Colombia: Santa Marta (Part 1)

So I realize that I have fallen far behind on my blog.  I have done so many things in Colombia and haven´t written a thing…. So here I go.  When I got into Colombia I was asleep so I almost missed Santa Marta completely.  The bus let me out on the outskirts of the city and I had no dollars to change into pesos.  It was a Sunday and pretty much everything was closed… My ATM card wasn´t working and I was getting kind of scared.  I asked how much it was for a room at the nearest place and they told me $35,000 pesos.  The exchange rate here is about $1,800 to $1  so to make things easy every $2000 pesos is like a dollar.  So the room was between $17 and $20.  The girl at the hotel told me that I wouldn´t find anything cheaper especially if I went into the center part of the city.  That made my ears perk up… center part of the city… I needed to find this place.  Well lucky for me my friend Urs from Germany gave me a $50 Euro note and so I had that with me.  I asked a guy to take me somewhere in the Central to exchange it and then I would pay him.  We looked at 3 different places before I finally had the money to pay him.  He was a nice guy to take me around so many places on his moto taxi. 

At the 3^rd place I spotted white people walking around a plaza.  Something I have learned on my trip is that where there are white people… a hostel is not far.  I walked down the same street I saw them go and sure enough I found a hostel called ¨La Brisa Loca¨ It is a nice place with a pretty fun atmosphere… the owners are a couple of brothers from San Francisco and they are cool guys… the only problem with the place is that all the employees they hired are crack heads… always high… and usually pretty rude guys.  Me and my friend Joe were gonna work there cause some of the bad employees were leaving… but we decided against it.



our biker gang



My first night at the hostel I met Troy and Robbie.  They are 2 way cool guys from San Diego who were on a 3 week vacation to Colombia.  They just got to Santa Marta from Cartagena and were waiting on Troy´s little brother and his Colombian girlfriend to show up the next day.  So Robbie is like… a white rapper…. Lol but not like Eminem status… he gave me his CD and it is actually really good!  So we start swapping stories and hanging out and they invite me to go to some waterfalls with them and some Colombian girls that they met…. They were leaving the next morning.  So the next morning I wake up and well… I was a little disappointed.  You see… when I think of Colombian girls… I just always think they are gonna be super hot… especially hanging out with Robbie and Troy…. Unfortunately …. They weren´t….  lol they were pretty nice though.  So one of the girls says she has been to this waterfall like 3 times so she is like officially out guide.  Well we take a taxi to some random corner and wait for 7 Mototaxis that take us up the mountain to where we will start walking to the waterfall.  Well we rode around in the rain on these moto taxis… and they were crazy… my guy was always racing the others… well while we were on the streets he was… as soon as we hit dirt and mud… he was seriously the worst driver ever.  So I had to get off the motorcycle a few times and walk through the mud while he waited for me… but one time he decides he´s gonna pull some crazy stunt and launch off a rock… well… like I said… bad driver.. the

motorcycle turns sideways… I fly off and land on 1 leg in the mud… but I was holding onto him and so I ripped him off the motorcycle too…. Haha… If I fall in the mud… so does he.  Anyway… soft landing… no injuries… and we make it to the first little river where the Moto Taxis leave us.  So we cross this river and about 200 meters later I see a sign in Spanish that pretty much says…

 this is the way to the waterfall.  I point it out to our guide and she says… no no no… its this way.  Wel… she has been there before.. I haven’t.. so we walk… and walk… and walk…. We did see some beautiful views… and goofed off to keep good spirits since it was raining…  Robbie and Troy posed for a picture that I call ¨brokeback jungle¨ Anyway… it was all good fun… but it started getting dark.  The moto taxis were supposed to drop us off 5 minutes from the falls and we had walked seriously over 3 miles uphill…. It was definetly the wrong way.  So a Toyota landcruiser full of people makes it up there… I stop them and ask them where the waterfall is… and they say we are way way way way past it.  So we turn around walk all the way back… in the dark… and I make our guide pose in front of the sign I showed her earlier.  It´s pretty much the only thing that made me feel good about walking in the rain and riding in the rain for so many hours.





So we walk back to this small mountain town and find that all the taxis are gone for the night…. 2 busses jammed packed with people went by and wouldn’t let us on…. We had a dilemma.  We tried tons of different ways to get a taxi back to town…. In the end we finally did it…. But it took a couple of hours… and lots and lots and lots of frustration… we took a picture of the group… the funniest part of the picture is that the skinny white guy (from England) is the boyfriend of the girl next to me in the photo…. But for some reason…. She looks like she´s my girlfriend in the picture.  I showed it to him laughing…. He didn´t think it was funny.

So during the trip Troy and Robbie are telling me how they met this beautiful girl in Cartagena and that Troy´s little brother Bret was now still with her in Cartagena but would be making it to Santa Marta sometime that night.  So they are trying to describe her to me…. And all I can picture is the Colombian wife that Al Bundy is married to on modern family.  I told them… guys… you are building this up way way too much…. Especially after who we went to the waterfalls with.  But when I told them that… they said… no man… just wait you´ll see.  Well… she walked in the door that night… and I stood corrected… wow… is all I could say about Beatriz.  I found out later that the Miss Colombia pageant was in Cartagena earlier that week and that Beatriz is the director of a modeling school and had a girl in the competition.  Her friend hector is some famous clothing designer and was making dresses for the beauties… or queens.. or… whatever you call them…. Anyway… that´s why she was in Cartagena… and well… Bret Robbie and Troy were in the right place at the right time. 

We had a fun time that night and decided that we would all go to the beach the next day.  I´ll save that for my next post… it was a really good time.

Goodbye Venezuela

I sure my mother has said “My son wasn’t thinking straight when he did that; deep down, he’s a very good person.”

Although I respect my mother, I know that this is not true.  I don’t waste my time blaming myself for my rash actions or spend my life forgiving myself for all the wrong I have done – doing that would never set me back on the right path.

I use common sense to judge not the intentions of an action but its consequences.  I take responsibility for everything I do, even if I have to pay a high price for my mistake.

As the old Arabic proverb says: “God judges a tree by its fruits and not by its roots.”

I have been reading a lot on my trip.  I have read 4 books… and for me… that’s a lot.  It has been really good for me to read and write.  I am working on my 5^th book right now.  And it’s raining today so I am going to try to catch up on all my blogs and maybe even finish book #5.

From my journal that I wrote between Venezuela and Colombia:

I’m in Colombia now on a bus headed for Santa Marta.  Yesterday I traveled for a long time to get to Maracaibo because I thought I had a free place to stay there… turns out I didn’t.

A cool thing about Maracaibo is the large cement bridge you have to cross over to get there! Amazing!  I was told it was the largest cement bridge in the world… You should see it at night!

My plan was to go to Sinamaica today… sleep in a palofito again then head to Colombia tomorrow…. I didn’t feel like hanging around for the festival of the chinita…. Festivals are more fun with friends….  Well Sinamaica was a dump!  Not to be rude… but it was rainy… I was almost out of Bolivars and the place was covered in Garbage… so I decided to head straight for Colombia.

It appears there are lots of people in traditional dress in this area.  They weave shoes and put tire tread on the bottom… I’ve seen this in Mexico too… very cool!

The benefit of being in Colombia is that I can withdraw money from an ATM with no worries.  The ATM will give me a good exchange rate.  In Venezuela the banks have devalued the dollar by 50% so if you want to spend any time there you have to change your money on the black market.



sinamaica



sinamaica



Maybe it was the rain, maybe it’s because I’m alone… or maybe it’s because I’m tired of eating Arepas… I felt like today was my day to get out of Venezuela… and when I get strong feelings… I try to listen to them.  I’m lucky I left today because I only had 100 bolivars when I crossed the border. (About 12 bucks)

ok so this is the only place that I could find
that even resembled venice... or what I
think of as venice... but it's definetly not
as pretty :D

On the drive from Maracaibo to Maicao (Colombia) the car was stopped 4 times.  Once they made everyone get out of the car and they searched it.  They searched my pockets and my backpack… and all my clothes.  I started taking pictures because I thought it was cool.  I was then apprehended and taken into a guard shack… the guy was gonna steal my camera… ha!  He told me it was against the law to take pics of the military… I told him he wasn’t gonna take my camera and that I would delete the pictures.  He waited awhile (For money of course) but I gave him nothing…. He let me go.

While they were going through my bag I bought a Popsicle from a boy.  They make them in plastic bags here… you bite off the end and suck on it…. Mine was strawberry…. Care to take a guess what they call those popsicles?  Tetas (of course)…. Once again… tetas…

Maracaibo has people called Maracuchos.  They speak Spanish of course but it’s fast… choppy… and full of slang that is vulgar in most countries but not in Venezuela… at least not in Zulia….

Here are some Examples:  If I write them wrong it’s so you will pronounce it right

Vergataria – Super cool

            The base word of this of course is Verga – which is well… a weenie J  you might think that doesn’t make any sense…. But in English we say… man… that was the S#*t … which is also not a very cool thing… but when you say it like that it is…. I dunno… I'm not a linguist yet… but that’s my interpretation

Vergacion! – Same but different from above

Example sentence: Vergacion! Ese teléfono esta Vergataria!  Wow your phone Rocks!

Que Moyeja! – How cool!

Mira voz! (boz) – Hey you (tu) look at this… even though voz usually means y’all

Como estai mi Viejo? – How are you friend?

Como stai bo? – Como estas – how are you

Pa que mas? Who could ask for more?

No te arreche chico! – don’t get mad!

Bo se soi arrecho – lazy butt!

It’s strange leaving Venezuela.  I have been here exactly 3 weeks.  My first morning I went to the bus terminal in Valencia and it was crowded and full of signs of places I had never heard of.  Now at the terminal I recognize almost every sign.  I know how the terminal works, where the busses are, the cars, the taxis.  The men yelling at the top of their lungs are no longer screaming gibberish but the names of the cities their bus is going to…. Just takes a bit for the ears to adjust.  The terminal is full of stores for food, snacks, water, magazines, luggage storage, and books.  Of course there is always some display of the virgin somewhere with a candle lit in front of it… and a lady who sits in front of the bathroom selling sheets of toilet paper.  I notice guys with lots of money wearing hats that say “bass pro shop” on them.  Did you know that’s an expensive marca (brand) here?  Maybe it is in the US too? I dunno… looks like something you’d get for free at a hillbilly fishin’ contest along with a trophy that best “best noodler” (yes I know you noodle for catfish and not bass )

the first time I looked out the bus window in Colombia this
is what I saw... do I need to explain the thoughts that
were going through my head?

Anyway… all in all Venezuela was great.  I was warned not to go there by many… that it was dangerous… If I showed up to Maracaibo first I would have believed it… Now I know Venezuelans are harmless… and very friendly.  Of course there are stories of danger… but I have found that as long as I stay away from trouble… trouble stays away from me.  The world is a dangerous place… not just Venezuela… it’s all about being cautious and knowing your surroundings…. Being “pila”

One last funny story...  the way to say gay here is Maricon... but they say it fast and cut so it sounds like Marico  ... well this lady i had been talking to in the car and on the bus went into the bus terminal and bough some fish to eat... i didn't see that... fish is Mariscos .... well he columbian accent dropped the S sounds... so... she said I'm gonna sit here and eat my fish... I thought she said I'm gonna sit here by the gay guy... and I was like... I'm not gay! haha! and she cracked up... showed me her food and said... no no mijo... MARISCOS! hahaha

Catatumbo!

Ok... so... Urs, Joe, and I set out tuesday afternoon towards Santa Barbara de Zulia.  We got there kinda late and paid 160 bolivar... for a super nice room.  So we split that and ended up paying as much as we were paying for the hostel in Maracaibo but this Hotel was waaaay nicer and everything in the fridge was the same price or cheaper than it was at the store.... no need to eaven leave the room.... but we still did of course....

The next day we took a bus to Porta Concha where we ate and then met some locals that took us out on a little boat tour and then took us to these houses on stilts in the middle of a giant lake (too big to see the other side....) the houses are called palofitos...(sp.?)  Anyways we stayed there for awhile... I cooked everyone dinner with some ingredients we picked up earlier at the store and then we went back to Porta Concha for a huge party.  See in Zulia they have an 8 day festival to celebrate La Chinita... (the virgin)  It was tons of fun.  Then we went back to the palofitos and watched lightning all night... from like 11 pm to 3 am it was going.  This happens all the time at lake maracaibo at the south end... they call  it Catatumbo.  Everyone says it is this unexplanable miracle.... scientists say it is the super cold air coming off the mountain from merida and coliding with the super hot humid air in Maracaibo.  There is lighting without thunder 300 nights a year.... pretty cool.

Urs and Joe were running out of money so they decided to go to Colombia without me.  I still want to go to Maracaibo for the last day of the festival.. theres bull fighting, concerts.... and tons of stuff to do.  So I am headed there tomorrow and I´ll stay with my brother in law´s sister Denis (Gustavo´s oldest sister)  Right now I am in Trujillo again staying at the Parra house because when I got to Valera the bus was only half full so the driver told us all to get off... I was the last one off so the little cars headed to maracaibo were full by the time I got to them.  But it is probably better that I travel during the day anyway.

I spent last night in a hostel in a place called Isnotu.  Isnotu is where the people I met at the Virgin Statue live.  I went up there and we made pastelitos together one night... and pasticho (venezuelans version of lasagna) the next day.  It was fun learning how to cook they way they do.  I visited this sanctuary that is dedicated to this local doctor.  So I don´t know the whole story but here´s what I got from word of mouth.  So Isnotu had this doctor named Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez... he was a good Dr. but one day he got hit by a car.  As a spirit he would appear to people and heal them... so now this guy is super famous and has been made a saint by the Diocese in Venezuela or something.... this guy is important enough to get put in stain glass windows with God... you know he´s pretty important ;)  Anyway... other than that there´s not much there... it is a touristy place for venezuelans... but not for anyone else :)

Merida!

Ok... So I am back in Merida... and I was looking over my blog and I realized that I never wrote about it.  I think it is because I thought I would write about it after all the activities... well the only thing I haven´t done here yet that I want to is bungee jumping... but you can do that anywhere... so I guess I´ll leave that out for now.

This is Grahm from England and a couple from holland.  So the guy was super cool... but his wife got sick and drunk one night and got suuuuper duper mad at me for talking about amsterdam, weed, hookers, tulips, windmills and wooden shoes... I told her that is what came to mind when I thought of Haha... she called me a stupid F-ing American..... when she went to bed.... we all sat around trying to think of anything else that had to do with Holland ;p

Ok... So I already told you some about my first trip here... I went to the zoo and became friends with Urs and Felicita..... but now Felicita has flown home and Urs is on his way back up here from Caracas... then we are going to head out to Maracaibo and then over to Colombia.  (Update from when I last wrote this... Me Urs and Joe were gonna all go to colombia together... but they have decided to go early and I´m headed up to Maracaibo for a big festival first and then over to Colombia)
While here I went paragliding... oh man... that was an experience... my guide picked me up and he had a little beer on the breath and he drove me to the south part of merida where we were to go gliding.  Like I said in an earlier post he really caught me off guard when to said we were jumping off the mountain that looked like a ¨teta¨ anyway.... parasailing takes a lot of patience.... back and forth and back and forth gaining altitude to go to the places you want to go... the only scary part for me was going over power lines....

 Video of me paragliding
I also went to la culata with a local I met here who said he would be my guide for the day... I didn´t pay him or anything... i just paid his bus fare to where we were going... so that worked out pretty nice.
Coming back to Merida for the 2nd time was a joke.  Like I told you in my last post... but I am glad I did... cause it was nice to see friends that were still at the hostel and meet new friends as well.  Joe from England decided to cancel his excursion to los llanos to go with me and Urs to Maracaibo and then over to Colombia.  Me and Joe have been hanging out the past couple days waiting for urs and have been having a great time despite the rain every day.

Yesterday we went to the hot springs with a girl named Anna from Germany.... she has been staying at the hostel for like 3 weeks and is leaving soon.  Well she is the one who got the directions so we just kind of followed her.  Well... the way she explained it was that she heard there were 2 different places for hot springs... the higher ones and the lower ones... but that the higher ones were best.  So we asked the jeep driver to take us to the higher ones.... he did.... but we thought they were the lower ones because this lady in the jeep asked if we were gonna go up higher..... we thought that was the way to the higher better ones so we went.  She charged us 10 bolivar each and showed us this tiny trail to follow... well we did..  forever!!! and finally found where the hot water first comes out of the mountains... which was cool but definetly not what we were looking for.  I was kinda mad that the lady tricked us... we turned around and I went and got my money back from her... I asked her why she charged me for nothing.... ¨Oh... there was nothing there?  oh thats right! the volcano/earthquake destroyed it¨  yeah right.......  anyway.. luckily we got our money back... and walked to the higher pools.... well they werent cool... because they were just swimming pools and the water wasnt even warm... don´t get me wrong... it would have been a cool place to BBQ with a bunch of friends but we continued down the hill to the lower pools.... finally after walking down a long dirt road we made it there.... exactly what we were looking for!  There was one really hot pool a sauna and 2 cooler pools surrounded by like waterfalls.... really really cool.... the locals had littlered below with tons of garbage though... so that was a dissapointment especially since we had to pay $20 bolivar $2.50 US  to get in....  but no big deal... it was a cool place.

Well... we will probably leave from Merida sometime tomorrow... I was reading in Joes guidebook and it looks like we are going to get to Maracaibo just in time for a festival!  And I think it´s like.... the virgins birthday.... man my timing is good.... haha

Trujillo

I woke up on Tuesday morning not really knowing what I was going to do that day.  I read a little bit and then decided that I wanted to go and try to find some ancient artifacts.  My friend Lucas served his mission here in Venezuela so he knows a lot of people here… including some treasure hunters.  He gave me the names of some people and told me the towns they lived in and so I set out to look for those places in the late afternoon.  Well it wasn´t a good idea for me to leave Merida so late because my next stop was Valera which is about 4.5 hours away by car 6 hours by bus…. I took a car.  But it is a long long road down the mountain and it was really foggy… and rainy… and I´ve already mentioned how dangerous the roads are here because the Venezuelans are the craziest drivers in the world.  I made it to Valera late at night and even made friends with the driver and the other two passengers.  Problem is I had to get to a town near Trujillo called la Muralla or la muralita… or something… haha don´t remember….Venezuela…. And when I got there I was going to have to knock on a stranger’s door and ask if I could spend the night…. Haha… bit scary.  Well… I split a cab with one of the other passengers… he was going to Trujillo…. He said he needed to make a phone call first… so I offered him my phone.  And I as soo sooo sooooo lucky I did!  So we drive to the place where I get out and I had no Idea but my Iphone dropped out of my pocket in the car.  So the taxi takes off and I knock on the door.  A girl comes to the door and I say is this the Parra Family?  She says yes I ask if her parents are home etc… anyway… all of the sudden I realize that my Iphone is gone and that makes me really sad….. but I remember to call the last number on my Venezuelan phone… call the person the guy who borrowed my phone called… he was just arriving there… so I talk to him and ask him to hold on to my phone and to give me his address.  Without even knowing me the Parra family drops everything and takes me to go get my phone.  When I actually got my phone back they couldn´t believe it.  They told me that once you lose something in that town… it is gone.

Me, Rafael (accountant) and Parra Fam.

So after the emergency I introduce myself and tell them I know one of their friends Lucas.  Well they have a long running joke that one of their rooms in their house is ¨Lucas´s Room¨ So He told me to go to their house and tell them I heard that my friend had a room here I could sleep in.  They laughed and let me stay.  Hermana Parra made me some food and they put a bed in the bedroom moved some things around to make me feel welcome and then we talked… I called Lucas and they talked… It was just a good thing.

Me and the Virgen de Paz!

The next morning Hermano Parra drove me up to Trujillo and dropped me off at a place where there were a lot of Toyota Land cruisers taking people up the mountain to see the GIANT ¨Virgin de la Paz¨ Ok… I had no idea that this thing was even in Trujillo but they have a giant statue of the Virgin that is taller than the Statue of Liberty!  So I ride up there climb the stairs… there are a couple different viewing platforms… but if you go all the way up to the top you can look out of the eyes of the virgin down onto the city of Trujillo.  I made a new friend at the statue named Hellen… she was there with her cousins.  We went and looked inside the church near the virgin and then they offered to give me a ride back into town…. I accepted.  The cousins are from a place called Isnotu which was like an hour away… and Hellen was from Barquisimetro… which I don´t know how far away that is… 2 or 3 hours maybe?  Anyways… they dropped me off in the Plaza Bolivar and then they drove home.

Me and Hellen

So there is something really cool about Venezuelan towns… it is that they all have a Plaza Bolivar.  It doesn´t matter how big or how small the town is… it always has a Plaza Bolivar.  The Plaza marks the center of the town and it expands from there.  Larger cities have huuuuge statues of Simon Bolivar and smaller towns usually just have a small bust of him.  Anyway… they are usually a local hangout and usually very beautiful places.  There is a really funny … kinda sad story about the Plaza Bolivar in Trujillo.

In South America you will find two cities named Trujillo.  Trujillo, Perú and Trujillo, Venezuela.  Well the story is that a very famous artist in Europe was commissioned to create a statue of Simon Bolivar for the Plaza in Trujillo Peru.  It is a large statue of Bolivar on a horse.  When the statue was finished it was shipped to Trujillo.  The problem was that it ended up in Trujillo Venezuela!  They gladly accepted the pre-paid statue and to this day refuse to give the statue to Peru.  And it is also said that afterwards… Trujillo Peru could only afford a small bust of Bolivar…. I´ll have to check it out when I´m there.  J 

Looking out of the virgin´s eye at Trujillo

Stain glass at the church by the virgin

Carved of stone!

I walked around for a bit but I was starting to feel a little sick… and then I got really really sick… in the stomach region.  So I was supposed to go meet some other people that owned a juice shop and ask them directions to another place but I just felt like I was going to die.  I went home and went to bed…. I woke up 6 or 7 times that night… for obvious reasons…. And then I decided I wasn´t going to eat anymore.  So the last time I had eaten was Wednesday morning.  Thursday I headed up to a new city called Bocono and wandered around there looking for a guy named Rafael Romero….  I knew that if I could find him that he would take me treasure hunting.  As I was looking around town asking for him I met a guy who spoke English named Pedro.  Pedro helped me look for him for awhile but to no avail.  Well Lucas gave me Rafael´s phone number but I couldn´t get hold of him that way either….  So Pedro invited me to his farm.  I was about to go see it when Rafael called… so I told Pedro I would check it out the next day.  I met up with Rafael and we went talking to some of the people he knew who had some artifacts.  They were really cool to see.  That night Rafael let me stay at his house.   The next day we went to a place called Niquitao to las pailas… beautiful place with waterfalls… looked around for some ancient findings…. Anyway… I don´t know if I can write whether or not I found anything on my blog….  Haha… anyway…. Then we went and met this lady who had a museum of kinda collectible stuff and a locked room with tons of these artifacts.  Well she agreed to let me see them and feel them even… very very cool…

@ Pedros Farm

So later that day I checked out Pedro´s farm… he has just moved to the outskirts of Bocono from Caracas…. So his farm is fairly new.  He is living in a cinderblock shed… but plans on building a home there… pretty cool… its like Harvest Moon… but real life…. And no elves.

That night I hung out with Rafael a little more….  I forgot to write that we went to a famous bridge in Niquitao... 2^nd highest in South America they say….. Speaking of Niquitao it reminds me of something weird that caught me off guard… the other day I went parasailing and when I asked the guide where we were flying from he said... from that mountain over there that looks like a ¨teta¨ well I´m sure you can already tell what that means… but for those of you that can… he said… we are jumping from that mountain that looks like a tit.  So that was surprising… but I thought my guide might just be a little course…. But the main mountain in Niquitao is officially named… la teta de Niquitao.  Bit strange eh??

Me and Rafael Romero on the 2nd highest bridge in south america

So I stayed the night at Rafael’s again… he gave me a fanny pack to carry my extra belongings in…. so that was great!  The next morning I go and pick up my backpack from the house of the Parra Family… and tell them goodbye and head back to Valera and back to Merida.  I wasn´t going to ever go back to Merida… but I was having trouble getting a hold of my friend Urs and we agreed to meet in Merida on Sunday… so I decided to go back.  It was the worst drive ever…. I sat up front at first but I started falling asleep and I was in the middle and so the driver said it was too dangerous for me to be there because he couldn’t drive… haha… so I had to move to the middle in the back…. The seat was super hot from the transmission and really really hard.  After 4.5 hours in that car I was glad to get out.  Plus I was scared to death cause the weather was even worse… the driver couldn´t see he kept having to wipe the foggy windows with his hand… curvy mountain road… foggy.. Rockslides and trees sometimes turned it suddenly into a one lane road… anyway… it was terrible…. The driver could barely see where he was going…. He definitely needs to fix his defroster.

¨Rocks¨

So I get to Merida and I strap the fanny pack to my backpack because it was making my pants fall down… well little did I know that the fanny pack opened and dropped out my wallet and all of the ancient artifacts I had!!!!  After awhile a guy catches up to me and asks... is this yours... he had my wallet!  I couldn´t hear him for the longest time…. I was listening to Juanes on my IPod…. That’s when I noticed the artifacts missing… I panicked!  I was like... is this all you found??? He said yes… why? Did you lose something else…? I said yes… he told me that the only other thing he saw was a bag of rocks….. A bag of rocks!!!! How relieving!  I backtracked and there next to trash… looking like trash in the streets were my artifacts… hahaha!  Good things they just looked like rocks to him!