRS.  Editor’s note:  Russell wrote this.]  We don’t discover its absence until we have checked in at the Cairns International Airport—an hour’s drive away.  We’re leaving for China in less than 90 minutes.  Emergency.  Several frantic calls later, the camera has been retrieved from the apartment and is on a first-class limo ride to the airport.  Russ waits for the driver outside while the kids and I sit at the gate, refusing to board until he arrives. He does and we’re not even the last ones on the plane!

April—Beijing, China.  Katherine leaves the jacket she had custom-made in Vietnam in her room at the Peninsula Hotel.  We don’t realize it for ten days!  When we finally do notice its absence, we’re in Shanghai and are leaving China in 72 hours.  We contact the team at the Peninsula and are astounded when they say that they have it and can ship it right away.  The jacket has high sentimental value so we ask them to ship it express overnight, we will pay the charges upon delivery.  We are incredulous when the jacket arrives the next day and the fee totals 20 RMB, less than $3.00. 

April—Machu Picchu, Peru.  Russ drops Katherine’s funky new Peruvian hat somewhere on the Sun Gate trail.  It may have been picked up by a passing tourist or llama.  A new one must be found.

The good news is that most of our losses happened early in the trip when we were still getting our sea legs.  We are each responsible for packing and hauling our own bags, and with every transfer we’ve gotten better.

The overarching conclusion, however, is that almost nothing is irreplaceable.  Kids and passports aside, chances are that whatever you’ve lost can easily be found at the next stop.  So, we’re learning not to sweat the small stuff and just go with the flow.  Here’s hoping we don’t lose our newfound Zen.

 

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