I could tell this story in real time – that is, if you have six weeks to listen to it.

 I’ll try to speed it up, but you’ve got to feel a little bit of the excruciation. 

 Getting  to the airport in the Galapagos involves a taxi boat (bags piled high on the bow), 45 minutes in two pickup trucks (shuffling around to make sure that one adult Spanish speaker is in each truck), a ferry across the canal to the next island, and a bus ride up the hill to the airport. It was at some point during this journey that I realized a small backpack had been left. If I were to be completely honest, I would not say “had been left”, rather “I left it”.  Hard to admit, but it’s probably better that I left the bag rather than Andrew or the kids leaving it.

 After a desperate and unsuccessful  solo return to town to look for the bag (which I stupidly left on a park bench), I rushed back to the airport. My super-bueno taxi driver put calls out to all his friends, but no one had seen the bag. We inquired with the local policeman, the shaved ice seller, and the coconut seller. No luck. Ok, I thought. The bag only has the GoPro, ipad, sunblock, hats, and Julia’s favorite jacket. It’s not like I lost the passports ;).

 As we neared the airport ferry, again, the taxista got a call that my bag had been located! Yay! Except it was with the police. Great, I thought, just have them bring it to the airport. With sirens on, I thought, they could make it in time. Relieved, I approached the ferry stop. I still had 30 minutes before my flight left, and I could see the airport in the distance. But the ferry only crosses when there are flights, and since ours was the last flight of the day, the ferry stop was deserted.  You’ve got to be kidding – I was so close to solving this problem of my making – missing this flight was just not going to happen. 

 Luckily, my desperation apparently persuaded the ferry guys to launch for my $1 fare, and off I went, overhearing them chatting that it was unlikely that I would get a bus to the airport. No problem, I’ll take a taxi, I thought. But the island of Baltra has only an airport, only a single roAd to that airport, and only one bus that takes people from ferry to airport. Nada mas. 

 Lucky me, we soon spotted the bus lumbering down the switchback road from the airport. All was well in the world, I thought as I rushed from sea to shore. Soon the police would be by with my bag and off I’d go. 

 They didn’t get there, because the police were taking a taxi. No sirens, no speeding, no emergency.  I left a few dollars to cover the cargo fee and asked the airport policeman to help facilitate the transfer of the bag to Quito. He couldn’t have been nicer.  In contrast, the airline staff insisted that I board, and refused to help me reschedule for a flight the next day. I landed in Quito to hear a message that the police were unable to transfer my bag due to the value of the electronic contents which they had to catalogue before sending. Now I was sure I’d never see the bag again.  My perfect Andrew only had one thing to say, “At least now I know you’re mortal.”  Would I have been so kind? Right. 

 And on and on it went. Because I’d left $10 with the police for shipping the bag (a fair price, I thought) the bag then was turned into the Fiscalía – the District Attorney’s office because it is illegal for police to take “bribes”.  Now the policeman who tried to help was in trouble and was calling me 5 times a day to try to get this sorted out. Luckily, the DA had a whatsapp account, and was willing to correspond with me (including using emojis). Over the course of weeks, we established a list of the bag’s contents. I sent the DA  a list, and the DA sent me back a  complete detailed report, including serial numbers and exact descriptions of every gadget, battery, charger cord, flashlight, hat and piece of paper. Now, all I had to do was go to a notary public and local attorney to transform the information into a 7 page manuscript, including lots of official looking stamps, hologram stickers, and my thumbprint. For an extra $5, I asked for an additional memento copy of this official looking document. I was just one Express Mail away from the release of my bag. 

 If you are just patient in Ecuador, we’d been told by locals, you will eventually prevail. But it won’t be speedy, they assured us. Luckily, for the first time in our lives, we had the time to wait this one out. 

 The DA’s initial plan was that I would have to return in person to the Galapagos to retrieve my bag, but after some legal (and divine) intervention, they agreed to release it to the very kind MarieLou, the manager of our hotel who I had luckily met and chatted with during our stay. She made no less than 6 visits to the police and DA offices in attempts to retrieve my belongings. I’d never really lost anything before, but I was definitely making this one count. 

 Finally, after 6 weeks of active pursuit, the bag was finally in the hands of the angelic MarieLou. Perfect – we celebrated! No, wait, after going through the inventory of the bag with her for over an hour, the chief of police was no longer available to sign the final release. She’d have to come back the next day. 

 Finally, success!  MarieLou promised to send it directly to the airport to be shipped by the next day to Quito. This called for a local Pilsner toast.   I was finally ready to go public with the story of my major blunder. 

 The next day brought the news that the airlines refused to accept the package due to its high value. Here we go again. 

 MarieLou told me she’d be flying to the mainland (Guayaquil) the following week. Maybe I could take a short flight to meet her there, she suggested. I had already invested so much time and effort in this bag, I wasn’t going to give up easily. We tried one more option – the Correos Ecuador – basically USPS. They weren’t too concerned about the package value, so it was sent to the main post office in Cuenca, our next stop. Nothing was certain until I finally had it in my hands, but six weeks after our return from the Galapagos, my bag and I were reunited. 

 If you think this was a long and winding story, you have NO IDEA.  I left out tons of aggravating and confounding bits and pieces. Just PM me if you really want to hear it all…