The Lost List

Of course when you're on the road for any amount of time, you are bound to misplace a few choice items. Unlike losing something at home however, you cannot silently swear to yourself and find under the couch when you get home. Once you realize that an item of yours has gone missing while travelling...that is usually the end of it. A bus two cities away, a hostel in another country or some down and out thief's shelf in his mud hut. There is no going back. Gone. Misplaced. Lost. Adios Muchacho.

Now some people will lose a camera, maybe a book or even a bank card along the way. These are all really useful items while back-sacking your way through some foreign country, and the initial wash over of disappointment when you realize it's gone is terrible. But there are a select few people out there that are so bad, so scatter brained, so unreasonably irresponsible that they are lucky if they end up with anything but the clothes on their back by the end of the trip. I'm one of those people. This is my lost list.

Ipod Classic

One of the first things to go missing when I got to mexico was my Ipod. Now it had been made obsolete by my shiny new Ipod touch (first world problems or what?), but the real kicker was it had 6000 songs from the last 5 years of my life which had yet to been transferred...A certain Ozzy had his eye on it from the start, so my best guess is it's either a mexican paperweight or being enjoyed at australian house parties all over the country.

Ball Hat + Sentimental Singlet

Now obviously these aren't the most devastating things that you could say goodbye to, but the way we parted was just the worse. When we were out at the hot springs, most of the day was spent soaking and boozing and this went far into the night. In my advanced years I can only stay up so long, especially when your waist deep in smoking hot water with a bottle of tequila in your hand. These hot springs are set up in a cascading kind of style...so as I nod off and have a quick snooze on the side of the pool, the tequila, hat and singlet all going pouring over the side into the canyon below. When I wake up a few hours later I have to no hat, no tequila an no shirt...but a pretty mean hangover and really pruny skin.

E-Reader

This one was a heartbreaker. Not only was there about a dozen books I hadn't even cracked into, I was 10% away from finishing the Game of Thrones series, and for those of you that have read them, it's not one you can easily put down. I was staying in a friends house and the E-reader was either on the bed, or couch or table. I guess this was the problem. I need a designated E-Reader location instead of finding it all over the house at any given time. That being said, when you lose an item in a contained environment, chances are you'll find it somewhere. Not this time. After tearing apart the furniture and cupboards and bathrooms...just shy of taking down the walls of the house, the E-reader was never recovered. When all else fails? Blame the maid. She will make another appearance in this list, trust me.

Sneakers

Although not the end of the world, costing around 400 pesos, or 30$, it was the lack of actually having a pair of sneakers that sucked the most. Hikes, runs and any sort of mild activity, these were great to just pull out and go. When you're expected to go out for a bike ride, and all you have is these dainty little dress-like bowling shoes, aesthetically and functionally you're going to suffer. They stayed with me from Mexico to Colombia (not bad!) until they were left in the trunk of a cab on the way to the airport. They were eventually replaced with a terrible pair of expensive purple hiking shoes, which would also make their way to footwear oblivion.

Loafers

Ultimately I was disappointed in losing these loafers because they were quality Canadian shoes, not some fake ass street buy. They would do you in about every situation. Great for sauntering, gallivanting, touring or dancing, they were the ultimate get up and go no-lace piece of footwear. After I had them shined by one of the many touts in mexico they looked like a brand new pair, too! Sadly they were left in the luggage closet in Colombia as I usually had them on my feet and my other pairs tied the sides of my bag. Not this day. All I hope is that someone is slipping into them and getting as much toe room and podiatric joy as I did.

The final Game of Thrones book. Twice.

Do you remember how I said I lost my E-reader when I was so close to finishing the fourth book in the set? I said 10% of the last book be damned, and skipped to the fifth in the series. After a bit of confusion with the plot for not knowing how the last book concluded, I quickly picked up the trail and plowed through this great story. I bought the first one in the barbados airport and managed to get through about 4 chapters waiting for my flight. In all my excitement of seeing my future travel partner after customs on St. Vincent, I sprinted out of the airport for an embrace, leaving my new book on the bench inside. Total time owned - 2 hours 15 minutes. Now it's a tiny airport, about the size of a subway restaurant, so when I went back asking for my book. I got the ever apathetic Caribbean shrug and was sent on my way. If you can read, airport security, enjoy.

Not being able to just let those 4 chapters fester in my mind without any follow up, I dropped another 20$ on the same book. This time I made it until I had about 100 pages left. Battles and dragons and sorcery and sex and romance are all culminating to a point of utter chaos and excitement, WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?!! Couldn't tell you, I left it in the Bogota hostel right before we flew to Argentina.

Two debit cards and a MasterCard

Unlike the other items I can only surmise as to what happened to these...maybe it's a size thing. The smaller the item, the less you pay attention to it, which in reality is a ridiculous policy, especially when it comes to access to your money.

The first debit card went missing after a night of mexican rock and roll and a three litre bottle of tequila. From what I can tell (read: remember) the card, along with about 40$ in cash, was in my pocket as I raced into some raging rapids outside the campsite for a late night swim. After flailing around like a dying walrus and trying to get my stupid drunk ass out of there, we continued the night as normal, albeit a bit scratched up and soaked. The next morning, shocker, I have completely wet and empty shorts, minus money and card. Not good. Luckily I was still staying with my friend Edgar at the time so there was no immediate call for cash. I cancelled the card and got both a new debit and credit card (as mine was snapping down the middle) sent from home.

The previously mentioned snapping master card was lost at a birthday party, most likely flying out of my breast pocket as I whipped my shirt around like a cowboy. Again, tequila night. The new one arrived a few days later, although I was pretty adamant about finding the other one as credit cards lying around  can go one of two ways. Picked up and never used, or picked up and raped for all they're worth. Of course, never locating it, I received the new one the week after, without any incident from the lost one. No incident at the time anyways.

The second debit card was eaten by an ATM at the bus station crossing the border of Venezuela and Colombia. This is after 14 hours of bus riding in the middle of the night, so obviously I was really, really pleased. So if you're keeping up I have one new Mastercard, and no debit cards. Luckily the last time I talked to the bank they gave me the ability to access my bank account with my master card, so that was my style for the rest of trip. You'd think with all these cards o' mine lying around in the world there would be issues, but not a one for the whole trip!! What luck right!? The day I got back to Canada there was 1600$ removed from my account, all taken on the same day from various ATM's in Peru. I'm hoping my best bet for recompense is the fact I was never in Peru. Time will tell.

Camera Charger/Camera

If you had your choice as to what to lose out of your charger or camera, most of us would say charger. Easily replaced but extremely annoying and somewhat pricey, my charger went missing right around the time of the E-Reader. Getting my camera out to take some fresh snaps that day I search high and low for the charger that had been plugged into the wall (plug by the microwave josh, every time, don't move it so you'll always know where it is, come on man you can do this!). No luck. A replacement was pretty easily picked up for about 25$, and the photos continue. Twenty five dollars is not that much granted, but the camera was only worth 100$. Where are we turning our gaze this time amigos? Si es verdad!! The maid.

The camera was a real bummer, not only because losing things is a bummer, but because it went missing on THE LAST DAY! My flight out of Argentina was only about 30 hours away, and I had to change hostel rooms. Never, ever taking my camera out partying with me for fear of losing it (ironic right?), I left it in the dorm for some late last night partying, only to pack up my bag for home, with no camera. Now there was a computer and ipod kicking around to steal as well, so it's hard to say what the actual fate of it the camera was, but it was gone none-the-less. Unless you have a 1400$ digital SLR the really shitty thing about losing your camera is losing all your photos as well. I was lucky in this sense that they had all been put on the computer by this point, so at least the memories stayed put. Adios little Sony, through all the wet, sandy and scandalous situations I put you through, I appreciate it. I hope you find a good home.

My Puffy Red Coat

I mostly bought this little number as a joke for about 40$, which is kind of an expensive joke. But the more I wore it the more merits I realized it had. For starters, it was bright red so you always knew where to find me. It was also very warm and very puffy, great for those little mountain treks we found ourselves in and made a great bus pillow. With the short time we spent together it became less of joke and more of a commodity in my travels. Once again finding ourselves in a Buenos Aires nightclub, I was finding the coat a bit too puffy and too warm, so I offered it out to one of friends to wear in a Michael Jackson like tribute dance. That was the last I saw of it that week. When we got back from a short side trip to a waterfall, it was waiting for me at the same hostel! Like a little bird you release into the wild but it keeps coming back!! But guess who pulled the exact same move that night, letting a fellow club goer tie it around his waist? The author of this ridiculous list of course. That was the last I saw of the puffy red coat, which I hope has kept some wayward backpacker warm or puffed up in their travels.

Every Single Pair of Flip Flops and Sun Glasses

This would be a guesstimate at best, but throughout the five months I'd say four pairs of flip flops and five pairs of sunglasses were either broken or misplaced. One of the better pair I can recall snapped after a day of parading and partying, and I flung them onto the nearest roof. 'Let that be a warning to any other pair of flip flops that I buy' my rum addled mind said. When you spend $5 or $10 on a pair of shades or sandals, you can expect two things. That they will most certainly break at some point, and that you will not take care of them. The only problem I have with this is: every time I have spent some real cash on sunglasses or sandals, they don't break, and I try to take care of them...but they easily catch the eye of any less than moral fellow traveler.

Throughout the trip I probably went through the same 10$ style Ray Bans five times. They got stepped on, sat on, stolen, dropped in a lake and crushed in my backpack. Until I either smarten up, or the more likely option, they develop a steal and break proof pair of sunglasses or flip flops, I will continue to bulk buy and destroy these items.

So what did I actually bring home? The two biggest ones of course were the MacBook and Ipod Touch, both making it the whole way through. These would have been devastating losses, but perhaps Steve Jobs was looking out for me and his shiny apply products from up high, who knows. The only positives I can see to all these lost items is the fact that I will have to replace them with more stylish and up to date gear. That is, when I get my lost money back.

thanks for reading.