Lost

Although it might read like totally out of place i want to share a story with you. My favorite one to tell! :)

I got lost once and it was the most amusing and wacky experience of my life. It happened back in January 1995. Like migrating birds we flew south to warm weather for training. Our destination was South America. A town called Los Andes, Chile where we were to spend the majority of the winter. 

We flew to Santiago, the capital of Chile in late afternoon and then hit the road to Los Andes. We arrived in dark. The morning dawned and everything seemed new and different from our half frozen homeland. We enthusiastically set of for our first training on the river somewhat far from our base. River was grand. Training was splendid. When done our coach instructed us to do few more runs cooling down and then continue downstream until we see an opening in the vegetation on our left.  That is where our van was waiting. That is where we should disembark.

Well, taken by the striking flora and colorful vegetation decorating the banks I went down stream with a romantic look at the whole setting.  Obviously distracted I didn’t look left at the right time and went past the disembarking place unaware. So I paddled and paddled and admired the nature and soon realized I obviously missed it.

The river was not the kind to permit such mistakes. Too little eddies to even attempt progressing against the stream.  I did consider getting out and walking back at one point of time but then I suddenly noticed a familiar hill with a cross on top in the distance and recognized it as a hill I have seen close to our place. The river was visibly going in the right direction so why not just follow it? I decided to get home on my own.

The hill still appeared far off and the river’s gotten more rapid and alarmingly noisy. I vividly imagined those classic scenes from cartoons where a boat falls over a gigantic waterfall surprising all involved and decided to disembark right then and there.  Just then I spotted some laborers at the banks, collecting stones. Armed with my French, Italian and some Spanish I was convinced everything is solved and they will tell me where to go. As it turned out they were Portuguese. Not the brightest ones either! Pantomime skills did the trick at the end and they pointed me in a direction where I was supposed to go. Ok, so far so good. Geared up in complete kayaking attire with a paddle in one hand and a kayak resting on my other shoulder I started to march across vast tobacco fields following a Portuguese who kept smiling. Oh, boy, I am sure he was just holding back the laughter…honestly, so was I.

After painstaking 30 minutes walk through the tobacco fields we arrived at the deserted construction site where I met an engineer who spoke some English. Thank god! I briefed him on what has happened and he agreed to help me get back to our house. Did I mention I had no freaking idea what the address was?!? So this young engineer suggested we take the bus. It must have been kind of logical that I have no money on me and seeing my hesitation he reassured me that he will pay for the ride. 

Perfectly dressed for the occasion (ahem!) I headed for the bus. Well it would have been a perfect attire if bus was actually a kayak! So wearing my helmet, a life jacket and a paddle still in my hand, my neoprene shorts and spray deck dangling in front of my legs i boarded the bus and immediately the entire bus went silent and staring. I froze my smile and looked straight.

 

Not knowing the address I scrutinized the route we were on and tried remembering even a slightest thing from the day before. I had no clue where I was.  After 20 minutes or so, people still staring at me in disbelief, the bus took a left turn and I recognized the road. I started nodding enthusiastically to let my engineer friend know I finally see some light at the end of the tunnel. But then the bus took another turn and I shrieked. “No! Stop the bus!” I honestly didn’t want to part from the slightly familiar road.

We continued on foot.  By this time I couldn’t care less what everyone thought seeing me parading the town in my kayaking gear. I turned into a hound dog trying to figure out where we stay. I was even sniffing the air trying to catch a scent of my fellow team mates. The familiar road became definitely the road I recognized from a day before and I knew where to go.  At last the light at the end of the tunnel became bright and obvious and I found our place. Hallelujah!

My team mates already finished their dinner, my coaches still on the search for me (oops!) I finally found my way back. Paid of the engineer and felt absolutely victorious about the ordeal I went through.