Two ridiculous mishaps

Ridiculous Mishap #1: The case of the stolen cell phone.

After spending a lot of time bragging about how I haven't gotten mugged or robbed the entire time I've been in Latin America, the latter finally happened. Of course, it happened on the day of Inti Raymi, the biggest festival in Cuzco, when all of the robbers come out. I was on a bus going back from Sacsaywaman and forgot that I had my cell phone in my pocket. The bus was prety crowded and as I was getting off I felt someone behind me slip my cell phone out of my pocket. I yelled, 'Hey! Someone just stole my cell phone!' but no one did anything. It occurred to me that there was absolutely nothing I could do given that I didn't know who had taken it and everyone was getting off the bus. Well, if something had to get stolen from me, I figured, better my $25 cell phone than something more valuable.

The next day I went to one of the offices of the cell phone company I was using, Telefonica, to have them block my number. Seeing as Telefonica is the biggest and most well-established phone companies in Peru, you’d think they’d have their act together at least for issues as common as stolen cell phones, but no. I waited in line for 20 minutes just for the woman there to tell me to dial 123 on one of their phones in the office, and then to find that that number didn’t go through, and that the woman had no interest in listening to me anymore. Finally after waiting another ten minutes with her ignoring me and throwing a minor fit, she told me that the system was not currently in operation, that I’d have to wait an hour. In response to this I stormed out of the office and came back the next day only to find that the number still didn’t work.

In the meantime, I rented another cell phone from a friend and decided to call my old number just to see what happened. To my surprise, a woman answered. The conversation went something like this:

Woman: Hallo?
Me: Hi, who is this?
Woman: Hallo?
Me: This is the owner of the phone you’re using.
Woman: What?
Me: That phone was stolen from me a few days ago. The phone you have is a stolen phone.
Woman: Oh. Well someone sold it to me.
Me: Well, in any case I’m going to have to block the account because you’re using a phone that’s still in my name.
Woman: Name a time and place to meet and I’ll return it to you.
Me: OK, do you know where the Parque España is in Santa Monica? How about we meet there at 5:30.
Woman: OK.

I went with Rosita to meet the woman in the place we had arranged. We even told the local police about what had happened and asked them to hang around for awhile in case the woman tried to ask me for money for my stolen cell phone. By 6:00 she still hadn’t showed up, and when I called my cell phone again she said she would be right there. At 6:15 I tried to call again, and my cell phone was turned off. The next day I went to a different office of Telefonica and they blocked my number for me with no problem. I really don’t understand bureaucracy.


Ridiculous Mishap #2: Bad Water

Last night I went out dancing with Braddy and some of his friends, and decided that staying at his house was a better idea than coming back really late to my house and waking up my entire family. I was sleeping in the same room where he does his painting, and in the middle of the night I woke up really thirsty, saw a brand-name bottle of water on the floor next to his painting materials, and started to drink it. I drank about half the bottle. Well, the next morning when I woke up I looked at the water and realized it didn’t look so clean. It was slightly yellowish in color and there were some particles floating on the bottom. ‘Braddy, one little question,’ I said. ‘Where is this water from?’

Braddy: Oh, shit. Did you drink that?
Me: Yeah, I was thirsty in the middle of the night and didn’t realize how gross it was.
Braddy (laughing): That water is from the ocean in Chile. When my friends travel I always ask them to bring water back for me because I like to paint with water from all different places. It’s part of my mystique.
Me: Oh, well if it’s from the ocean in Chile that’s not so bad. I was afraid it was tap water from here.
Braddy: No, it shouldn’t be that bad, just a little salty.
Me: Strange, it didn’t taste salty.
Braddy (10 minutes later): Oh shit. You know what, I just realized, that other bottle is the water from Chile, the one you were drinking is water from Pisac. (Pisac is a rural town about an hour outside of Cuzco)
Me: Oh. Well, that’s not good.
Braddy: No, that’s kind of bad. You better start taking antibiotics. That water is loaded with little creatures.
Me: OK, I have some antibiotics here actually. What water should I use to swallow the pill?
Braddy: Use the Chilean water, it’s cleaner. No, just kidding, I’ll boil some.

And so I am temporarily back on antibiotics. I can only hope that my body doesn’t become a giant safe haven for antibiotic resistant bacteria by the time I get back to the states.