Early onset.... something

Ever thought you were going a little mad? I had my doubts!

When you realise you're misplacing stuff it worries you, especially when you know all of your worldly goods are being carried around in one big dusty bag. How the hell can you lose something in 2 cubic feet of pants and teeshirts? Well I manage this quite regularly but now realise it's nothing to worry about, it's only happened when stupidly tired or hungover... the former being quite a usual state for me to be in during south America. But I was worried for a bit...
First was my hat in Thailand, a bitter pill to swallow but one which I got over when I bought my next one (until I noticed even that was not in my bag last week!). Then came a shirt, tee-shirt and towel left drying outside of a dorm one hungover morning, again nothing crazy but annoying just the same.

Well I stepped it up a gear when traveling in Chile with Maria. We'd just finished a 18 hour bus trip and decided to book a tour and then our next bus ticket out of the place for 3 days time. It was a standing joke that we kept misplacing tickets etc and Maria decided to leave them in my capable hands! Well 2 days later when Maria asked 'so you still have the tickets, right?' I promptly put her mind at rest even after realising they were not in my wallet.... they were in my money belt in my rucksack, I was sure of it! That was soon to dissolve as soon as I returned to the money belt and noticed a lack of tickets...bugger! At $30's a piece they were not a cheap ticket to go and lose!
"Er, Maria, I don’t want to panic you but you have the tickets right?".
"No" was the swift answer and I began the old panicking myself. I searched high and low for those tickets but to no avail they were just not in my bag, wallet or anywhere else on my person... they had vanished!
With my tail between my legs much like a Thai lady boy, we walked to the bus station praying for a miracle! It didn’t come. We couldn't remember the seat numbers and the lady behind the counter hadn't taken our names on purchase of the tickets so we were scuppered. Normally I would have coughed up the money and paid for the next night if it wasn't for the fact we were rushing to the next town to catch a famous Inca sun god festival, the Inti Raymi. We begged, well Maria begged for a solution and the only option was to return at 9pm that night when our bus was due to leave and if there were 2 spare seats (of course there will be they're ours!) we could buy some more tickets. So with it not looking too hopeful we headed home, with Maria rightfully speaking very little to me!
Anyway Maria chilled in a bar whilst I threw my belongings around the hostel in search of the tickets. I even went through the bins but still no luck! So there was nothing for it but to head off once more to the bus station and hope for the best.
Though I was ready to shell out the cash I was still hoping for a miracle, after all I had done my good dead for the day and helped stop a llama injure itself in a rather shady petting zoo. I'm a believer in Karma and I was hoping that I had enough stored up for even a small amount of it to whiz it's way back to me in the form of some good luck.
Once again to the bus station and things looked sketchy as the bus was fully loaded and we were still standing at the side lines. When we begged for charity from the conductor we were getting nowhere. He stopped us short when the police pulled up and told us to wait for 2 minutes. When he returned he thrust 2 tickets into our hands and asked us to get on, not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth we shut up and bolted to our seats where we sat like little angels waiting for some sort of explanation. It came in the form of the conductor who explained that 3 days ago we had left the tickets in the restaurant and that when we hadn't come back for them they handed them into the police who amazingly came to the bus station to see if we arrived.
Now this does not normally happen in this world and I was surprised to see it happen in such a touristy place as San Pedro. The cafe could have just binned the tickets or the police could have had another cup of tea and not bothered showing up, but for some reason luck was on our side and these guys did the right thing! Good on them!
So there I am, shooting off on another tangent in my bog! The moral of the story kids is to help out a llama in distress and the world will be a better place.

Now, if only I could find some more distressed llamas I might be able to find my penknife, my fleece (which I left on a bus, one glove and 2 hats! Here llama, llama, llama.......