Coping in Bolivia
I´m in a haze right now, still trying to cope with losing all of my photos since Kris left (around 5 weeks worth). I couldn´t sleep last night-- I just kept thinking about what I could have done differently. I know it´s not productive, but I can´t help but think if I had just stood on the other side of my bags, if Julian had come back 5 minutes earlier to catch the bus, if we had burned the DVD for him at breakfast like he had suggested, if I had put one of the USBs in my other backpack like I had thought I should. It goes on and on.
Yes, I know, I have my experiences and no one can take that away from me. But taking photos on this trip was actually one of the main activities I had planned for this trip. I feel cheated now that all of the photos I took are all gone. I have met a number of other travelers who have had the same thing happen to them. A Dutch couple had all their photos from Chile stolen as they were going to the Internet cafe in Mendoza, Argentina to download them; a Belgian girl had her camera stolen on the subway in Buenos Aires; a British guy had his camera phone stolen in Rio; a Spanish girl had her backpack with all her photos and USBs stolen while sleeping on the bus to Uyuni. Some Israeli girl had her backpack stolen with a similar ¨distraction¨ method that was used on me. I just found out that the day before me, one of the girls from my Uyuni excursion caught a guy in the process of taking her backpack from the very place where mine was taken. She said that if she´d actually known enough Spanish to answer the first guy who was trying to distract her, her bag would have been gone too. Even though I´m not the only one, it doesn´t comfort me.
I did learn something about myself through all of this (other than I need to stop blaming myself when things go wrong): I do not give up very easily. At the police station, I met the Spanish girl who´d had her backpack stolen and an Uruguayan guy who´d had his video recorder stolen from his hostel. We all made reports. But I somehow couldn´t stop at that. I wrote up four flyers for a REWARD and posted them around the area where I had been robbed saying that I just wanted my photos back and leaving my email. Then upon someone´s suggestion, I went to Channel 13, their local TV station, and paid $1.25 for the anchor to read four announcements that night with basically the same message about wanting my photos back. I haven´t gotten any response, but I keep checking my email in the hope that maybe the guy who robbed me will see or hear the message and contact me. I guess this is what makes me a good lawyer (and a bad person to break up with!)-- I never lose hope.
Forever the optimist.
I´m forcing myself to blog now because honestly, I want to just walk away from the whole thing. I feel like someone stole a part of my spirit. And I guess I just feel disenchanted, angry, and violated. Thinking that someone else is wearing the jewelry that I so carefully picked out in Mendoza, El Bolson, and Salta makes me furious. Thinking that someone is looking at all of my photos and just throwing them away makes me so sad. Thinking that someone is listening to my music on my ipod....Grrr....
I´m fine as long as I don´t think about all of the photos I lost. Because this last week, I have seen some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. Perhaps it´s fitting that there are no photos for the white, green, and red altiplano lakes dotted with flamingos, or the expanse of white salt planes of Uyuni where you can take crazy photos without any depth of field. Those were some of the most fun photos I´ve ever taken!
Hopefully, I´ll be able to sleep tonight. And hopefully, that wish I made on that shooting star last night will come true and someone will contact me with my photos.
Forever the deamer.
Yes, I know, I have my experiences and no one can take that away from me. But taking photos on this trip was actually one of the main activities I had planned for this trip. I feel cheated now that all of the photos I took are all gone. I have met a number of other travelers who have had the same thing happen to them. A Dutch couple had all their photos from Chile stolen as they were going to the Internet cafe in Mendoza, Argentina to download them; a Belgian girl had her camera stolen on the subway in Buenos Aires; a British guy had his camera phone stolen in Rio; a Spanish girl had her backpack with all her photos and USBs stolen while sleeping on the bus to Uyuni. Some Israeli girl had her backpack stolen with a similar ¨distraction¨ method that was used on me. I just found out that the day before me, one of the girls from my Uyuni excursion caught a guy in the process of taking her backpack from the very place where mine was taken. She said that if she´d actually known enough Spanish to answer the first guy who was trying to distract her, her bag would have been gone too. Even though I´m not the only one, it doesn´t comfort me.
I did learn something about myself through all of this (other than I need to stop blaming myself when things go wrong): I do not give up very easily. At the police station, I met the Spanish girl who´d had her backpack stolen and an Uruguayan guy who´d had his video recorder stolen from his hostel. We all made reports. But I somehow couldn´t stop at that. I wrote up four flyers for a REWARD and posted them around the area where I had been robbed saying that I just wanted my photos back and leaving my email. Then upon someone´s suggestion, I went to Channel 13, their local TV station, and paid $1.25 for the anchor to read four announcements that night with basically the same message about wanting my photos back. I haven´t gotten any response, but I keep checking my email in the hope that maybe the guy who robbed me will see or hear the message and contact me. I guess this is what makes me a good lawyer (and a bad person to break up with!)-- I never lose hope.
Forever the optimist.
I´m forcing myself to blog now because honestly, I want to just walk away from the whole thing. I feel like someone stole a part of my spirit. And I guess I just feel disenchanted, angry, and violated. Thinking that someone else is wearing the jewelry that I so carefully picked out in Mendoza, El Bolson, and Salta makes me furious. Thinking that someone is looking at all of my photos and just throwing them away makes me so sad. Thinking that someone is listening to my music on my ipod....Grrr....
I´m fine as long as I don´t think about all of the photos I lost. Because this last week, I have seen some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. Perhaps it´s fitting that there are no photos for the white, green, and red altiplano lakes dotted with flamingos, or the expanse of white salt planes of Uyuni where you can take crazy photos without any depth of field. Those were some of the most fun photos I´ve ever taken!
Hopefully, I´ll be able to sleep tonight. And hopefully, that wish I made on that shooting star last night will come true and someone will contact me with my photos.
Forever the deamer.
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