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Published: March 4th 2011
wow what a crazy few days it has been!
last time i think i wrote we were in montevideo. from there we move to cute little colonia de sacramento. its a nice little town with a lot of history routed in smuggling goods between brazil and uruguay. anyway we spent our time there wandering the streets and snapping a ton of photos of the cobblestone streets and historic buildings. the last day we were there we decided to head to the beach in the afternoon to catch some extra rays... the beach only becomes tolerable around 430pm here.
anyway heres the meat for those of you who have already heard and the news for those of you who havent. i got my daypack stolen... i know i know... you are probably thinking oh monica you left it alone while you went swimming... nope! aly and i were laying on the beach for about an hour already, not alone there were other people at the beach.. it was not packed but not deserted. and we were laying near a little shade hut. we both noticed a man sitting on the cement block that supports the shade hut but he was just sitting there smoking. anyway aware of his presence we we both relaxed but well awake. anyway i was laying on my stomach with my head facing aly... she was reading on her back. i had my clothes under my head and my book and my bag under my arm... any suddenly, we are talking milliseconds... my bag is GONE. the bastard grab it and ran. it was insane! i felt nothing... no presence around me, no noise, no breathing.. nothing... he must not have a soul... anyway there goes my bag, before i would even jump up and yell we was 150m away and over 2 fences... insane! i couldnt believe it. anyway a few f'bombs later we walked the path that we thought he would have ran... looking for my pack hoping that maybe he would have tossed in the trees when he realized there was no cash in it... there was actually nothing major of value in the bag...THANK GOD. it was essentially my hat, watch, journal, camera battery charger, extra memory cards, swiss army knife and of course my peptobismol! anyway we found nothing in the trees so we cowered back to our hostel drank a bottle of wine, had some icecream and planned our escape out of uruguay... so we arnt sure if he just noticed us on the beach when we arrived or if we were being scopped out all day but man what a shitty feeling that was. i felt super vulnerable and violated. not a nice feeling... i was NOT a happy camper.
anyway so later that afternoon a cop walks into our hostel asking for a monica alexandra... crazy right!!! turns out as the cop is translating through the girl at the front desk that they found the guy and my bag and ALL MY STUFF!!! after establishing that this was indeed not a scam and this guy is indeed a cop the girl at the desk tells us that we need to go to the police station to give a statement if i want my stuff back... so aly and i get a nice little ride in a uruguayan police car to the station were i am reunited with everything!!! crazy! i could NOT believe it... i still cant! .... i must have some major karma points built up for this one..... so we wait for the cop who speaks english to arrive and i give her my statement... it turns out that they found me by my journal since it has my full name and address in the front... they saw the address was from canada and so they went around to all the hostels... with a picture from the back of the journal of aaron and i at the mec xmas party...thanks neil!! asking if i was staying at those places...how CSI!!! crazy! anyway after i give my statement they tell me that i have to go to court the next morning to testify my statement... whew wee... now i am in the uruguayan court system...yikes! we truns out to not be so bad... they pick us up sharp at 8am the next day... another ride in a cruiser to the courthouse, give my statement 30 minutes later back at the hostel... prepped and ready for our ferry ride back to buenos aires! haha! insanity!!!!!
anyway i am really glad it turned out the way it did... even if i wouldnt have gotten my bag back at least it wasnt anything important, passport, visa, etc.. and most importantly no one got hurt... so hurray for that... could have been way wayyyy worse. i am also really impressed with the police and the system as a whole. turns out the crime rate in colonia is actually quite low but in the past few weeks they have had a high number of these snatches... there was another girl in the police station who had had everything stolen!... hopefully i can send some karma points to her!.. anyway i have no hard feelings to uruguay i am glad everything turned out the way it did...counting my lucky stars!
so on to better things! after my courtdate we hopped on a ferry from colonia to buenos aires and then took an 18 hours bus ride from buenos aires to puerto iguazu.. which is were we are now...we are about half an hour away from the great iguazu falls.. which our trip for tomorrow!... should be stunning! from here we have a bus ticket out on sunday for another epic 23 hour bus ride to salta then salta to cafayete which is described in our lonely planet guide as 'if you like exploring nature and drinking wine, this is the place for you'.. very good, sign me up please! and thats where we stand...
so once again we are indeed both happy and healthy!
much love, mon!
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Papa J
non-member comment
glad you had the photo
Monica Darling, Glad you had the photo from Xmas. You are charmed. Talked to Aaron at lunch time and we have decided that we should meet in Newfoundland in October. Linda and I are going to do the East Coast Trail. How cool is that plan. Love you. Papa J